Weekend Audio Work

Kind of a spooky, murky weekend here in Seattle. Matt and I have been working on the soundtrack across the street from a former church, above, that's now used for "scientific" experiments. We got a lot done yesterday, smoothing out the audio.



Here's Truman in the studio, showing off his sweater and triangles:

"The Music Box" w/ Laurel & Hardy

Here's a pretty high quality youtube upload of the Laurel and Hardy tour de force, "The Music Box". It's not so much a comedy for me, it's more like the funniest horror movie. Some nightmarish parts in it remind me of Harold Pinter or Samuel Beckett.

Fall Update

Working on the sound mix, and, starting over the weekend, we're off to a good start. "Speed of Sound" is on to its last phase of post-production, with effects being worked on by Elijah Tiegs, Matt Pomykalski and I are working on sound mix and he's composing and performing the soundtrack, still doing a little editing as well. Then on to titles and color correction. Aiming to start submitting to festivals in November. Here's a photo I took of Matt's little studio:


I'm hoping we get to use this at some point:


And the rainy view, from this old house:

Laurel & Hardy photo

When watching the edit of "Speed of Sound", lately, I've been thinking about the influence of Laurel and Hardy on my filmmaking in the last several years. I found this photo of them, on the street and in shallow focus, just like "SOS"...

Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man -- Trailer

Adolfo Bioy Casares & Ray Bradbury

Check out my homeboy Adolfo Bioy Casares hanging out with Ray Bradbury, presumably in Argentina, where, Bradbury says, he meets all his lovers. Seriously, Ray?

Charlie Magnetico

This is a film that Jim Henson made for a Bell Data Communications Seminar in 1963.

Tacoma

As we're approaching the completion of "Speed of Sound", of course there was one last thing to shoot... a series of shots with cell phone towers in them. Funny thing about shooting cell phone towers: if you live in the city, you don't see them as much. They're often put on top of buildings where you can't see them, and access to towering buildings' roofs, when you don't know anyone there, is scarce. One building requested a "fall plan" from us. In rural places and roadside to interstates, its easier to spot them. It was like a Tacoma safari, capturing the elusive cell phone tower...

A Muddy Cup, The Invention of Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares

I had a pretty eerie experience yesterday. "Speed of Sound" has had its share of coincidences, involving the screenplay and actual events, which have seemed more pronounced since the subject matter is a little supernatural. This most recent one happened at my local coffee shop, A Muddy Cup. I had lent the owner, Matt, my copy of Adolfo Bioy Casares' "The Invention of Morel" over a year ago. Its a book that influenced "Speed of Sound" and my other, older copy of it is a pivotal prop in the film. The book is exchanged between Dave and Vincent in a scene shot right outside A Muddy Cup:



I had forgotten I'd lent my NYRB copy of the book to Matt. And so it was freaky yesterday when he said, "I've got your book finally," and I said, "What book?"




Above, A Muddy Cup. Where it all happened.

Cymatics: Bringing Matter to Life with Sound (1986)

"... everything owes its existence solely and completely to sound..."

Telephone Wires

Yesterday, Karina and her assistant Brianna and I were shooting telephone wires and radio towers all day, for insert shots in "Speed of Sound." The weather was miraculously similar to the two weeks of principle photography. We spent a while shooting the sunset on Phil's roof, when I took the above photograph. It was as mysterious in person. The sun was being reflected on a building on the other side of the visible building and was being reflected, momentarily, and with intensity, through windows on both sides of the visible building.

SOS Still of the day 9/8

Making Packages for Perks

Finishing up the packages this weekend for the "Speed of Sound" perks, with some help from the lovely Diana Ayala, who will do anything for a box of vanilla almond milk. I should be mailing them all out on Monday!




Beforehand we came across all this white laundry hanging in an alley, like a flock of seagulls frozen mid-air.