A look back at SIFF

May 31st was our first public screening of Dry Rain. It was great to be able to sit with a big crowd and hear, feel and see people's reactions to the story. It was a surprise at some moments when people laughed and it was poignant when people sighed or felt uneasy. It is hard to predict those reactions, but I was please by the vibe I was getting from the crowd.

After the screening, we had a Q&A with some of the other filmmakers joining up front. I think that's always pretty cool to be able to hear people's interests and curiosities about a film. The down side was that there wasn't much questioning going on. At one point, I asked questions of the other filmmakers! So the next time you go to a screening and the Director, Producer, Writer or Cast is up in front of everyone, ask a questions! There's always something to learn from the people that have gone through the process of making a film. Just my two cents worth.

One of my more memorable Q&A's with a director was with Oliver Stone. He screened THE DOORS at our school when I was in college. It was intriguing to hear about the heartaches of making that film. He was engaging and funny and insightful. People asked a lot of questions and he obliged with great thoughts on his process.

One of the Q&A's I wish I had seen was when Cinematographer Christopher Doyle (The Quiet American, Rabbit Proof Fence, Hero, Paranoid Park). He's an amazing cinematographer and a very enthusiastic presenter. He speaks his mind and often has hilarious tales of filmmaking. He's passionate about his craft and you feel that when you hear him speak. Of course, I've only witnessed it on Youtube, but I also hear he's great in person!

SIFF didn't recognize DRY RAIN for any acheivements other than placing us in the film. No Jury prizes or anything like that. We did gain some interesting acknowledgement from some other festivals. We've been invited to submit to a couple. More on that as the details unfold.

For those of you that made it out to the screening, thanks for coming! We'll have another at Bumbershoot. Stay tuned for more info on that.

Thanks!!

SIFF Official Selection

Dry Rain is an official selection to the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival! We're really excited about being in our home town fest. The screening will be Saturday, May 31 4:00 pm, SIFF Cinema. Go to the SIFF Website and buy your tickets now!

Final Mix

Tonight, I made my way down to Clatter and Din to do our final mix on Dry Rain. Usually in this session, you review the work, make some minor tweaks, ensure the mix is good (the balance of music and sound efx and the actor's voices) and your all done. Tonight, we had to bring in the music from the music we just recorded at the House of Sound (HOS) and tweak some sound FX. Most of Monday and Tuesday, Chris from HOS mixed the music tracks and engineered them into the final form. He posted the tracks on the Clatter and Din website. Now all of this sounds complicated, but it was super easy. The only thing I feared, with our tight deadline, was that a file might be corrupted or something was just plain wrong. Well, it all worked out really well.

The tight deadline was driven by two factors: 1) we have the opportunity to submit to SIFF by mid March and 2) I am leaving the country to shoot a TV show in Nepal and Bhutan...more on that later, but needless to say, we have to get stuff done!

I sat in with the good folks at Clatter and Din to do the final mix. Vince Werner was the lead designer and engineer with Thad Wharton doing the heavy lifting and final mix. These guys are totally on their game. I sat in with them multiple times over the course of the winter working through the details of the sound. The great thing is I didn't have to spend a lot of time with the guys. They got it dialed in fast, took great direction and we're super collaborative.

Tonight, Thad and I brought in the final mixed music from Chris White. We laid that in and then just attended to a few minor tweaks. Thad and Vince had done so much work up to this point, we hardly had to do anything. The mix went super smooth. I'm looking forward to hearing it and seeing it all on the big screen!