Sunday, August 23, 2009

August chills editors to the bone.

If you edit you know what I mean. It's dark in here so you can see the monitors. The AC is up to keep the equipment cool. It feels like you work in a refrigerator.
But then...
then you take a break and walk outside into the light and warmth you haven't felt for hours. After a few minutes, the hot sun makes you grateful again for the cool place to go back to.

I have a little problem though.
I get into my car and start driving.
This is what it looks like down my secret "I gotta get outta here now" road.


I try to visit it at least three times a week. It goes to Point Reyes National Seashore.

It's only 10 minutes from the dark refrigerator I was sitting in so I'm back at the deep freeze in no time.
Someday the hard drives and the laptop will come with me in the car.

Friday, August 21, 2009

NEW ARTICLE:

from examiner.com
EXCLUSIVE: 'Gen Silent' director Stu Maddux gives voice to a forgotten generation - Part 1 -

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I feel extremely blessed after reading this article about what it's like for us in Iraq.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Gen Silent Newsletter now available

Please check out the first edition of our newsletter for the documentary, Gen Silent. Lot's of interesting news. And if by chance you didn't receive a copy, please click on the
newsletter sign-up link and make sure that we have your correct email.

You can also receive an email with the latest information from this Production Notes page by subscribing through the "follow link" to the right on the actual blog page.

And of course, the very latest tweets from director Stu Maddux.

Link to Newsletter

Link to Production Notes on Blogger.com

*Correction: Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services was incorrectly printed as Somerville-Cambridge Senior Services.

Link to Stu Maddux on Twitter

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Email excerpt to GenSilent subject Lawrence Johnson


I'm so glad that you wrote and I am very excited to see you "tweeting!" Please tweet more! I learned the name of your new book through your tweet and think it is just PERFECT!!! Don't change it! It also helps me know what's going on with you. From the filmmaker standpoint I feel disconnected out here in San Francisco after weeks of not seeing each other in Boston. On the other hand, I have been editing your footage so you have been in my face for days now!

We have made slow progress with the film these past three weeks because of other things on our plate that I had hoped to clear off a month ago. We have the money and the outline ready to move into high gear with editing but there are a lot of other preliminaries that have to be buttoned up that have to do with marketing etc. And while we are outsourcing as much as possible, it still is a mountain of work. 90% of independent filmmaking seems to have nothing to do with actually making the film.
One of those preliminary items is getting the news letter for the film up and running. Look for it today or tomorrow.

BTW- The cat ate the outline for your edit. I'm serious. We printed another. He says its good.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bad tech days are always on Mondays

The view from my desk in Novato, CA.

I found myself in the middle of editing the second five minutes of Gen Silent this morning when something happened that has never happened before (and I've been using FCP since 1.0):
the program disappeared.
My editing software just left the computer.
All my files (all my work) is still here...but none of it is opening. It will eventually but...

What a glorious morning it was going to be riding my bike to the gym enjoying the hills of Marin county, CA while footage rendered at home and my Iphone kept me posted.

I've had to stop all my plans and reload the entire suite of software. It takes a while.
These things always happen on Mondays. Even when I've been working all weekend, am in the groove, Mondays are still a troubled day.