The Editblog

I recently finished cutting a short film called Cyclone. The director, Mike Ashcraft, wanted to do sort of a director’s commentary on the piece but since it’s not a DVD release we decided to record one and put it up as its own piece on Vimeo. The 12 minute short is the story of “One woman’s revenge” in the rural south. It’s really more the beginning of a bigger story, one that I hope Mike will be able to pull into a full feature. The piece is inspired by some of the best 70′s exploitation films (as is evident when you look at a lot of Mike’s work) and it could probably have some chance at low-budget success since a white slave syndicate would be a part of the overall story line.

I also did some visual effects work which we discuss but it was pretty much limited to removing the boom mic from one of the best takes during the fight scene. As one who is predominately a creative editor removing the boom was a fun and rewarding task. If you click over to the Vimeo page you can watch the film in HD. And it’s probably not safe for work, or the kids. Enjoy!

Here’s the short:

And here’s the commentary:

3 minutes of my life I’m happy not to ask for back after viewing Words.

As many of you may know, we here in Nashville experienced what can best be described as Biblical flooding over the weekend, getting more rain in a 48 hour period than has ever been recorded here. Needless to say much of the town is underwater, including whole communities like Bellevue and Franklin. And then there’s the Nashville landmarks that have suffered too. The Grand Ole Opry, Titans Stadium, the downtown riverfront, our arena (and more) all flooded.

This little video below is making the rounds now and it’s a much different perspective on a flooding disaster than the news coverage. I was going to say it’s different from what you’ll usually see but with the prevalence of Canon DSLRs these days you’ll pretty much see this type of video after any natural disaster. This one showed up and took my mind off the classroom floating down the interstate, Mill Creek, the Opryland Hotel, the big mall, the Nashville weather penis,  … so thanks to its creator.

Here’s a funny little video about a producer and editor searching for the perfect sound effect. It made the Twitter rounds today. It’s cute …. and true:

Here’s a great find by John August: 10 Sundance Shorts on iTunes. And the best part is that these 10 shorts are FREE (until January 25). Click this iTunes link and grab them all. What a great way to let us that couldn’t make it to the festival get a look at some of the short films that are screening. It would be nice if they would put them all up for download. The official Sundace site also has a section devoted entirely to short films. That page has links to many of the Sundance shorts on iTunes as well as Netflix and the Xbox. More short film distribution opportunities is a great thing. Keep them coming.

Ever wanted to be a film festival judge? If so, and if you live in or near one of the chosen locations, you can help judge the 11th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival. They are playing the finalists at select venues around the world between September 21 – 28. It’s quite a unique idea and a great opportunity for finalists in the selected cities to game the audience for their film! At least that’s what I would try to do. Of course with voting going on in many different cities and many different countries then stacking the vote may not work. It’s old school voting with an actual ballot. I saw this via On Location: Memphis since that is the only screening in Tennessee. Makes me wish they were screening here.

The good guys over at Ticklebooth pointed to the Cannes 2008 online short film competition today. Since the voting ends tomorrow (who knows if they will still be online after voting ends but one would think so) you can use something like TubeTV to grab them and convert them to you iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. If they are good enough for Cannes then they are worth watching, eh?