Matt Fuller & Andy McNeil Presents:

UPDATE - ALERT - SYNTAX ERROR

well, made the first rough cut last night and touched it up today. The run time was at almost 8 minutes and a lot of the footage was cut down. We are debating on whether or not to make a short cut just for this fest or not. BUT, if we do that, it will totally take away from the whole pacing of the film that we originally had for you to see it. So it's a big decission, either show a cut and chopped down version just for the fest or in a couple of days release the full version that it was supposed to be shown as. What you guys think?
 
Well, that is the million dollar question! Whether to present a film that is not properly served just to make the contest guidelines or to present the film in the form that makes you proud of your work.

The one thing that I will say about these festivals here is that they are presented to inspire filmmakers to make films. Obviously, it is nice to win a prize but what is more rewarding? The satisfaction of presenting a film that you can stand by and not give excuses about or to put forth something that makes you cringe.

I would say that if you really feel that your film is not properly served in a 6 minute format then you should present the 8 minute cut.

BUT, another thing that willl say about these 6 minute festivals is that if you live up to the guidelines, you are forced to make serious editorial choices that you may not otherwise make. And this can be thought of as a great lesson in editing.

I have to say that I, as the director, was reaching the point (while trying to edit to 6 min.) where I felt that too much of the story was being left on the cutting room floor and that the pacing was too abrupt. I hated that a lot of great shots and performances could not be used. I had suggested to the TTN team that we cut this film for a No Compete entry.

I am very happy to say that, though my concerns were heard and shared, someone stepped up to take a whack at cutting it (Tim Hyten aka Slimothy). Tim has done a great job of getting the story told at a resonable pace and he kept much of the value in place.

Mark and I have always known that we had 2 cuts of TTN to offer. One for dvxuser's dramafest and the long cut for other festival consideration. I am very please to say that we will have both.

My lesson here... a fresh pair of eyes and scissors at the cutting block!

Good luck with your decision.

-Ted
 
Interested to hear what you decided - - also still interested to know if your choice of pasting over that particular line of German text in your poster at the beginning of the thread was intentional (and therefore suggests something about the film)..
 
Well, we decided to make a short rough cut simply for this fest. We will however post the original cut probably over the weekend, the way it was supposed to be viewed. Just thought I would throw that out there for those who are interested.

THANKS AGAIN ALL AND GOOD LUCK.
 
Just so you know, I don't believe that you can post your long cut while the fest is going on IF you want to be in the "competetion." I would hate to see you go through all that trouble of 2 cuts only to get DQ'd.
 
WHEWWWW, I owe you one, i didn't know that. What's the time limit for how long you can vote on these things. I guess we'll just have to make a post after the contest with the (YAY I GET TO SAY IT!!!) Directors Cut.

p.s.

2 hours of sleep and going into work at 8am isn't a good feeling.
 
HAHA! Yeah. I have my own Director's Cut that I am looking forward to posting!

Last fest, the voting period was something like 10 days. It may be a day or 2 less than that.

And yes.... that must suck having to go to work on 2 hours of sleep!

Good luck!
 
You said it. Thanks and good luck to you too. I'm excited to see your film with single engine planes and dog fights and air shows with meetings going on in dark rooms. Let me ask, What DONT you have in your film?
 
That's right..... we are competing on hype alone! Our film is nothing but stock images and a lot of hot air!
 
holy ridiculous file size, we submitted a file size that was 17MB big. it's going to be so tiny. And it's too late to resubmit because i'm at work and so is the guy that uploaded it from his computer. Sighhhh.
 
17mb! How did it look? Wow... that does seem rather small. And I sure that your film is 6 min.'s on the dot, right?
 
haha, Yeah, I believe it is 6 minutes to the dot. maybe a few seconds shy. Like i said we butchered the crap out of it. But that's alright. It was intended for this fest anyways. I don't care if it sucks for how cut up it is. It was a fun process and I went broke making this film. seven 39.00 overdrafts doesn't really sit well in my stomache. But It was a great experience.

But the window size was rather tiny. It was funny, We had like 2 minutes to go and I was like, "BILL why is the file size only 17mb big. We had 40mb to work with." that being said he slapped my hand out of the way and uploaded.so pffft. Hope you either have good vision or a magnifying glass.:badputer:
 
Raw and Vital said:
seven 39.00 overdrafts...
by overdrafts, do you mean bank charges? ouch!

Raw and Vital said:
But the window size was rather tiny. It was funny, We had like 2 minutes to go and I was like, "BILL why is the file size only 17mb big. We had 40mb to work with." that being said he slapped my hand out of the way and uploaded.so pffft. Hope you either have good vision or a magnifying glass.:badputer:
Well, I know that Horrorfest only allowed for a 400x225 image... max! I felt that it was too small but I got used to it. It was disappointing because at such a small frame, I found that it was difficult to appreciate detail in shawdow and such.

I actually have no idea if they put that max image rule in place again for dramafest. I read that Envision had reduced his to something larger than that so maybe they let the rule go. (I am not involved with this process this time around. The film is out in CA and I am here in NH.... I don't like not having any hand at this stage but that is the way it is.)

Any idea what your final image size is?
 
yeah seven 39.99 worth of bank charges, it was like 244 total.

Also, not sure of the window size. Estimating it looked like 3x4 inches. then again i could be wrong. I also hate not having a hand in the process. I at least have to be there when the editing and uploading is going on.

NH eh? My girlfriend is up there for law school at Franklin Pierce in concord. Not a bad place. But I prefer Pittsburgh.
 
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