Chris Wells was back in town last week for Thanksgiving, which allowed us to take another crack at his character, and add some scenes that fit the flow of the film a little better. This was great, and the scenes are going to be fantastic additions to what's already there. These scenes also establish his girlfriend, Greta, as a stronger character, which is sorely needed in the current cut of the film. I'm really happy about how everything turned out. I can't wait to cut it.

And just in case I haven't stressed it enough...

Sneak a peek at some of the rad Noisehead Videos that Kevin Bewersdorf has been working on for LOL. Subscribe to this Podcast to view the videos in iTunes. The vids are optimized for the video iPod, so you can take them with you wherever you go. If you click the link below and subscribe, a new exclusive LOL Noisehead Video will be beamed to your iTunes every week, free of charge. There might also be some bonus material that we sneak in there. So get with it!




Subscribe to the iTunes Noisehead podcast.

Another one bites the dust. I've finished shooting with Brigid. We did a few reshoots on Sunday and called it a wrap. I'm going to spend tomorrow morning and afternoon getting that footage edited, and then I'm going to see Chris Wells at about 4PM, and we'll shoot some more footage with him. These are all the last minute little things, the little loose ends that we are trying up.

When I was initially shooting with Chris in the summer, we didn't have a very good idea of what LOL would be. We were just shooting scenes that we thought would be good. Then he had to leave for the summer and go back to school. Since then the film has come a long way. I worked with Kevin all summer to define what the project was about, and what the tone would be. And now that I know, it's nice to get another chance to shoot some stuff with Chris, some stuff that will really plug into the fully realized film.

So tomorrow Chris gets his haircut, to look like it did this summer, and then away we go.

Sneak a peek at some of the rad Noisehead Videos that Kevin Bewersdorf has been working on for LOL. Subscribe to this Podcast to view the videos in iTunes. The vids are optimized for the video iPod, so you can take them with you wherever you go. If you click the link below and subscribe, a new exclusive LOL Noisehead Video will be beamed to your iTunes every week, free of charge. There might also be some bonus material that we sneak in there. So get with it!

Subscribe to the iTunes Noisehead podcast.

This is about as cutting edge as it's going to get. You'll get cool noiseheads that you can't see anywhere else, even some that won't make the final cut of the film. You'll also get surprises every once in a while. Maybe you'll get a song by Kevin Bewersdorf. Maybe you'll get a scene that didn't make it into the film. Maybe you'll get an alternate version of a scene that did make it into the film. Maybe you'll get updates from Film Festivals when the film starts showing. You'll never know unless you subscribe.

Subscribe to the iTunes Noisehead podcast.

OK, c'mon, if you have iTunes just click the damn link. It's really that simple. You never have to do anything again. iTunes takes care of it from that point on. Once you subscribe, you can just sit there, and any time we put something new up, it will automatically be downloaded to your iTunes. Simple.

Subscribe to the iTunes Noisehead podcast.

It was nice to take a break from the film for a while, but tonight I dug in and started making some changes, inserting the new noisehead vids, and generally trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing with this film. It's crucial to know what I have, so that I can figure out what's missing when Chris is here for Thanksgiving. It'll be the only shot we have at strengthening his character.

This is the last push, and I can feel it. I have nearly exhausted my strength. It needs to get done in the next two weeks or else I fear it will take over my life and I will never be rid of it. I already have other projects I'm excited about moving on to. I want to be free again.

I watched the film all the way through tonight, and I'm really happy with it. It needs work for sure, but I'm starting to feel confident that people might actually like this thing. It's starting to work. It's flowing and feeling like a movie. I'm hopeful that when I let it out into the world, it will be able to stand on its own two feet. I sure hope Rotterdam invites it. That would be a great place to let it take its first steps.

Kevin is finishing up the noisehead videos and putting them on his server for me to download. Once I have these elements, Kevin gets to take a break for a while, until there's a final cut of the film, and then he's going to take a pass at some more music for it.

Chris is coming back to Chicago for Thanksgiving, so we are going to use the opportunity to shoot another scene or two to strengthen his character arc. It's great that we get a shot like this to really tighten everything up. I'm also doing some brief re-shoots with Brigid this weekend, to help move some information around and clear a few things up.

Looks like Kevin should have the final picture lock version of the film by early December, and everything should be totally wrapped up by the middle of that month, if not a bit later. It's funny to think that I was initially aiming to have the film totally finished by the end of August. Four months behind schedule is pretty bad. Totally a result of everyone having a lot else going on, and nobody working full-time on the film, including me, but I should still be more realistic about this stuff next time.

But even taking as long as it has, I still seem to be working pretty fast compared to most people I know. I'm already itching to move on to the next film. In the meantime, I'm anxiously awaiting the chance to see THE CASSIDY KIDS and I'm busy keeping up with Arin and Susan via their FOUR EYED MONSTERS video Podcasts.

Now that the movie is in watchable form, I have this horrible urge to show it to everyone with working eyes and ears. It's been locked away so long, that I'm desperate to set it free into the world. I have sent a cut of the film to one Festival so far, and the initial reaction is good, so my fingers are crossed that it will work out. It would really be a dream.

Over the next few weeks I will send it off to more Fests, wishing and hoping for the best. I've decided that with this film, I'm only sending VHS screeners. I have a wild hunch that a lot of the KOTM DVDs I sent out were defective, and as soon as they skipped, people turned it off and never bothered trying to get a new copy. I'm gonna be old school this time. Even if the image and sound quality aren't as good, at least I know the film will play all the way through, and the only reason it will get turned off is if they hate the movie. I can live with that.

I was at the IFP Midwest Filmmakers Summit this weekend, sitting on a director's panel and a "case study" panel for KOTM. I met a lot of really nice people, and saw some others who I occasionally run into. I gave a copy of KOTM to Ryan Wener, formerly of Wellspring and currently of IFC Films. I seem to run into him all the time, but he's never seen the film, so maybe now he'll take a look. I also got to meet Anthony Kaufmann, who I managed to never meet while he lived in Chicago, and now that he's in NY I finally met him here in Chicago. Weird how that works.

Anyhow, I was able to get the early buzz out about LOL. Lots of people asked what I was up to next, and it was funny to say that I was almost done with a new film, considering most of them hadn't even seen the first one. Eh, I guess these things take time. I did an interview with Nerve.com regarding KOTM, but we talked a bit about LOL, so hopefully that will slip in there and people will start to get excited about it. I think that runs this Thursday.