Once again, let me start off by saying that I am NOT an expert at any of this. I've only been doing this acting/filmmaking thing for five years. I've retired twice and don't really have to work anymore, but I do drive Uber to get out of the house on occasion when I'm not making something.

Having said that, I’m not opposed to learning from others. But please do not come at me with “I know the best way to do this” and then crap all over everything I’ve done, only to avail yourself as the savior of my projects to get a paid gig for yourself. I see you coming a mile away. Now, on to Editing and Reshoots.

Editing:

As far as editing this thing goes, I have it pretty easy. Luke Covert, the Director of my first feature film (Turbo Cola) as a Producer and Actor, is the Editor on this one and also served as the DP. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The first time I ever sat next to him editing was on a previous project of mine called “Calls”, which just got a distribution deal from the good folks at Echelon Studios in LA and hit its first streamer two months ago.

I told him, “I just want to watch you and learn some things.” Well, he moved waaaaay too fast for me to learn anything! Ha! Hitting hotkeys like he was flying the Millennium Falcon, it was a wonder to behold a true artist in his element.

So I thought, “Ok, screw the learning crap, I’ll tell you what I want.” And that’s what we did.

It was in this moment that I discovered something that I now know I should never do. I tried to edit it for time based on a certain film festival I was hoping for. We had a 19-minute film, fully fleshed out, a complete story, well told. Then I tried to edit it down to 15 minutes… and it sucked.

I made the decision that on the next editing session, we would go back and get it back to where it was, but at least we had a good rough cut. So, I sent it out to a few people, fellow filmmakers, whom I trusted, to get their feedback. EVERYONE came back with the same two things that needed fixing.

I was going to have to do some reshoots…

Did I Mention That I HATE Reshoots?

I can’t stand them. I know that people will say that “it’s part of the process,” but screw that! You wouldn’t have to do reshoots if you planned properly and were working in the moment! At least that’s what my inner Jarhead screams at me. He does that every now and then when I’m planning stuff.

So yes, I called everyone I would need and thank God they were all available again! I have the absolute BEST filmmaking tribe here in Central PA. It also helped that we were shooting after everyone got off their regular jobs, if they had one! Lol! Yeah, of course I planned it that way! HA!

There was one exception to that. My DP couldn’t make it. Something about his wife’s birthday or some crap like that, blah blah blah. So he sent me someone he trusted. A young kid still in college. And he was AWESOME! I was VERY pleasantly surprised.

Suffice to say, we knocked out all of our reshoot needs in about two hours, and afterwards I took everyone to dinner at a hibachi place.

Next Draft:

With the files sent back to the editor, we have scheduled what will probably be our last editing session before picture lock. Then it’ll be on to getting the posters done, getting some color correction, final sound mix, etc.

From there, it’ll be entering it into some festivals and talking with the two distributors who wanted to take a look at it when we are done.

More to follow next month! Stay tuned!

This is the third in a series of blogs about the making of my passion project “Stories”. If you missed the others, click the links below.

A Story About "Stories": The Making of a Passion Project Short Film

Another Story About "Stories": A Real-Time Update About the Making of a Passion Project Short Film

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