Production Update #57: The Weather Report Says...

First up: Great night shoot on March 8.  The footage looks very good. Dark. High contrast. A whole different aesthetic than most of the film, but I like it. It gives the narrative a range of moods (I hope)…

Sorry I chickened out and didn’t actually burn the wedding dress. I just want to make 100% certain we have all the shots we need of it before we really torch the sucker… And for some strange reason, it’s actually kind of making me a little sad that we have to burn it. That dress has been with us since the first day of shooting back in 2004. And we’ve put it through hell…

Looking forward: I can't believe we need to shoot JUST 4 MORE SCENES and we're done with principal photography! Finally! I've got everything else cut together (about 86 minutes), so here's what remains of this long, looooong journey:

Scene #1: Night burning of wedding dress (Talia) --12 shots [I think I can actually do it this time; don’t let me get too sentimental]

Scene #2: Feeding of cats at trailer/day (Talia, cats) -- 6 shots

Scene #3: Mailbox -- short transition scene (Talia, Postman, Sewage guy) -- 1 shot

Scene #4: Final goodbye (a large, daylight, exterior scene with a cast of thousands... would be nice if there were green leaves on trees for this one...)

First up, I'd like to finally torch the wedding dress. Then maybe the other 2 short, daylight  scenes (#2, #3)... Sometime in the next 2 weeks.  Between dental appointments, job responsibilities, Easter festivities, and Bob heading off to Seattle on April 6, that essentially leaves two potential shoot dates in the next 2 weeks:

* Choice #1) This Friday (yes, Good Friday, sorry about that) April 2: from 4pm-10pm (this is my preference if at all possible because it's supposed to be 80 degrees outside! Don't want to freeze to death while we're burning that dress at night...)

* Choice #2) Next Monday April 5: from 4pm-10pm

So let me know. Novia & I are available both days. Don't know about anyone else... Bob and I chatted briefly on the phone, but he's still checking his schedule...

Feel free to call me if you need to. Right now, my cell battery is dead – and I forgot the adapter to recharge it – but I will recharge it as soon as I get home.

As always, we'll shoot if we can, reschedule if we have to.

Hope all is well... Take care...

Production Update #56: The Weather Report Says...

Howdy, Crazy People:

OK, so I just saw on TV that it's supposed to be 50 degrees on Monday and Tuesday of next week... Any chance we could squeeze in a few hours of shooting on one of those days?

We have some day interior, day exterior, night interior, and night exterior shots... so wherever you might have a few hours free in your schedule, I'm pretty sure we could find something to knock off.

A short list of shots & scenes we need to wrap up:

INTERIOR DAY

* CU Talia hand scrubs stove (Flynt kitchen)

* WS empty basement/sink -- no person on cam

* CU clockface -- no person on cam

* Talia feeds cats (in trailer) -- 4 shots

 INTERIOR NIGHT

* Talia opens window, hears Flynt calling, heads off to help him

* Talia returns to window, dealing with Flynt's confession

* CU Talia picks up knot board

* MS Talia rips shoelaces out of shoes

* MS Talia gathers up neck ties

* CU Talia picks up wedding dress

EXTERIOR NIGHT

* Talia ignites burn barrel

* Talia burns: knot board, weathered rope noose, neckties, shoelaces... and finally the wedding dress (!)

EXTERIOR DAY

* Talia approaches trailer, opens door, enters

* Talia meets mailman, short transition scene (Ed: You alright? Going to bingo?)

.............

Then one day dedicated to filming the one FINAL large, multi-character external day scene: Talia says goodbye, leaves Lineboro...

And I'd never thought I'd say this: But that's IT! That's EVERYTHING we need to put a fork in this puppy... (sorry, puppy)

So, let me know if Mon or Tues is at all possible, and then I'll call to work out the details... If not, check your calendar down the road and see when you might have a little time...

Take care... and thanks so much for believing in this project... or at least faking it for so long...

Reaching out to the widow of actor Ray Phillips…

Dear Andree,

I don't know if will you remember me, but I'm the director who's been working on the 16mm feature film "Cinder" for the better part of a decade now. If you recall, Ray -- who was also a teacher of mine at Western Maryland back in the mid-1980's -- plays Doc Flynt in the film, the principal male character.

Well, after burning through credit cards and running out of money multiple times, constantly dealing with broken film equipment, and re-writing the film to include all of the scenes we were able to shoot with Ray, it FINALLY looks like we're going to wrap up the project sometime this year.

So, I just wanted to give you a "head's up." Ray is only in about 8 scenes, but it is a pivotal role, and I think his performance is very powerful. We have not yet screened the rough cut for anyone outside of the immediate film crew, but we hope to have our public "world premiere" sometime in late summer. When I set that screening up, I'll be sure to let you know when and where it will be, and I hope you will be available to attend.

