Also of great excitment to me was the discovery of a couple of pictures of Maj. Pleasant White! I literally went quite bonkers when I found them...so now I have five more images to order from the Florida Archives.
I have spent the majority of the week with my video-editor hat on...and I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the process. :) I am really very pleased with how smoothly things have been flowing along for me the last couple of days. Today I worked through nine AE comps (only three were actually completed fully; however, I haven't rendered them yet). I also got seven more interview clips in the timeline! Also of great excitment to me was the discovery of a couple of pictures of Maj. Pleasant White! I literally went quite bonkers when I found them...so now I have five more images to order from the Florida Archives.
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I have spent a good portion of the last two days busily working on AE comps. While I have only been able to render two of the ten, (due mainly to the lack of certain images--shortly to be purchased from the Florida Archives), I am still nevertheless pleased with my progress. My head is into it and plain and simple, everything is flowing. I also got another interview clip in the timeline. Hank Hendry is hard to trim because he strings his sentences together so closely. I've also been in correspondence regarding music with a particular musical friend of mine...there are no promises either way, but we both agree that this is something we'd like to happen. Until next time! RachealI have not forgotten my project...but I sure have been mighty slow about actually working on it. The Cow Cavalry goes through stages where it lies dormant, and then I spend all day working on it for a day, and then it goes back to sleep again. (I got two compositions completed yesterday.) Come early November, I intend on setting myself a schedule and trying to stick to it. If I set myself an attainable goal (say four AE comps a week), I may actually make some serious progress over the winter. I started yet another list of possible tunes for the soundtrack yesterday...but I'm only completely, locked-in positive on one of them, which would be Dixie. There are still a few V/O's I don't have in yet, which really is no rush since my narrator isn't finished yet either. What work I have been doing (timing compositions-wise) has all been done with my mock-up version of the narration. This means, naturally, that I will have to re-time and tweak them, so I have left the compositions rather rough, not matching them perfectly to my own voice. I hope to be able to report some good progress in my next post... RachealI got the pictures from the Florida Archives!! That means I can actually build some more visuals...I have a couple blocked (I suppose I can use that term) with low-res copies of certain images that I got in the mail, but now I can really build them. Now....to find the time. :) RachealSo....here are some quick updates: I did get that creek shoot done...and as of early this week, I finally broke down and sent off for the pictures I need. However, I have done very, very little editing...there always seems to be something of more instant importance that needs to be done. I sent the T.B. Ellis quotes to Jordan Strang (he did one of my unknown Confederates, remember?) and have gotten partial satisfactory results. Hopefully, he'll get the remainder done soon (I am aware he's been busy). I still have two other voice overs that haven't be recorded yet. The narration is not done yet, I don't know how Mr. K is coming on that. I hate bugging, but I might poke my nose in on him sometime soon. And...that's about the extent of it. Hopefully, I'll have some time to work on this in the near future. RachealYes, that unidentified son of Mr. Willoughby Tillis has finally had his voice come to life! Thanks to Joseph Mertens for reading this part (as well as being a go-between for his brother and cousin who also landed parts). I probably need to contact my narrator now that he's home from the Gettysburg reenactment and see how the narration is coming. In a smiliar vein, I still have yet to go down to the creek and shoot some stationary footage. I'm in the mood to do it, so I think once I finish my coffee, I'll load my tripod w/camera onto my shoulder, put on some dry socks and my mud boots and tramp through the soggy pasture to do that. And then I can actually start doing some real editing. I am going to have to order some images from the Florida Archives; I'm feeling rather cheap about that: at ten bucks a pop I have to be very selective. RachealTwo more voice overs completed and in!! That leaves five that are in the works... The creek is up, so I may take my camera out tomorrow and shoot some b-roll. That kind of depends on if it is raining or whatever other mess I might get myself into. If it's raining, I won't take my camera out. Anyways, I'm looking forward to the rest of the voice overs! RachealI have the pleasure of announcing two more completed voice overs!! One, a grand reading of Col. Munnerlyn's letter to General Miller was delivered by Zack Lawrence of Standing Sun Productions. (His Indy Christian Reviews can be highly entertaining.) The other, my very first, opening quote was nailed very nicely by Mr. Treg Monty, another Christian Filmmakers acquaintance! The remainder of the quotes (minus one) are in various stages of dispersal...In other words, they have all been passed out, but I'm still waiting on the finished product. At this point, I am not really expecting my princple narration to be in til mid-July at the earliest. I need to take my camera out and get some more creek b-roll. It's not like I don't already have a huge amount, but the quality is rather poor. One doesn't notice that the subtle movement one tries to add really actually detracts from the footage until one starts to work with it. Neither is it helpful that my tripod sticks. I have yet to disassemble it as a certain young man of my acquaintance suggested I do; my Daddy also suggested this, so I assume it's probably a good idea. RachealFirst, from way out northwest, came an extremely good rendition of one of the nameless Confederate veterans. While he does not have a Southern accent, he has fairly perfect 'neutral' diction, so he works. Besides, the cadence of that particular quote is rough but he nailed it! It sounds nice and smooth. The only problem was over much room echo--I sent back the request for a re-take along with a few suggestions on cutting down on the echo. This young voice talent is on the short-list for the Sgt. Ellis quotation. Second, Bradley Jamrozik came through with his version of the other of the nameless Confederate veterans! With my sister's help, the second of the multiple takes was chosen as the one that will end up in the completed film (video technically). Third, Mr. K sent me the first five minutes of the narration! It was a simple, unrehearsed read through to give me an idea of what he sounds like. I LOVE it! He fits so perfectly because he sounds much like what I imagine the members of the Cow Cavalry would have. I sent back my impressions to him and look forward to hearing the finished product! Things are moving along... RachealThis is the first time I have ever conducted an audition...I'm afraid it wasn't overly professional, but it got the job done. :) Much laughter was in the air as I picked on poor Bradley's accent and tried to encourage him. I first had him speak normally--it was very clear right of the bat that he sounds like he's from the mid-west. Then I had him try a Southern accent. He managed to pull off a Kentucky/Tennessee dialect. It sounded kind of forced to start with, but the more he talked the better it got. We ended up with him taking a short part as one of my nameless Confederate veterans. I had also considered the Tillis boy, but Bradley simply could not get "Negro" to come out properly without being prompted, so I scratched that idea. (I cannot say it like he did! :D) All told, I think it was a good interview--even though I had a question I wanted to ask him about composing (he happens to be a composer) that I completely forgot about until after we hung up. Skype is amazing...what a grand tool. It can connect people who are over 2,000 miles apart with a video call. Wow. What a blessing for us small time filmmakers! :) Racheal |