The movie was shot double system: The DSLR on-board mic provides a guide track, but that sound is useless in the finished product.  Besides, the 5D image stabilization function creates a noise on the tracks that sounds like pebbles tumbling off an endless conveyor belt. The location sound is pretty great though, except when cicadas, crickets, frogs and aircraft become deafening.

Syncing the sound to picture is a calming process, not unlike knitting, I imagine, repetitive yet demanding of one’s attention.  It is satisfying, like doing a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, maybe, where you have to name every puzzle piece and record it all in a log book.  People frequently ask me, “how’s the movie coming?” or “When can we see it?”  It’s difficult to explain why these things take time.  A software issue, research on certain technical procedures, working multiple gigs, thousands of shots, miserly protection of the budget, finding good help: all of these factors play a role.  There is pressure because you want to make certain festival submissions, and, yeah, you just want it done.  But right now it’s slow and steady wins the race.

I wish I had nothing else to do but edit ROWS (rowsmovie.com).  That would be so fun to me, like being a painter who gets up everyday and only has to worry about painting on a canvas.  But, while technically capable, I have too much on my plate to solely edit.  We have contracted with a profession clip artist.

Still, it was liberating to throw together a 30 second teaser, just messing around with sound and picture.  Heaven, really.  Max Bent provided the music, and Hannah provided the schtick. What’s also cool about the beautiful 5D images is that you can export really nice still frames from moving footage.  I didn’t learn the right settings to do this till recently.  This means I have something on the order of four million images, plus thousands we shot with still cameras, iPhones, etc. The problem of course is sorting through them to find ones that make cool stills.

The one thing I do want to edit myself is the opening title sequence, which juxtaposes the disappearing agricultural homesteads with today’s McMansion subdivision sprawl.  But there are primitive secrets out there that can’t be bulldozed…