tape two and three: loaded and rough cuts

The joy of getting all of these shoots "In The Can" as they say (or at least as I've heard said before... seeing as how we're not really shooting on film) is all a fantastic thrill of progress. We have been trucking along quite fine these last few Saturdays. Our shoots have been limited as such because I've basically gotten in too far over my head when making certain commitments. I've taken my fair share of flack for holding up the operation, but I will have it known that I've been busting my hump on every single thing I do... cutting no corners and making certain that the projects I'm involved with will have the utmost attention to detail and production. With that said... The cast and crew of Divine Manipulation of the Threads got to take the weekend off.
I'm not being a slack-ass (as I've admittedly been on the months of pre-production stagnancy). The last few weekends have blossomed quite vibrantly. The stuff we've managed to capture is funny and encompasses the movie magic that I fell in love with in the first place. However, because my "dayjob" has scheduled me to be the on-call photographer, I figured it was in everyone's best interest to not schedule a shoot. For I know that as soon as I make the schedule, get everyone involved and where they need to be, and start rolling through the camera eye... I'll get called in. It has never failed. So, I no longer schedule anything of necessity or ask anyone else to give me their time when the percentages start to rise against the favors of our little indie movie production. Everyone got to take the weekend off except for me. Instead, I took advantage of this valuable down time to load tapes into the machine.
Now, I've made mention on how it takes twice as long (sometimes three times as long) to load video into the computer as it does to film it. So, one can imagine what feeding two hours worth of good takes does to the frontal lobe. My eyes went through sensory overload. Making the drive for the long and winding road home felt like a THC induced dreamscape. On the other hand... I got to revisit a lot of great material. It's satisfying to finally start getting the production into a rough cut stage of pieced together scenes and ideas. We're nowhere near the point of finishing the shooting schedule (by any stretch of the imagination). I just like getting a jump on the editing process. I love seeing it all come together. I guess, at heart I've always been an editor... It's the first job I got in television... and the first job I truly desired to master. A good editor can save a piece of crap from smearing it's oily discharge across the screen. A great editor can transform that same piece of fecal matter into a shining work of art that would make the masters envious. They will wish that their shit looked that good... they might even smell the rose scented aroma wafting around the load.
See... poop humor works every time. Anyway, I truly enjoyed my Saturday of loading and rough cutting the beginning stages of our film. Now, keep in mind, I've only got two scenes rough cut. We haven't even taken a splinters worth of weight off of this tree. However, the explosive orange and reds of fall will soon turn the corner... much as our production will follow suit and gently fall into a vision that demands sensory attention. I would know... I've seen the rough cuts...
-B