Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, finishing up the Days of Wine and Roses soundtrack and it’s simply and hugely beautiful in every way. First of all, the theme is a stunner and the score is very much a monothematic score. It’s basically two “A” sections and is very short but it is so unique and so potent, especially in the film. And Mancini’s orchestrations are brilliant and no one else’s music sounds like Mancini – the man was a true tunesmith but he could also write very dramatic and non-melodic music, too. In fact, he could pretty much do anything. I also managed to watch a motion picture, another John Grisham thing I’d never seen, called The Client. It’s a little hokey, this one, but very enjoyable, with excellent performances from Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, and young Brad Renfro, plus a gaggle of top character actors. Joel Schumacher was the director – never what I’d call great, but usually fine. And, of course, earlier in the day I saw the first cut of episode ten. It’s longer than all the other episodes, most of which run around twelve minutes, with one running fourteen – episode ten runs eighteen minutes but the reason for that is simple – five songs, most of which are around two minutes and thirty seconds, but one of which is four and a half minutes. So, just the songs run fourteen minutes and they’re bookended with two two-minute scenes. Cindy Williams has some of her funniest stuff in this episode and I laughed out loud several times. We spent longer finessing this episode than any other, about four hours, but that was also because of the songs. The bookend scenes were basically fine and we only finessed and adjusted a handful of small stuff.
But the songs needed some smoothing out and that’s what took the time, because it’s just complicated when you want to see something a couple of different ways – things get confusing, but in the end all the little subtle adjustments really helped. There are three green screen numbers in it and one of those is already done, so we sent the remaining two to Karl Sonnenberg so he can work his magic on them. We also sent the vocal only tracks to Richard Allen so he can smooth those out, and then those and the band tracks go to John Adams for a final mix and then Marshall lays the mix back onto the video and voila. I also gave Richard two little things to score – one cue of nine seconds duration, and one for the cliffhanger ending, which needs a little something for the build of that moment. He’s very clever at this, basically using my Sami theme but in clever variations so that you’re not even aware that’s what he’s doing. Anyway, I’m pleased with how episode ten worked out, and Charles Busch is delightful in it.
I’d only gotten four hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, had a telephonic call, and then moseyed on over to Marshall Harvey’s abode and you know all about THAT. After we finished, I got on the freeway, which was jammed, so I got off a half-mile later and took surface streets home. We had a little miracle news, which is good, I stopped at Gelson’s and got a chicken Caesar salad and some of their excellent cream of tomato soup from the soup bar, came home, ate it, then had a conference call again regarding the same thing as the one we had yesterday. The thing under discussion, should it ever come to fruition, and who knows if it will, would be the answer to many, many things, so I’m really hopeful something will come of it. Then I finally got back to the book and did several pages, then I just needed the movie break. After the movie, it was another telephonic conversation and then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I’ll dive right back into the book and try to finish it. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll have a Zoom thing at five, and we’ll make the final decision on the new book’s cover and perhaps we’ll unveil it to the world at large, and then as long as I’ve finished this pass of finessing, then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, a little writing to do, a lunch meeting to have, and shipping out a LOT of CDs over the next four or five days. But mostly it’s Sami stuff. Now that the editing is done, all that’s left will be for me to watch all ten, note anything I think needs a bit more TLC, do those minor things, get the final green screens back and put them in and then we’ll lock the ten episodes and get them in for closed captioning.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, do whatever needs doing, finish this pass of finessing the book, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have a Zoom thing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that we’ve now finished the editing of all ten episodes of Sami.