Well, dear readers, we are truly in the very last phase of the Nudie Musical transfer. I do hope it hasn’t been too boring to hear me going on about this process, but it’s been very illuminating and very exciting to go through. Yesterday at nine I was ushered into a telecine room with a fifty-five inch plasma TV, where I watched the cleaned-up transfer. As it began, I did notice there were still white specks of negative dirt, but it would be madness to try and get them all, and it would compromise the image, as well. But towards the end of the first ten minutes, where reel one joins with one A, there’s always been a funky little picture hiccup there because whoever cut the original camera negative did a bad splice. And the few seconds before and after still had quite a few scratches – nothing major or awful, but definitely there. Once past that, everything looked really good and it was so nice to see there is no vestige of the cue marks at the end of each reel – and you cannot tell what they did to get rid of them – it’s just brilliant. Seeing it all at once this way was really fun – there was a bit of sound distortion but I think that must have been the room and not our layback, as we really didn’t hear any distortion at that time. The colors are really good, and I do love that we’ve really saturated the film-within-a-film musical numbers – you’ve never quite seen Lesbian, Butch, Dyke this pink but it’s very accurate to what the set and costume was and it just pops like crazy. As mentioned, there is grain and occasionally a fair amount of it, which is a by-product of going from the internegative, but also because the film simply wasn’t well lit, and the stock wasn’t great to begin with. But it very much looks like film and, as I’ve been saying, certainly looks better than any release print ever did. I’m nutty about the framing now – we literally fixed every awful framing issue and it plays much better now. You can see an example of this if you go to our Kickstarter page and run the clip of Lesbian, Butch, Dyke, although it’s shot with my iPhone and there was no light on in the room so the contrast is very hot and the pinks are much pinker than they actually are – but you can see how the framing looks right now when the gal gets up – her head no longer leaves the frame and is cut in half – it actually looks like a normal shot now. I was most nervous about the end credits, which were riddled with big ugly yellow and green emulsion scratches from start to finish – not any more – not a trace of them – again, absolutely brilliant and I’m sure that part of the clean-up ate up a lot of hours.
After viewing, I asked to see the clean-up people. They came in and I asked them if they could do a little further work on the first twelve minutes, up through where reels one and one A join. I said if it could be done in two hours that I was fine with it. They said it could and they’ll now remove just a few more white dots (nothing major and nothing that will compromise anything) and they’ll totally clean up the light scratches before and after the reel join – and they also asked if I wanted them to get rid of that little splice hiccup – of course I said yes! They were supposedly going to do the work in the evening, and I should be able to see that sometime tomorrow or the next day – just those twelve minutes. I also asked for the guy who did the audio layback to double check the first fifteen minutes to see if we’re okay, although I pretty much know we are. But just in case there was a technical glitch, it’s best to let him check. I’d also brought a print of the trailer – the hope was that it was the second trailer done by the second distributor – we had the picture negative on it but not the sound. I thought that’s what was on the DVD and that we’d get the sound from there, but what’s on the DVD is the original Paramount trailer. So, we’ll include the other trailer, but without sound. So, after I see the twelve minutes, I’ll approve and sign off, and then it’s time to pay and take possession of the brand spanking new hi-def master. I do think I’m going to have them make me a Blu and Ray just so I have it if I should need it (we may have to do some frame grabs for the back of the packaging, and I’m thinking about doing a little four or eight page booklet for the case).
Prior to all that I’d had one of those disgusting nights when I could just not fall asleep. Too much stuff going on in Ye Olde Cranium, so I only had about four hours total, if that. After the screening, I had a little lunch meeting at Mo’s, where I had their yummilicious Chinese chicken salad. After that, I went to the mail place where I picked up no packages, but overnighted Jason the booklets to sign. Both his CD and Drango will be here on Tuesday. Then I came home and caught up on a LOT of e-mails and telephonic calls. I had a fun call with choreographer Adam Cates, who’s working with me on the web series, at least the New York episodes. Then I made all the CDRs for our singers, and printed out all the music that had come to me via e-mail. I now only need three songs – two are in storage, and one is in the Lost In Boston music we’d pulled for the Gardenia show. That stuff is all organized now so the helper, who finally has returned from her almost two-week vacation, will find it. Then I did the four-mile jog, ate some fruit, and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture I’d TIVOd entitled Physical Evidence, one of those 80s “thrillers in a courtroom” things that were ever so popular, like Jagged Edge. In fact, Physical Evidence started out to be a sequel to Jagged Edge, but when Glenn Close read the script she said no, and then they just changed things around and made it anyway, this time with Theresa Russell and Burt Reynolds. The supporting cast was especially weak, and I mean really weak, save for Ned Beatty. Burt was fine, but Theresa Russell is so weird – it’s almost like she’s a high school actress at times. I’ve seen her in films I’ve enjoyed, but with weak material she’s just not very good. The film itself is awful – ludicrous plotting, ludicrous dialogue, and ludicrous characters.
After that, I finished writing the liner notes and sent those off. I also heard from Alet that she may have a conflict now with the Gardenia show – she won’t really know until Friday, but it involves the reading of a new musical and I think she wants to do it, so we’re looking for a replacement, should they not be able to accommodate her (they do the reading on our Gardenia night, but if she can get them to start at seven she can still make it by eight-forty-five). I hope she can do it, but my instinct tells me that the people putting on the reading will not budge and I would never stop her from doing something that could be good for her. She’s doing September and October AND the LACC show, so if she missed this one it wouldn’t be the end of the world – it’s just happening very late.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really need to get some beauty sleep and then meet the helper at the storage place.
Today, I’ll gather up the last of the songs, get them Xeroxed, and then singers will come to pick up their stuff. Otherwise, I should have a new master to hear, packaging to approve, episodes to write, hopefully packages to pick up, a four-mile jog to do, and eating something light but amusing.
Tomorrow, I’m going to see some Improv class show that the thirteen-year-old is in, then we’ll go out and eat something after, perhaps Bird’s, since it will be quite early in the afternoon and it won’t be crowded. Then I’m seeing 1776 in Glendale. Not sure what’s happening on Saturday – we may have a Melody rehearsal. Sunday I’m going to Vitello’s to hear a singer, and also prepping our Monday morning announcement. And, of course, Sunday is our final day for the Kickstarter campaign, which, frankly, could use a kickstart right about now. I’m told there can be a lot of action in the last couple of days – I guess people like suspense, but I’m still hopeful that we’ll end up fully funded.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, go to storage, Xerox music, give singers CDRs and music, hopefully pick up packages, listen to a new master and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite courtroom thrillers, especially those made in the 80s? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, amazed that we’re nearing the finish line of the Nudie Musical transfer.