Kazoo Films

Hello friends and Kazooers around the globe,

We have officially started editing!

A good friend of ours named Jesse arrived in Marshall, NC from New Jersey last sunday, and began his return trip early the following Saturday. What did Harrison, Bruno and Jesse do in between? They watched every single frame that Kazoo films shot this summer.

Homecoming in Texana

We went through the film, scene by scene, from beginning to end. We talked about what takes we liked, what was essential, inessential, the overall flow, tone, and the ever-elusive “pacing.” Editing is hard in a lot of ways. Harrison and I have been living with this film in our heads for a long time – it has existed in theory, on paper, in words, in sketches, in our imaginations, so it’s very nice to have someone coming at it with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. Another hard thing: Harrison and I love everything we shot, but we now have to face the possibility that to include everything that we like might make for a VERY long movie. Jesse, ever cold and clinical, will be able to tell us bluntly yet insightfully what material is moving the story forward, and what is “fat.”

What’s next? Jesse is taking the footage back to his New York studio (small apartment) to give body to the limbs, bones, and organs of our story. He’ll be getting back to us in the next few weeks with a first cut for Bruno and I to watch. Chances are this cut will be far too long but don’t you worry dear reader, Harrison and I will be the only ones who need to watch this version. From there we’ll skim away, slowly honing the story and it’s themes. After we’ve gone through this process a few times we’ll open the film up for some test viewings. Maybe some lucky blog readers will get a sneak peak!

Kisha and Felix attend Texana's Mt. Zion Church

Jesse taking the footage frees up our hands to start working on the next steps – finding the best person to master the sound (a job of equal importance to editing the picture), creating promotional art, and researching the best film festivals for us to enter.

So keep kazooing along!

Love, Bruno and Harrison

P.S. Reveal of working title: If I Had Wings I Would Fly

As the days go by and Bruno and I handle all the footage we shot I wanted to make sure you know we haven’t forgotten about you. So please forgive me for filling your inbox with no-news messages but I wanted to extend a thank you to everyone. A film is nothing without an audience and we can’t get over how wonderful an audience we’ve had so far through this blog. Our film is owed to all those reading this and those who have participated. So, happily and simply, I would like to extend a thank you. We’ll be working hard to keep up our end of the bargain and make a film for all of you. Keep an ear turned our way. Things may be slow for the next couple months but when we start screenings we’ll be back on it letting everyone know when and how they can see the final product.
Sincerely
Harrison, Bruno, and Kazoo Films

P.S. If our film excited you and you’d like to get in on some other cool projects check out newhardentertainment.com. Our camera man Nando is in Detroit right now doing pre-production for a film of his own. Then he is off to Buenos Aires with Newhard Entertainment to start work on Zach Weintraub’s new film.

The dust is settling after a frantic 6 weeks of filming. Forrest has moved on to Finland, Nandan has moved on to Detroit. And Harrison and Bruno are right here in Madison County where you left us.

So, you might be asking, what is next for the film? Well, I might answer circuitously, there are five stages of film-making: Development (where you come up with an idea, write a story, lock some key actors and crew members, figure out where you are going to shoot), Pre-Production (budgeting, fundraising, scheduling, casting, acquiring props, locking locations), Production (actually shooting the movie), Post-Production (Organizing the dailies, editing, recording extra music and sound, creating a sound mix), and Distribution (submitting to festivals, having screenings, trying to sell it or at least get it SEEN).

It should be obvious to those who were dealing with us this summer that with OUR film these supposedly distinct phases completely ran together in an exciting and jumbled mess of fun and terror. At least the first 3 did. But, we now find ourselves safely and cleanly in “post-production.”

You've got a long row to hoe, guys. Have another waffle.

So what does this mean for the boys? What are they actually “doing” now? Ok, I’m getting there!

First, we are gearing up to fund-raise for our post-production and distribution costs. Between foley sessions (in-studio sound effects recording – everything from footsteps to doors slamming to corn shucking. Our film doesn’t have the extravagant sound effects needs that a gruesome horror or sci-fi movie might, but there are plenty of sounds that need to be added, stuff you will just take for granted in the final film), and off-screen music and extra dialogue recording, all of which usually requires renting studio time and paying technicians. Plus the costs of creating film art – posters, promotional materials, DVDs, labels, and we have a lot to pay for. And I didn’t even mention the fees for submitting to festivals, which really get hefty.

But what else are we doing besides gearing up to solicit donations?

Well, at the moment, we are labeling our footage. We shot almost 30 hours of video and it all gets dumped onto an external hard drive with file names like B1000CG67884, and so before we can do any editing, we have to rename every single file to something like “Farm 2 – Felix gets butted by the goat – angle D – take 14″.

Then and only then can we begin “syncing.” Explanation: all of our video and all of our audio were recorded on separate machines. On set, once camera and sound roll, or “speed,” we always clap before saying action. This is so that the moment of hand hitting hand on video can be synced up with the clapping sound in the audio file and the two files can be linked in Final Cut. This is also why they use clap-boards in old movies and stuff. Once all of our files are synced, then we Pro-Res them, which basically means we uncompress them digitally so that we can see them with more fluid motion and higher resolution. Then it’s editing time.

O, I almost forgot! Trailer #2 is coming down the pipeline. Get ready!