Less is more" - I dont know who it was that first said that, or what the lineage of that phrase is. But certainly it applies to a kid with a dream in his heart and 140 gigs of video that shows up at a state of the art editing facility.
Let me explain......
What I mean by that is that less is more, when it comes to using all the gee whiz, really cool, whiz-bang editing tools that become your domain once you sit down to a modern day non linear editing machine.
Naturally, I want the show to impress, I want people to like it. And frankly, Id like nothing more than to use EVERY SINGLE tool in the tool box that is at my disposal. OH! look at that cool wipe! holy crap, check out this dissolve! I can do insane effects, and load this thing up with every transition and coffee house aft fag trick I can think of. But at the end of the day, what do you have? You've sacrificed content for bullshit. And as we all know, there are PLENTY of people doing that already. No, I want the content to be king. The time and place to go crazy is in the nuts and bolts of the creativity of the thing to begin with. Before you take the lens cap off, you should have a clear idea in your own mind what the fuck it is your going to show people. Let your core morality drive the camera. To rely on, or overuse the editing equipment is to sell the end user (you) short. I might just as well go to work for the friggin discovery channel, or Speed, and start churning out the same regurgitated, over used horrid garbage they have so expertly shown us, ad nausium, they are capable of creating. -quick side note here, even IF I was to do that, I guarantee you I'd still do a better job at it then those jerknecks do.
The other side of the coin, or danger, is to not use ANY effects, or have no production value. Ala our buddy and resident short bus driver "rat rod ricky" and his insanely bad rat rod tv. ( Honestly in a day and age where someone just shot an entire feature movie using only iPhones, why is someone not slapping the shit outta this idiot for even thinking he can make a program - that in the end is only marginally better than being told by your family physician that you have full blown aids?!)
But I digress.
No, the art here is to strike a balance of utility with expression. To judiciously use what you have up your sleeve to help tell your story, not to allow it to dominate the thing to the exclusion of all else. (think back to star wars 1, 2, and 3). And that, more than anything else is what I find myself struggling with these days. Granted I'm a bit star struck with the technology. But I promise no Jar Jar in anything I do, EVER.
My point is, ultimately the show will stand or fall on its own merits. In its purest form I only want to show you guys how I see things. There is so much that is insanely cool with our kulture, and so many guys who are actually doing it right that deserve to be seen and rewarded for their efforts. The guys that the TV producers insist on useing, are so over used they might as well be a jizz rag in a hookers bedroom in a mining camp on payday. ( Honestly if I never see Chip "everything I paint is two tone" Foose again, it will be tooooooooo soon). There is an entire world of kewl out there. Ill be damned, no matter how great the temptation may be, if Im going to clutter up the scenery or get in the way of the story with a bunch of extraneous George Lucas type effects. The story is enough. I just want you to see this stuff in all the beauty that I get to every day.
So where are we today? Work continues in the editing studio. As bad as I want to rush through this and show you guys something sooner as opposed to later, I have to remind myself that I dont want to rush things. So patience my friends, I promise, it will be rewarded. This week we did some "pick up" shots on monday, grabbing some real quick footage that I needed that we didnt get in PDX. Today and tomorrow are meetings all day and Im back at the desk on thursday and friday. Of a roughly 2 min. teaser that I want to show you guys, I have at this point, 1 min. and 5 seconds DONE. VO work in the sound booth continues as well. Its all coming together. And hopefully it will be something you guys dig!
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