A DOC'S JOURNAL by Scott Solary

Ahh, the weekend. Return to the film. I showed Luci the cut so far and she had some great notes. I spent the weekend addressing her suggestions and tightening up the cut.

It took me 120 hours of editing time that I crammed into 8 days. It’s exactly 30 minutes and I love it. Of course, due to time constraints, everybody doesn’t get equal screen time and some topics are either missing or merely touched on, but it does give a strong gist of what we’re going for and hopefully it is convincing enough for a producer rep to pick us up and foundations to write us checks.

Next step will be to look for finishing funds. This will involve lots more proposal tweaking and writing.

Posted by Scott Solary at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I forgot to mention that a couple of weeks ago I spent a day putting together an electronic portfolio and resume of my graphic design to begin the job-hunt with. We have exhausted all our personal funds and the grants have been elusive. So the reality of needing to work for others has hit.

Monday I went in for an interview at ProPoint Graphics. Luci has been working for them on and off for months and told me good things about the people, the work environment and the work involved. After a short talk, I was hired as a part time designer. I started work on Tuesday and went in from 10-6 through Friday. The pays great and I was constantly busy. That’s a good thing for me. Downtime would only make me think that I’d rather be home editing. Everybody there is really cool and the work is challenging and most importantly, the schedule is very flexible. If we need/want time off, we just let them know. They’ve been super accommodating to Luci as we’ve traveled around these past months. Although the job is great and all, it sucks all my energy out and it was very difficult to come home and do more work on the film.

Posted by Scott Solary at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obviously, I started editing and in the meantime I seemed to forget to update the journal. For a straight week I’ve been putting in an average of 13 hours a day of editing, but I’m not complaining. It’s so great to finally see some sequence come together. I absolutely love it and can’t pull myself away from the computer.

It’s become very obvious we’re going to need more RAM. My patience are taking a beating waiting for After Effects to render. Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait for the IDA to cut our check before we can purchase anything else. As of last night (Friday) the cut stands at 29 minutes. Perfect time to open it up a little and let it breathe (the challenging part).

We still have a lot of scanning and motion graphics to do for B roll and once we do that, the big push for grants for finishing funds, getting a producer rep and possible other production company's involvement starts.

Posted by Scott Solary at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite a lengthy list of personal chores, I was able to get 2/3 of the way through digitizing footage. This also took longer than I planned, but what I’ve been anticipating like a kid at Christmas will finally begin tomorrow: EDITING!

All the preparations and organization of the transcripts is proving to be a real time saver. We have a highly organized “reference” book to go to when needed. I quickly realized that if we can’t afford office space, which we can’t, we need to buy louder speakers and/or a bigger, better sound card. The traffic noise, car alarms and the occasional driver who thinks their music is so good they need to share it with the rest of us while parked outside our window completely drowns out the dialogue.

Posted by Scott Solary at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spent most of the day making a cursory pass at the highlighted transcripts, picking out the “best of” moments in preparation to edit a “short” version of the film. Waited all day for the hard drive to show up and at 5:00, it finally did. It took the rest of the night for the 500 gigs to format.

Our landlord casually mentioned today, he will be going up $200 on our rent at the end of December. The apartment is barely worth what we pay now, so we’ll be moving yet again. We’re planning on moving sometime between December to February. Definitely somewhere quieter.

Posted by Scott Solary at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The unbelievable has happened. Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised, but I truly am, deeply. The President with the worst performance record for the last 70 years has been re-elected. How did this happen? This is a reflection of how the majority, however slight, believes and thinks in this country. Were people convinced Kerry was so bad of an option? Do they actually believe George Bush is doing a good job? Do they not mind paying the exorbitant prices for health insurance and prescriptions? Do people actually subscribe to Bush’s plan in Iraq (or lack of)? The possible answers worry me to no end.

I have an immense sinking feeling inside. Somehow I have to live with the fact that I will have to continue paying way too much for health insurance. I will have to continue to shrug my shoulders when asked about America’s thinking when I travel in Europe, continuing to say, “I don’t know” and “Don’t ask me”. I will remain ashamed of American politics for another 4 years and what I really dread is the fact that I will have to watch my generations’ Vietnam unfold in front of me as people die on a daily basis for a cause we may never really find out the truth about.

There are so many things I’m overlooking right now, but I am truly distraught and saddened that we all will have to continue to live under an administration that has been all too secretive and misleading and has the innate ability to convince the majority they are just. I think I’m going to tune out of politics for a while in search of things that are good and satisfying. It will be too masochistic for me stay as embedded in it anymore.

I will no longer be surprised when I hear of soldiers or civilians dying or being beheaded, it won’t anger me when the U.S. invades another Middle Eastern country preemptively or if the Corporations continue their deportation of the middle class jobs while getting rewarded with tax cuts. I will know that that is what the majority of my country wants and I just to have to live with. Like John Kerry is about to do, I concede.

Posted by Scott Solary at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Eugene says!

Posted by Scott Solary at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ordered a massive 500 gig external hard drive in preparation for editing. Should arrive Wednesday. Planning to have freinds over for an election party tomorrow night ot bite our nails as we watch the polls close and the states change colors.

Posted by Scott Solary at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)