dorsiafilms

Expect a BIG update on Monday, December 1st.

I’m really happy with how it turned out; the colors, the matte finish, how everything lines up.

All that’s left is getting it into your hands.

December 9th, 2008.

The master disc was sent this week to the manufacturer, and shortly the gears of the indie-rock industrial complex will begin cranking these out like so many crayons at the Crayola factory.

It’s hard not to look back on some of these old blog entries and wonder what I was thinking.

I actually thought I’d have the doc done sometime in ’06! And I said I would be updating every week!

Hilarious! But not really. Broken promises aren’t good for either of us.

I could have changed all those embarassing details when I archived the old blog over here, but I didn’t. All the embarassing expectations are here, if only to serve as further motivation going forward to get this done.

So where are things right now?

This week Wednesday the Live at the Showbox DVD goes to the authoring studio to be “finished”. This process involves taking the content already created for the disc (finished audio tracks, finished video, menu screens, etc), and assembling it in the least compressed or destructive way. Because there’s so much content, it’s important that this is done carefully and professionally so that as much good stuff as possible can be fit onto it while still preserving the high quality of all components.

The idea the whole time was to provide as much value as possible in one package, so, it’ll be a CD/DVD release in one package. Because CDs hold far less information than a DVD, you’ll find the DVD to have bonus tracks that the CD version won’t have.

I’ve been asked if there’s a chance of a BluRay version of this release, and there is a chance a very small quantity of these could be run. It’s primarily a cost issue. I’ll try my best to make that happen, at least on a limited edition basis.

The bottom line is, at the end of the week we’ll finally have a demo to show off to Barsuk. Upon completion, we’ll be in a far better position to determine release dates, release parties, and release premieres – which will no doubt consist of California gangster-style pool parties in and around the Seattle area.

The preview to the showbox show is now available! Sound for the DVD is being mixed this week, and after that a release date will be forthcoming. Thanks for all your emails asking for updates.

In lieu of any substantive updates (you guessed it: still editing!), below are a few still frames from the HD footage captured from the Showbox show on April 14th.

News:

Almost half an hour of the film has been edited. By that I mean this is still at the rough cut stage, with no score and hard transitions. I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming together so far.

I’m excited to say that the show April 14th at The Showbox in Seattle will be shot in high definition and recorded in multi-channel audio. High Definition. That means the highest quality definition there is. It’ll make you want to freaky-deaky.

Miscellany:

Friend of DorsiaFilms and all around great guy Merlin Mann has just posted an interview with John Roderick on his weekly video podcast, The Merlin Show. After watching it I felt compelled to write about the role he has played in the making of this film.

Merlin is known for a lot of things, but perhaps most for his commitment to personal productivity. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a space cadet, with a mind suited more to wild abstractions than focused concentrations. The first time I met him, he asked me if I had heard of the Hipster PDA.

“A what?”

“A Hipster PDA. Here, take this,” he said, and handed me a stack of differently-colored notecards held together with a binder clip. Uh huh. Very impressive.

With this “device” I was to catalog and store important information as I came upon it. Directions over the phone to Jace’s house in Ballard? Written in the Hipster PDA. The day and time of the appointment with my mechanic? In the Hipster PDA. An idea for which song to use in a certain section of the documentary? In the Hipster PDA.

Most of what I write fits into one of a few categories. Once I get home I then enter this information into one of four corresponding TextEdit files: Directions / Film / People / Tasks.

Having run out of notecards long ago, I switched to the Moleskine. I get these small books in packs of three, and their soft covers travel easily in a back pocket. Mine has formed a permanent curvature, proving the existence of an ass that many previously believed was too skinny to exist.

Before this epiphany, I relied on memory that was at best “problematic”, but now, not anymore. The effect of this adherence to organization has carried over into other areas of my work and life. My email inbox is more organized than ever, easing the stress of a list of unanswered mail without a clue about where to start. My wall is covered in notecards outlining the entire film, rather than abstract notes written on my hand. I don’t feel as stressed. I’m still a bit aloof, but I feel more focused and less stupid than I used to.

While I have not implemented his entire ideology of getting things done, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge what an effect his gift of office supplies so long ago has had on my productivity, both in my career and in working on this film.

Finally:

Jace’s band Friday Mile is embarking on a short tour of California beginning Saturday in Sonoma and continuing south in the proceeding week. If I didn’t like their music I would tell him so, but he’s heard nothing but good from me.

Hello to everyone still visiting this site eager for updates. Here’s the scoop:

First, I’m still editing the film and watching film festival deadlines roll by, which is my new favorite pastime.

Unfortunately I can’t say I’m very close to finishing a rough edit. If you compare the film to a woman’s stocking, its current state would be “fishnet”, while the goal is “sheer”. The good news is that we’ve only passed the 1-year point of production and to that end I believe the amount of work completed in that time has been admirable.

The post-production schedule has been aggressive, and continues to be so.

Secondly, I made a thinly veiled reference to some great local photographers contributing their work to the film a while ago, and I’m proud to say that both Ryan Schierling and Justin Dylan Renney are they. If you’ve been to many shows in Seattle you may have noticed these two music photography stalwarts snapping away, and I hope you’ve given them enough room and respect for them to capture their art.

Their work is amazing, and I’m privileged to collaborate with them and others in visually telling the story of The Long Winters.

Finally, the band is going back out on tour again to Europe in February and back for some US dates in March and April. They’re an easy band to love, so when you go to these shows be sure to bring along some friends.

One more note: www.throughwithlove.com also links directly here. I know personally it was hard to direct people to this site without writing it down, so I think this will help.