Status of Stuff: Hollow Spaces/Post Production

Once in a while a blog is a place not to analyze films you’ve seen recently but to chat about what the hell you’ve been up to. This is one such “update”. Over the summer I stopped updating a blog for fear I had nothing interesting to say out of fear that I was just an aggregator and not an actual content provider, I still don’t know, but this at least will be somewhat original.

What have I been up to lately, then? Glad you asked.

I’ve been working through post-production on Hollow Spaces and found I accidently made a longer film than I intended, it’s still the movie I intended to make, but it’s hard to put it in a box: is a long short or a short feature. I was depressed but it’s for all purposes the film I intended and hoped to make, not 100% of coarse, nothing ever is, but I’m stuck with a challenge. There’s not much to cut, but there’s more that could be fleshed out, there’s also the question of the ending - which I think could be enhanced - without saying much.

There’s the basic technical elements that need correction (sound, fine edits, music score, ect.) so I’m going to finish those over the next month. There’s nothing that needs to be reshot from what I see so far, but there’s a lot of work in melding what’s already shot into a film that has the emotional impact I hoped for when scripting and shooting it. Obviously along the way compromises are made, we shot it quickly, cheaply, but I think what we lacked in money and time is there in passion - there are some scenes that give me goosebumps to watch, they are that raw and well acted.

I suppose it’s important to be proud of what you do - I just want this to be a masterpiece in terms of tone, mood and performance. Technically it’s not 100% because for a good period in the shoot it was me and my HDV camera and the actors, a few lights but a very light crew, I like to think that worked to our advantage in terms of getting natural performances, of coarse I could always use a person or two to keep me in check - but maybe I’m being overly critical.

Of coarse post production is in full swing and I haven’t gotten it to the point where I’m anxious to show it off and run test screenings (I will most likely do that perhaps both in my apartment complex and with UB’s Media Study department). DMS is full of generous and smart people who hopefully tell it like it is.

As for other things going on Mary May’s Suicide Letter is screening in two film festivals: it’s playing before the opening night feature at the Big Apple Film Festival (tomorrow at 6:30PM) and again on Saturday night at the Hartford International Film Festival at 11:30PM. Hopefully this time next year Hollow Spaces will be having it’s film festival life - although I’m not sure what category it’ll be slotted into (short or feature).

I am encouraged to learn that while I’ve always said content should dictate running time and a film should be only as long as it has to be (advice I wish Michael Bay would follow) - some of my favorite filmmakers have been in the same boat (making 45-60 minute mini-features) including Kelly Reichardt and Francois Ozon. Therefore if anything I should work on making the film better, not worry about classification and accept it. There are festivals that do show “mini-features” so perhaps Hollow Spaces will have a life there, I’d like to think it just might.