Goldilocks at the IAWTV Awards

Here's a Mingling Media TV interview with Majek Pictures' Michael Koerbel & Anna Elizabeth James, writer-producer-directors of Goldilocks the mobile series, and me, editor of eight episodes, including episode 5, which was nominated for Best Editing at the IAWTV Awards. We had a grand time!

Goldilocks nomination for Best Editing at IAWTV

In other project news, I've been nominated for Best Editing at the first annual International Academy of Web Television! Watch the nominated episode of Goldilocks above.

The award ceremony is this Thursday, January 12th, at International CES. You can watch it live-streamed on the IAWTV YouTube page.

Congratulations to Majek Pictures on their continued success!

Goldilocks is a mobile series shot entirely on the iPhone. It's been featured in the New York Times and CNet as a "sign of things to come." In 2010, I edited eight of nine episodes of Goldilocks, the last of which was cut entirely on the iPad 2. That was an all-nighter! But it was fun, and it became the first professional video to be edited on the iPad 2.

It's one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on. And I hear there are more exciting things to come from team Majek...

Two lectures on Art and Film

I have the honour of joining Luc Travers, of Touching the Art, for a double lecture on 'Storytelling in Art and Film' this Saturday, November 19th at 2PM in Aliso Viejo, California. 

Luc will be speaking on John William Waterhouse, and I will be speaking on 'The Cutting Room: How Filmmakers Shape Their Story," with reference to Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

Here are the descriptions of the two lectures:

2PM Introducing Waterhouse 

by Luc Travers

Waterhouse is beloved for his poignant and evocative visions.  However, he is a master "storyteller" as well.  In this lecture, we will discuss some of his masterpieces as well as some little-known works to gain a better understanding of how to "read" the "story" in an artwork.

3:30PM The Cutting Room: How Filmmakers Shape Their Story 

by Fawaz Al-Matrouk

Editing has been called "the final rewrite," when the various pieces of a movie are shaped into the story we see. Fawaz will discuss the filmmaker's art, using two very different versions of the same movie, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

I first met Luc on his tour of the San Diego Museum of Art. He showed me a new and more enjoyable way of looking at art. I used to go straight for the information plaque, but Luc makes you really experience the art, and enjoy it without knowing anything about the history, artist, style or subject. 

I've been very excited by Luc's work in bringing this experience to people through his tours, and now his book. So it was doubly an honour when Luc asked me to give a lecture about storytelling in film. And I had the perfect subject in mind, something I've talk about informally, and have always wanted to give a presentation on. Kingdom of Heaven.

Ridley Scott's epic about the crusades was released theatrically, and later re-released with a director's cut. The differences between the two versions are astounding. Subtle changes make for two very different stories, with different characters, obstacles and themes. Comparing the two is a great way to understand a filmmaker's choices in building a story. 

For the lecture, we will watch the opening sequence from each version, and discuss the differences, and how they change our experience. 

If you're in town, we'd love to see you there. If you're not, you can see Luc's lecture by live or recorded webcast. And you can check out his book, Touching the Art: A New Approach to Art Appreciation.

Stay tuned for a report from Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival. 

Goldilocks wins!

In other-project news, the web series I edited, Goldilocks, just won "best film" at the first ever iPhone Film Festival!

Congrats to Anna Elizabeth James, Michael Koerbel, and the talented Team Goldilocks!

Here is the most recent episode, edited entirely on the iPad 2.

And here is the all-important Goldilocks and the Gummi Bears video I directed for their April 1st release. (Erratum: not-at-all-important).

Today is the last day of the Kuwait International Film Retreat, which has been delightful. I will post an update with pictures soon.

Michael Ashton

The talented Michael Ashton, who did visual effects for To Rest in Peace, recently released his short film Lazy Teenage Superheroes. The trailer is above, and the full film is on www.lazyteenagesuperheroes.com.

It's incredible what Mike can do in the digital realm, and I am amazed by how quickly he weaves his magic. On To Rest in Peace, he consistently delivered quality effects on time or ahead of schedule. Check out this before and after video to see his process on Lazy Teenage Superheroes:

The film was also shot by our director of photography, Sean Conaty.

