It’s typical! The day we finish the Sakooz trailer is the day that RED and Apple release a software update that would have made my life so much easier. This update is BIG news for anyone who has to deal with RED footage on a Final Cut Pro system, as it now means you can edit R3D files natively on Final Cut Pro (in much the same way as you would edit DVCPRO HD footage coming from something like a HVX). This software is literally hot off the press, so there is bound to be bugs and issues, but from most (actually scrap that… SOME) reports, everything seems to be working as planned. For our trailer, what we ended up doing was bringing in 1920×1080 DPX Sequences into Color – now you can just “Send To” from Final Cut, and the native REDCODE timeline is re-created in Color. This will save so much time for everyone, and also help ensure you retain the maximum quality. Exciting times certainly lay ahead! Keep an eye out on Reduser! Thanks Apple & RED!

You won’t believe it – or at least, I certainly don’t! I think the trailer is actually finished. Actually scrap that – the trailer is finished! For now anyway! After many, many months of hard work, with so many ups, and so many downs, today the Sakooz trailer was officially printed onto the DVCProHD tape destined for the ACMI Screening on the 2nd of December. For those that live in Melbourne, you should definitely come along! Frank Strangio, our incredible and unstoppable composer battled illness and an ever jam-packed schedule to not only fit in the time to put together a three minute score for the trailer, but create a score that is pure gold. Despite the fact that we didn’t have any money to afford “real” instruments, the score sounds so big, so epic and just so heart felt and moving. As you can tell – I’m very happy with the end result! For anyone looking for an absolutely INCREDIBLE composer, who is also just the most lovely guy you’ll ever meet – check out Frank’s site. You can also see his huge list of credits on IMDB.

What an adventure it’s been! I never thought that post production would be as exciting, dangerous and challenging as the principle photography, but hey, you learn something new every day! I can’t tell you how glad I am to finally be able to file away all those printed EDLs, editing notes, colour grading notes, and stop thinking about DPX sequences and colour sampling! In fact, I just can’t wait to finally get some sleep! It’s been a long time coming!

So what now? Well, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t thought too much about it! I’m just glad we got through today, and everything is ready for the ACMI screening! So I guess first up on the agenda is ACMI. This will be the first semi-public screening of the trailer – so if you want to get a glimpse before the masses, I strongly suggest you come along! Then after that, we begin our big marketing campaign! Originally I had planned to launch this directly after the ACMI screening – however, I’ve since decided to push things back until either later in December or the first week of Janurary, just so that I have a little bit more time to get things organised. Oh dear! Despite the fact that I’m in DESPERATE need of a holiday, December is going to be once again a busy month it seems – website to make, DVDs to produce, meetings to organise, the list goes on! Well, at least live isn’t boring!

It’s going to be so interesting to see what reaction the trailer gets. To be honest, most people that have seen the trailer so far (before it was completely finished), have said, “Wow! It’s cool. It looks amazing! But I have absolutely no idea what its about”. Fair enough! But to be honest, I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I think I’ll have a better idea if I’ve made any horrible mistakes in the aftermath of the ACMI screening. As always, time will tell!

So once again, thank you to EVERYONE who has supported me over the last year and a bit! It’s been an AMAZING ride! I hope once you see the trailer you think it was worth the battle. Personally – I think it certainly was. I’ll be posting more over the next couple of days, and a heap more in December about the post production process and how we went about things. We also recently came across a whole heap of old Happy Sundaes behind the scenes footage, so we might upload that onto this blog as well for you to all have a look at.

Until next time!

Chris!

It’s official! All the pictures elements are all done. It certainly wasn’t easy – and there has been a lot of brain numbing rotoscoping the last few weeks, but all the effects are done, the grade is complete and everything is ready and waiting for the final soundtrack to be attached. These are certainly exciting times! It just amazing how much time, effort and energy goes into a tiny little three minute trailer. But from all accounts, it’s certainly been worth it. The footage looks incredible, and the effects (despite being made on a shoe string budget) don’t come up too badly. Now all we have to hope is that when people actually watch the trailer, it makes them want to see the feature length film! Only time will tell…