Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Ronnie Day Project Production Blog - Episode 6

Here is the 6th and final installment of my production blog from The Ronnie Day Project.



Episode 6: Heroes Die

I’m sitting here in the editing suite watching James finish color correcting Episode 6. It’s weird that everything is finally coming to close, both in terms of the story itself, and my involvement. Filmmaking is a very nomadic profession. When you’re done with production everybody leaves, moving off to the next project, or in my case, continuing on with the same one. Even though it was only five days, I spent nearly every waking moment with the cast and crew, and as a result you begin to feel like a family unit. But then it’s over and on to the next thing and that is a very weird feeling.

Post-production is much of the same, though with a much smaller group of people. Aside from myself, there were only two other people whom I worked with on a regular basis on editing the Ronnie Day Project. One was James Cohan, whom not only oversaw the post-production process for me, but also did a fantastic job color correcting all of the episodes. Another was Tom Bender who worked on several visual effect shots and helped me with all the deliverables to Sony and mtvU for air. This project would not have happened the way it did, or been as good as it is, without their involvement and assistance.

Finishing a project is always bittersweet. In addition to the reasons above, I’ve also lived with this project daily for more than three months. It’s a very involving process that runs my life to a certain degree. I go home thinking about a cut that isn’t working, or how we’re going to make the deadline for air, or whether James will get a chance to color correct on a given day. Often the days were long yet sometimes it felt like there was not enough time in the day. It’s a weird thing that happens when you’re editing. I don’t know if it’s because of how focused one gets or what but time just flies. I can’t believe that I’m already at the end of it.

I’ve always looked forward to editing Episode 6, not only because it’s the finale, but also because I really love the song. I’ve grown to love the others as well but from the beginning, when I was first sent the CD, “Heroes Die” has always been my favorite song and still is. However, I always felt it was the least complex of the videos. The challenge in working on this project is to not only think of it in terms of six individual music videos but also in terms of a 27 minute long film with six chapters. While each video has a beginning, middle and end, the video itself also serves as a beginning, middle or end of the entire project.

Episode 6 is the finale of our story. Everything that has happened has already happened. It’s just a matter of how it will end. Will Jamie go back to Brendan? If she does will he take her back? While this Episode may not have the same amount of conflict as the others, when watched with the other six videos it feels like a welcome relief because we are moving towards our conclusion. That, in my opinion, is how this whole thing is should really be seen, as one long 27-minute program.

I hope you’ve enjoyed watching The Ronnie Day Project as much as I’ve enjoyed making it. I couldn’t be happier with the final results and I know that I could not have done it without my fantastic cast and crew. So many thanks to them and thanks to you for tuning in to the Ronnie Day Project.

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