Also, everyone who's been working on the project agrees that we'd like to put a simple dedication to Ray in the final credits. Please let me know if this would be okay with you.

Not a week goes by when folks here at McDaniel don't mention or think about Ray.  And it's sort of weird for me personally because every day I sit down in the edit suite to work on cutting the film, I see him and hear him on film -- so in many ways he's still a very immediate part of my life.

So I want to thank you both for being so generous with your time and talent back when we were shooting all those years ago (I think you came to the Barnyard Bingo shoot) -- and hope to "do him proud" by finally getting his performance up on the big screen.

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to call or email me.

Thanks again... and I'll keep you updated as our premiere approaches.

Hope all is well. Take care.

 --Jonathan Slade

Writer/Director "Cinder"

Associate Professor of Communication at McDaniel College

Production Update #55: A Mad Dash through Snowpocalypse 2010...

Novia and I left yesterday at noon to deliver the broken Steenbeck 1600 edit table to the repairman in Massachusetts. He said this Friday was the only day he’d be available to receive it at his workshop. So we loaded up this startlingly heavy piece of German engineering, and set out to shatter every land speed record imaginable to get it there, all the while using my iPhone to track the approach of this hellaciuos snowstorm on Weather.com. The drive took us a little more than eight hours…

The race against time continued this morning as we set off on the return trip: No snow in Connecticut or New York. But by the time we reached Wilkes-Barre, PA, we started seeing monster-sized snow plows full of salt every 5 miles along Interstate-81, hulking masses with cutting headlights just waiting for the storm... By Pine Grove, the flakes were coming down pretty hard... By Harrisburg, the accidents started... By York, I-83 was all but abandoned -- just two rapidly vanishing tire tracks leading off into the dark... By Glen Rock, cars were speeding up unplowed hills, then skidding down sideways... By 7:30pm, we were home... I'd like to thank the cosmos and Volkswagen engineering...

At times, it was genuinely frightening…

Still wanna shoot film?

The Ghost IS the Machine: A Plea to Repair a Dying Steenbeck Editing Table...

Hello [Mr. Repair Man],

The good people at ColorLab in Rockville, MD recommended that I contact you.  Here's my story:

I teach at a small liberal arts college about 90 minutes north of Washington, DC, and we have a fledgling film and video program.  About 10 years ago, Maryland Public Television was kind enough to donate a 4-platter 16mm Steenbeck 1600 to us.  At the time, it was about 30 years old. Now I'm guessing it's about 40 or more...

Well, the Steenbeck's been a real workhorse. I've done my best to change out light bulbs, belts, and pads, and to keep it lubricated.  A few years back, a gentleman at Christie's Editorial in L.A. managed to re-build a circuit board that went up in smoke (literally).

But several days ago, I finally came across something that is probably beyond my ability to fix. The picture and sound gears will play for a short while -- and then suddenly they vibrate like crazy and seize up. Forward and backward.  It feels like it should be a "toothed" belt slipping, but I just can't confirm it. So I suspect it has something to do with that very complex, central prism gear -- a bad bushing perhaps -- but I'm really at a loss. The problem happens gets worse when I try to kick it into high gear.

Anyway, this is a long way of asking:  I know you travel around to make house calls from time to time. But I don't have a very large budget to fix this thing.

What I DO have is access to a truck.  Would it be at all possible for me to load this Steenbeck up, and drive it to your facility so you could take a look -- give me an estimate -- and let me know if it is salvageable?

And here's the kicker:  I have been awarded an academic sabbatical this semester by my school -- McDaniel College -- to finish up a micro-budget 16mm feature I've been working on with my students for the past 6 years.  I've got nearly 80 minutes of the film cut on the Steenbeck (so close!), and another 10 minutes to wrap up.  If I don't get this thing edited by end of March, basically I'm toast...

So that's the ticking clock for me... If the Steenbeck isn't repairable, I'll also need to talk with you about renting one to finish my sabbatical project.

I know this sounds a little crazy, but the film gods are having their fun with me right now because they know I'm on deadline.  Of course, my colleagues have been heckling me for years about "not moving to video"... but I'm determined to finish this project the way I started it -- on film.

I will call you on Monday (Feb 1) and hope we can work something out.

Thanks so much for your time. And I hope to talk to you soon.

--Jonathan Slade

Writer/director “Cinder”

Associate Professor, Communication at McDaniel College

PS: If you are at all interested in the film, I have some of the details posted at www.jonathanslade.com and www.cinderfilm.com.