The final film is 110 minutes in length. I just watched a movie on HBO (took a break from editing) that was 115 minutes long and I thought it seemed short. I think, I hope, I’m safe with 110.
I have to keep it at 110 for some film festivals I’ve looked into. Every day at work I’m squeezing everything I can into 15 or 30 second commercials because there is no going even a frame over. I’m a pro at making something fit into an allotted time.
I gave a rough cut of the film to my coworker James who is working on music for it. I asked him if he felt it was too long. He said he wished it was longer and he could hear more of the camp owner’s stories. Can’t, film festivals tell me 110 is the limit! He also said the film was great.
My film was great 3 weeks ago. Since then I’ve smoothed out the audio transitions, removed camera noise from interviews, made some changes, added more video to cover up interviews, added and subtracted a couple interview pieces, and mapped the camps out on Google Earth. Some harder to find than others! Let’s hope the film is still great.
I’m still on an emotional rollercoaster with the film. One day I think it’s great too. The next I think it sucks and I should have done it differently. Too late for that! I do like what it’s turned out to be.
The Ann Arbor Film Festival submission deadline is October 10th. So there is my new and final deadline. October 1st actually so I can get it submitted slightly before the last second. I wanted to complete it sooner but I also want it to be perfect. I am a perfectionist and if I cannot do something perfect, or as near perfect as I’m capable of, I don’t want to do it.
What do I have left to do? My giant sticky note next to me says: master sound levels, record final narration voice overs, make text graphics more dynamic, UPPCO video, sale map, stabilize footage and color correction. Thankfully because I am awesome, I don’t have to do much color correction. For some reason I’m not sure of now, I played with camera settings during the filming and do have to match some contrast and saturation of the video. And edit the final music on once that’s complete. Plus add credits. Plus make a kick ass trailer.
All of that is 15-20% of the editing (minus the kick ass trailer). I will have it complete by October 1, 2015. If I had time to make a pie chart of the time it’s taken me to do everything I would.
I have the premiere date set for October 17 at the E-TC high school. At this moment that is all I can tell you. I have no idea how many I can seat, how many seats left after I invite everyone that was interviewed plus contact all those people, and what and if there will be an admission charge. I may have to do 2 screenings that day! I also plan to do a screening in Ontonagon (date TBD) and one on November 13th somewhere so those who are only up here during hunting season have a chance to see it. Once I have this all finalized I will let all my supporters know!! Hopefully soon.