More Photo Ops

As promised in a previous entry, I've posted a few other photos from my recent, brief but momentous trip to Nashville to record Ms. Dolly Parton for her role in our film!

You can check them out here.

Reality Check

Just woke up from one of those recurring dreams - you know the kind: You're standing in front of a room full of your peers only to realize, to your horror, that you're naked?

Oh no, wait, that wasn't a dream - it was my first cut screening. Twice over.

Kind of the same feeling though. Except you never wake up!

Seriously, though, overall I'd say the reaction was positive (to the film, I mean). In Montreal, people chuckled in lots of good places (and only one bad one). Some cried (I hope it was in the good places!). In Toronto, there wasn't as much overt reaction either way. But lots of good, constructive comments after the lights went up.

The bottom line is, my naissant film is still very much a work in progress and everyone in the respective rooms was there to help us, the filmmakers, towards making the best film possible. Their reactions and input were invaluable at this stage. What I have in front of me now, though, is a pretty big challenge. Time is running out on the editing phase of the process and there's still so much work to be done if we're going to achieve our ultimate goal: making the best film possible.

Nonetheless, my editor, J-F and I are taking a few valuable days to absorb all the feedback and replenish our creative juices before launching back in to the edit for the final push.

Think I'll go crank some Dolly now! (and put some clothes back on)

Post-Parton...

... and first cut. All in one week.

While one milestone has been memorialized in an image, one mile (or thereabouts) of images is on the verge of being presented...

Tomorrow morning first thing, we will show our first cut to the first of our investors. To get to this turning point, my editor, Jean-François Bergeron and I have been burning the midnight patio lanterns to carve out something that is palatable for the first-time viewer, while still remaining very obviously "a work in progress...".

And with no objectivity left in me at all, I would say that we've achieved our goal: What we have - after 7 straight days of pretty methodical montage - is, I think, a well-prepared canvas that reveals a "sketch" of what the final work could look like....

So to sum up: so far so good.

I think.

The reaction of others - tomorrow in Montreal and then Wednesday in Toronto - will, however, tell much more of the other sides of the story than I can right now. I'll let you know what goes down...

Meantime, I'll put up some photos I took on my inaugural visit to the Sound Kitchen Studios in anticipation of meeting, and working with the one and only, Ms. Dolly Parton!

Dolly Dazzle

It happened in slow motion and yet was over in a flash. Everything was a blur and yet each moment was vividly sharp.

It's two days after the fact, and I'm still absorbing the very real and yet entirely surreal experience of meeting Dolly Parton.

She is everything people say she is - engaging, unpretentious, generous. A superstar with all the approachability of a good friend.

But don't worry, I didn't let that get in the way of my being star-struck! I think I may even have uttered the word "icon" at some point...

Will post photos and a little account of how it went down with the great Dolly Parton at the hospitable Sound Kitchen studios in Nashville, Tennessee this week - all the while rushing like a madwoman to get our "first cut" ready for the investors' screening in exactly ONE WEEK!

Go, Team J-F!

Hello Dolly!

Before I can indulge in looking back on the whole complex experience of shooting a first feature, I need to chronicle for you what's coming up just around the corner...! And believe me, it's a doozy!

For the next little while here on the blog, I thought I'd be mostly just waxing nostalgic on the shoot and counting down the nail-bitingly few number of days until we have to present a strong "first cut" of the film to all our important investors and partners - all of whom have a big say in what they see - a high-pressure event which is scheduled, in a by the way, just two weeks from tomorrow!

But I am instead, now counting down the THREE measly days until I - little Tara Johns from Canada - will be meeting, face-to-face, the one and the very only, Dolly Parton!!! In Nashville, y'all. Not to mention, "directing" Miss Parton in her cameo for my humble film!

I was already a mild wreck contemplating this auspiciously surreal occasion - wondering things like, what's the protocol here? Do I curtsy? Bow? Do I take a gift? If so, what does one even give a dynasty? Can I ask for her autograph? On what part of my body?, etc. - and then Barbara called and said, "But what are you going to wear???"

Oh, god.

Wall to Wall Wonders!

Well, okay, not quite wall to wall - there's still plenty of work to do! But, honestly, my virgin screening of Jean-François' well-built "first assembly" was - ... well, the only word I have for it is:

Rejuvenating.

In fact, screening the 2hour 4minute foundation of what will become my finished film was far, far more energizing than these last two weeks of "vacation" I just put myself through! Yup, this was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Hallelujah, we're making a movie again!

Awakenings

A kind of coma...is the best way I can describe my state of body and mind these two weeks following the official (or at least, ornothological) wrap of shooting our film.

I've had a generalized feeling of being completely emptied out that's actually allowed me to almost float through this recommended break from filmmaking without (very much) nagging guilt about what I should be doing next.

Today, however, it's time to snap out of that blissful ignorance, for the next phase has officially begun: Editing.

Even while we were shooting, Jean-François Bergeron - editor extraordinaire - was assembling the scenes. And this afternoon, for the first time ever, I will be able to sit down and look at the film, put together, from A to Z according to the script. No art, though. Just the bare, unflinching facts.

From all accounts, this part is hard on us director types. Because this is the moment we are faced, not with the "aspirational" version of the film we've been carrying around in our heads and hearts this whole time, but with what really "is". With what is our new reality. This, from now on, is all there is. Every frame of the film we've ACTUALLY made is all there - in its most raw, gangly and un-finessed state. Warts, wonders and all.

I'm secretly expecting there to be way more wonders than warts, but we'll see!

And then the real work begins after that.

I know I've been M.I.A. during the really exciting part - the shoot - and that I'm now back in the blogosphere just in time for one of the more tedious spectator sports to begin - the editing - , but I fully intend to use this next phase to work backwards - to get all nostalgic on your ass and write a bit of a reflective account on what shooting my first (and I'm currently using that term loosely) feature film was like.

Oh, and I'll be sure to throw in the occasional real-time account of any notable events as they happen - like my upcoming trip to Nashville to meet the one and only Dolly Parton!

Stay tuned...