So that happened.
And it was insane, we had a theater full of people and a projector set up.
I showed some trailers to other local productions, all of which were shot with the exact same camera, and I mean the SAME camera (Atlanta is a small town).
They were Blood Ties and Zombie Invasion, both look pretty cool.
So then the term "technical nightmare" pops up in my head because the movie starts, and I was told that the set up in the theater would be mono, but oh my God I never knew how badly that would butcher the soundtrack, already in a rough mix.
BUTCHER BUTCHER BUTCHER!!!
Chris Rickwood did a brilliant score; unfortunately no one could really hear it.
We jacked up the volume, but ya know, shit. The voices where at weird levels and I found some lines that hadn't been qued in, so some funny moments resulted from that. Oh, and some foley was left to do, so more comedy ensued. Oh yeah! And the picture was so dark that I had to stop the film and fuck with the projector, but that fixed it, though it butchered the colors. Making all the work we did with that look pretty muddy.
Technical Nightmare. Unmitigated disaster. Dream Ending Apocalypse.
I grabbed my head and tried to keep it from coming apart like a Gallagher Mellon. After staying awake for 72 hours to get it in presentable form, all I saw where big glaring fuck ups on my part creating a vortex of time wasting bullshit.
"Time Wasting Bullshit". I could see the reviews now.
So I was in the fetal position behind the back row once the tech was set as good as I could get it. And I listened to the audience reaction. They laughed when they where supposed to, and seemed to be entertained. BUT! The film is only about 60 percent of where I need it to be.
Did people have a good time? Over all I'd say yes. We passed out cards, they filled them out. People love and hate the exact opposite things. It divides the audience. One person's favorite thing is another persons least. What do you make of that?
A week later we showed it at Sci-fi Summer Con in Atlanta to an "intimate" audience. Over all they seemed to dig it. No one has tried to kill me yet.
The main thing I'm getting is to fix the sound mix. I think the problems with the film will be better addressed once the big turd that is the sound mix is scrapped out of the carpet. I have a guy on it now, we will see. If they can just hear the score, it will make a world of difference.
Another thing is color correction and getting a few more effect shots done. That's being taken care of as well by East of LA studios and the Great Richard Servello!
So I'm still positive about the movie finding its audience. The complaints were of a technical nature that need to be polished up and will be in time for some big festival play coming up, then I'll really be able to see what works and what doesn't.
The movie isn't for everyone either. You either go with it or you don't. I've talked to some that attended that really dug what we were doing and why, and others that just thought I was way off the mark.
My plan is to keep tweaking it until the sound mix is done and then let it go. My goal is for it to be as entertaining as possible and to make the people who worked on it proud to have been apart of it.
FIGHTEVIL
SDROG