Ridley Scott

DGA Quarterly has a great interview with Ridley Scott in their Fall 2010 issue. The bit about his early directing days is particularly interesting. I won't spoil it with a summary here, but look for the advice he got from actor Ian Hendry. "From that moment on, I just changed gears."

Ridley Scott's work was an inspiration for To Rest in Peace from the very beginning. Sean Conaty and I watched Body of Lies and Black Hawk Down. And Leah Curtis and I listened to the score of Black Hawk Down and Gladiator.

Going way back, it was Gladiator that inspired me to study history in undergrad, with the dream of directing historical epics. Which is why it was such an honour to have Mr. Scott as an Industry Mentor on To Rest in Peace. His guidance raised the film to a whole new level.

Enjoy the interview!

Best World Song Award

I'm thrilled to announce that To Rest in Peace won 'Best World Song' at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards this week! Congratulations to our wonderfully talented composer Leah Curtis, and all the amazing artists who brought the music to life.

We were also nominated for 'Best Original Score in an Indie, Short or Documentary,' which was won by Christophe Beck for Waiting for Superman. It was an honour just to be in the same category as such an accomplished artist (and an Emmy Award winner!)

Hans Zimmer, whose work was an inspiration to us during the scoring process, won 'Best Original Score in a Feature Film' for Inception.

Leah wrote a great blog post about scoring To Rest in Peace, which you can read here. It explains the music track by track, with links to a SoundCloud playlist. The winning song 'Salamun Salam' can also be seen online in the Failaka Island montage.

Congratulations again to composer Leah Curtis, and all the incredibly talented artists who contributed to the score: vocalist Lisbeth Scott, Armen Anassian and Nancy Roth on violin, Lynn Grants on viola, Mary Anne Steinberger on cello, M. B. Gordy on percussion, Chris Bleth on duduk, Dean Parks on oud. Plus music consultant and contractor Alan Steinberger, scoring assistant Karim Elmahmoudi (fellow USC alum!), music editor Dave Lawrence, recording engineer Charlie Paakkari, and scoring mixer John Rodd.

Congratulations also to sound designer Chris Whetstone and re-record mixer Valen Hernandez, who integrated the score beautifully into the sound design of the film. And finally, a special thank you to Dr. Lisa Urkevich who consulted with Leah to help create the feel of Kuwaiti music, and my parents, Faisal Al-Matrouk & Mona Al-Kazemi, who provided the arabic lyrics.

Trailer

Here is the new trailer for To Rest in Peace, edited by Zachary Dehm.

The blog has been quiet for the last little while. There was a funeral, some traveling, and a couple of other projects. But in the meantime, Josh and I have been busy submitting To Rest in Peace into festivals, and Zachary Dehm has cut this trailer. More updates to come.

Color Correct

It has been a busy week! Tuesday we recorded music, and color corrected. Today we mixed the music. Friday and saturday are the final sound mix. Expect several blog posts in the next couple of days.

Color correction was done by Ian Vertovec at LightIRON Digital. Compare the above image of Malek to the one posted right after production, in the 'Cast' blog post. We took out the greens, brought up the contrast, tweaked and finessed, and now it looks like a movie! I am particularly thrilled by how the climactic night time moment turned out, but I will save those images for you to discover in the film.

Sean wrote a great blog post recently for WonderHowTo: Cinematography about the process of shooting To Rest in Peace, from the decision to shoot the RED One and Canon 7D instead of 35mm film, to the necessity of using the Sony EX3 as a backup camera. He posted some great stills from the film, and behind the scenes.

Foley

This past week we recorded foley for To Rest in Peace. It was amazing to see the efficient creativity of foley artist Karina Becker, and sound designer Chris Whetstone. Who knew that handling a pipe, attached to a broomstick with a leather belt, could sound so much like handling an AK-47?

For those outside the world filmmaking, who may not know what foley recording is, check out this Wikipedia entry. Pictured above is Karina stepping onto cassette tape to reproduce footsteps on grass.

On the agenda for the next two weeks is music recording, colour correction, and the final sound mix. It will be a tight squeeze, but everything is on schedule for finishing the film by the end of April. Knock wood. Or some other material that strangely sounds like it.

