FORGE: A Feature Film by 500 Cuts

When you work on big, multi-layered project like a movie, you hit several major finishing points… kind of like the end of “Return of the King.” Pardon the dork movie reference (as opposed to a movie dork reference which would be something from Truffaut), but it totally fits. You arrive at a number of stages where you could call the movie “over.” But unlike “Return of the King” I’m not adding additional endings, I’m making technical adjustments.

After the first completion, the movie is watchable for 85% of the people out there. That is to say that 85% of people wouldn’t notice any difference if you made fixes. But you make fixes anyway. Then you hit a spot where 90% of people wouldn’t notice, then 95%. But you keep tweaking the movie, you know why? Because all of your friends – other writers and filmmakers, the people whose opinions really matter – are the people who fall in the 98% and above category!

But I’m “finished” enough to book a screening!  I’m having lunch with Seth on Thursday so I’ll let you all know what I can work out with him.  I’m sure it’ll be a few weeks so we have time to promote it, but it’ll be great to get everyone together.  Cast and crew will be in attendance!  We’ll see the movie at the Clinton Street, then have a wrap party at Dots.  Sound good?

I’ll also be posting some “before and afters” over the next few days to show a little bit of the process.  And check out TheFORGEProject on Facebook.  Become a fan!

VFX plate before

Finished VFX frame grab.

So at last, as we arrive at the one year mark of this project, we hit perfect stride. Quick meetings, phone calls, emails… all of which amount to significant forward progress on the movie. Everybody has a feel for what they’re doing, and they know how to do it! This is my favorite phase of filmmaking; when people fall into sync. We hit it about the third day of shooting back in May. We hit it again when the edit was coming together in August. And now we’re there with visual fx and sound design.

It’s hard to believe it has been a year since I wrote the script for FORGE. People always say, “It’s hard to believe (insert unbelievable amount of time here),” but so much has happened in the past year that it is truly hard to believe. When I look back and make lists of the things that have happened since I wrote this script, it’s pretty amazing that the movie hasn’t fallen apart. Every movie hits that point where everyone involved wonders if it will collapse or continue (usually multiple times). I’ll have to survey the crew and see if there were any of those moments they identified in production, but there were more than a few in post. Here’s just a few…
sketchy early viz fx tests,
teaching overload,
relationship changes,
people start to help then get too busy,
people start to help and it creates more work,
hardware problems,
cat almost dies,
visual fx breakthrough makes all finished shots look like crap…

Just to name a few.

But after all that, the movie prevails. We should be done in a week or so! Thanks for tuning in.

Spring time is rapidly approaching. In seemingly no time at all, almost a year has flown by since we completed principle photography on Forge. As the director of photography, the brunt of my time was spent on the film in the pre-production and production phases. Basically, I got ready to shoot, did tests,  had discussions, and then dove into production. After the 12 short days of principle photography, my job was largely done. About a week after the shoot, there was a fairly finalized cut of the film, but it lacked many of the final pieces including sound, effects, color correction, titles, music, and a plethora of other elements.  Since then, I’ve worked on several other projects but throughout this time I have seen the movie come together and inch closer and closer to it’s finished form. A large part of what makes a film cohesive happens after the fact in the post production phase. In the case of Forge, there is a pretty significant visual effects component to the film. It’s been really interesting to see the effects come together, and to see various shots in-context with their associated effects elements. On set, Luke touching thin air has now become Luke touching an object on-screen, a blank background plate is now filled with an element, and many key pieces of the film have taken shape. It’s been a tremendous learning experience, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.