ADR

Sound design on To Rest in Peace is moving steadily forward. Today we recorded ADR, and next week we'll record foley.

For those of you outside the world of filmmaking, ADR is 'Automatic Dialogue Replacement'. I'm not sure where the 'automatic' part comes from, it's quite laborious. There were a couple of scenes where the production sound had distant construction noises, or the sounds of a car motor running. In order to clean up these sounds, and have greater control in the design, we re-record the dialogue for these scenes. Actors have to listen to themselves, wait for a beep, and then repeat their line in the same tone and rhythm.

We also added an unscripted line at the end of the film, to strengthen the climactic moment.

Pictured above is Michael Benyaer (Malek) at the microphone, with Chris Whetstone (the sound designer) at the control board. It was such a joy to see the cast again, and catch up. ADR is often a frustrating process, but with the quality of artists we had today, it was sheer pleasure.

In other news, we've set a screening date in May with a group of USC thesis films. Once all the details are confirmed, I will post the information up! The film will also screen in Toronto and Kuwait, before hitting the festival circuit in the fall.

The Pieces Come Together

After picture lock comes sound design, music and visual effects. The pieces are coming together.

Pictured above is the first draft of a green screen shot by our VFX Artist, Michael Ashton. Michael's film, Lazy Teenage Superheroes, was also shot by Sean Conaty, and has some pretty stunning visual effects.

It's so rewarding to sit back and watch your cut take shape into a finished film. To think that it all started with some words on a page, and a storyboard! There are five green screen composites, and two other effect shots that will be coming in over the next month.

Next up on the blog: an update on sound design, music composition, and a poster painting that I'm thoroughly excited about!

Unsung Heroes of Production Design

To Rest in Peace is unofficially picture locked, awaiting a thumbs up from its faculty mentor, Amanda Pope. This is a good time to reflect on some of the great work that never made it into the final cut.

Films often have to cut out lines, scenes, or even entire characters. (Compare the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven to the theatrical release, which is missing a key character in the story). Fortunately, To Rest in Peace has not lost any scenes or characters. But there's a lot of great production design that won't make it onto the screen.

My personal favourite is the 'emergency room' sign in the hospital scene, pictured above. The art department did an amazing job of transforming a drab Santa Clarita set, into a Kuwaiti hospital. At a test screening in Kuwait, several people in the audience were convinced that we filmed at a local hospital. Thanks to Katie Byron the production designer, Henry Alvarado the art director, Rebecca Eskreis the set dresser, and the art PAs Julianne Dome, Cynthia Fox, Monica Sender and Stephanie Wooten.

The scene ended up playing best in one continuous steadicam shot, beautifully operated by David Baldwin. But the shot never looks in that direction. So, dear 'emergency room' sign, we'll miss you.

There was a lot of great work by the art department that never made it into the final cut, or even into the dailies. But what it did was completely free us to shoot in any direction we needed. We were standing in the spaces of our imagined world, and every detail around us was true to the characters and the story.

Valentine's Update

One of the reasons thesis films take so long to make (at least three, but often four or five semesters) is that everyone involved is also working on multiple other projects. This is a great part of being at USC. Multiple projects feed energy into each other, and make each one better than it would have been. (Though there are, of course, exceptions).

I produced a thesis right before shooting To Rest in Peace, and another right after. Now I'm editing one for my friend John Dion. It's a comedy about a disillusioned Cupid, who wants to leave earth and go home. He's tired of causing people suffering by making them fall in love.

John was the 1st Assistant Director on To Rest in Peace, as described in the 'production metaphor' post. And Cupid is proving to be one of the projects that feeds energy into everything else I do, much like our previous director-editor collaboration, Into the Unknown.

To Rest in Peace is now just under the maximum 16 minutes, and close to picture lock! We'll be getting some final thoughts, and doing some final tweaks over the next week or two, and then locking picture and starting on visual effects and sound design.

Progress

Footage from Kuwait is being integrated into the cut of To Rest in Peace. I must say, I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

There's still work to be done on the cut. Once we picture lock, there's sound design, visual effects, music composing and, finally, the color correct and sound mix. But now that the footage is all there, we can see the finish line ahead!

Thanks to everyone who's kept up with the blog, and sent me comments. As of today, the blog will get a weekly update. This will include a progress report on the film, and maybe a little story about production or post-production.

The picture here is from the police station in Failaka. Sean Conaty (the DP) and Ali Younis (the 1st AC, and major producing help) stand under a blast radius on the wall. The building was riddled with bullets and debris from the first days of the invasion. It's haunting to stand there and think of what these marks meant for the people who fought there.

Until next week...

November

I've been bad.

I realize this blog has been left completely unattended. But it's time to wipe off the dust.

A lot has happened since my last update. There were a couple of set-backs, and a couple of successes.

To start with, the script for To Rest in Peace won the Silver Prize at the Page Screenwriting Awards. The feature version, News from Kuwait, made it to the semi-finals of Page, and is advancing in another competition through filmmakers.com

Editing got off to a good start, but then took a long hiatus. Unfortunately, Zach (the editor) was committed to another thesis that was expected to be finished by August, but kept on being extended. We took a three week hiatus from To Rest in Peace so he could picture lock the other thesis. Those three weeks turned into six weeks, before Zach recommended I find another editor. A week later, progress continued with my good friend Ryan Frost, who co-edited Into the Unknown with me two semesters ago.

Since then, we have gone through a number of cuts, screening it to faculty and industry mentors for notes. We are getting ready to screen it for a test audience soon.

The trip to Kuwait is now scheduled for December, after the semester is over. We should picture lock shortly afterwards, then move on to visual effects, and sound design.

Updates might be sparse for the next little while. This has been a busy, but wonderfully exciting semester. I am taking more than a full course load, TAing two classes on directing, interning on a passion project, and finishing up the first draft of a new feature, The First Apocalypse, based on a true story that has haunted me for years.

Until next time...

The Value of Vacation Footage

Some of the transitions in To Rest in Peace are waiting for b-roll footage from Kuwait. In the meantime, we were planning to put up title cards, saying things like "neighbourhood passes by," so we can work out the timing. The 2nd unit trip won't be until we are almost picture locked in October.

Then I realized I had tons of video from my last trip to Kuwait. The driving bits came to almost an hour of usable footage! So for now, the film will intercut beautiful RED cinematography, with my miniDV vacation video. Properly blown up to HD, of course.

Editor's Cut

Monday was the grand unveiling of the editor's cut.

There's an old expression, that your film is never as bad as the first assembly. Something often happens between script and production, that leads to a near heart attack when a director first sits down to see the footage all cut together in script order. That's when the editor comes to the rescue with ideas on how to rearrange, reconceive, and rewrite scenes, so that, draft by draft, the film starts resembling the original spirit of the story again.

So I went to visit Zach's editing suite with our favourite Starbucks drinks, and braced myself for the experience.

Needless to say, Zach delivered a great first cut. So great, that I completely forgot my part in this film, and just enjoyed watching it. He disproved the old expression. We watched it again for notes, then had lunch to talk over the scenes.

The cut is just over 19 minutes, which is a perfect length for what will eventually become a 15 minute film. Editing will last for the next couple of months, as we refine the 'lean-forward moments', and shape the character arcs.

Post-Production Post

Back to blogging, after a couple of weeks off.

To Rest in Peace is now in the capable hands of its editor, Zach Dehm. We transcoded all the 4k RED footage to a more manageable HD resolution, and synched all the audio. Picture cutting is now under way. Once the editor's cut is ready, we'll start working together for long hours, shaping the story. (And thank you to our post-production supervisor, Dennis Castello, for getting the process started).

Zach and I have worked together several times, starting with an intermediate project that he edited and I produced. In USC lingo, it was a 546. We know all our classes by their number. 546 is the first class in which we take on specialized roles, instead of having to be cinematographer and editor together, or director and sound designer, etc. To Rest in Peace is a thesis, so it's a 581.

Expect more posting in the next couple of weeks. There will be updates on post-production, and stories about production. There's even a little behind-the-scenes video to come...