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RAAM: Finish line

Rob McKaughan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:42:08 +0000

After almost two and half years, I’ve finally completed my Race Across America movie. No, really! It’s done, finished, fertig, finis. It’s ready to show.

Wow! It’s still sinking in that it’s done. I’ve been working on, thinking about, worrying about, and fussing over this thing for over 2 years. It’s defined my thinking for that entire time. The idea that there’s nothing left to do feels kind of alien.

And extremely freeing. I’ve got so many projects I want to start.

This time: No projects bigger than one week. I think I’ll be sticking to weekend projects for a little while.

There have been several times that I thought I’d never finish this thing. Heck, I didn’t think it was even possible, for a while there. Thanks to everyone who kept encouraging me. You’ve made my life better by helping me achieve one of my big goals in life.

And a word to any aspiring feature-length filmmakers out there: don’t try to do everything all by yourself. True, it makes the credits really easy, but everything else takes a lot longer.

What’s next for this project? I’m going to make copies for all those who helped out, enjoy the holidays, and have a big party in January. No plans for festivals right now; I’ve missed all the festival deadlines for this season, and there’s a bunch of legal legwork to do first. Meanwhile, I’ll just bask in the glow of having accomplished something I’ve wanted to do for years, and see what the future brings.

Seeing colors

Rob McKaughan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:19:09 +0000

I just spent 2.5 hours color balancing 6.25 minutes of my movie. At this rate, I only have 27 more hours to go — and then I get to do the audio. Wheee! Looks a whole lot better, though.

RAAM: still cranking

RAAM: Locked and Loaded!!!

Rob McKaughan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:06:34 +0000

I hereby declare picture for my first documentary film, LOCKED! Sure, it took 2 years, 1 month, and 28 days to complete the story edit, but hey, who’s counting, right? It got done and that’s all that matters. Now on to the technical dotting of the i’s and crossing the t’s: mastering the audio tracks, completing the titles and bottom-thirds (“bottom thirds” are the text & graphics that pop up at the bottom of your screen, used ridiculously often in news programs), color balancing and visual polish, and music.

For the end credits, I’m planning on using some music written by my friend John Pilafidis, to which this film and the race in the film, are dedicated. The song’s intro is a little long, but I’ve got John’s master files. Always wanted to learn how to edit music…

I want to thank all of my friends who gave me feedback through the editing process. Your feedback made this a much, much better film. Thanks Amanda, Karen, Becky, Linda, Mike, Will, Susan, Helen, Bernie, Laurie, Tom, Marisa, Mark, and Harvey.

RAAM movie: the final sprint

Rob McKaughan — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:43:18 +0000

I’m bouncing off the walls with excitement! I’ve just showed my last cut of the RAAM movie to 5 people and they all loved it. Those who’d seen it before thought it was surprisingly better than previous cuts. (One said, “this is a completely different movie”) I’ve just a few minor tweaks based on feedback, and I’ll be set for Picture Lock by the end of the day tomorrow. That puts me solidly on a path to FINISHING THIS MOVIE by the end of the month. I’m very proud of how it’s turning out. It’s much better than I expected.

RAAM documentary nearly finished

Rob McKaughan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:18:24 +0000

After working on this project for over two years, it’s time to call this thing done. At the end of this month, I will declare this movie — in whatever state it’s in — done. That means I’m shooting for picture lock this Sunday. (Picture lock is when I’ve stopped editing the sequence of edits, and moved on to things like sound mastering, titles, and color balance). I’ve made some major edits based on test screenings and watching the raw footage over again (incredibly valuable). Benjamin Zander’s description of musical phrasing, and the structure of Samuel Barber’s Adaggio for Strings have also provided great inspiration. Look for more news in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, try what I did this weekend: unplug the internet. I think I gained at least 3 hours per day doing that. Hmmm… Probably need to do it right now…

Stanley Cuba on Amazon

Rob McKaughan — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:13:19 +0000

The last movie I shot stills for, Stanley Cuba, is now available for pre-orders on amazon!

Now that I think of it, another movie I worked on is also on amazon: Police Beat (in which I worked under the glorious title 2nd 2nd Assistant Director — yes, that’s two 2nds).

Ahh, it’s nice to see projects come to completion.

RAAM: movie editing continues

Rob McKaughan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:37:48 +0000

I made some good progress this week on my Race Across America documentary. It's really coming together, and know what? It's not half bad!

My breakthrough this week was realizing that I don't have to stick to the chronology so dogmatically. Near the end of the race, for example, there were a couple of days near during which the team was obsessed by the Brazilian team. In the middle of this competitive push, the our crew chief had to leave the race because he couldn't get the time off for the full race from his boss. I struggled with this in previous drafts - do I interrupt the whole Brazilian thing with Paul's exit, or do I pull that out, breaking the chronology but telling the story better? Seems like an easy choice when I put it that way, but it took me a little while to realize the obvious.

All of this is allowing me to keep the movie interesting while sticking to my The War Room inspired verite style I chose when I started this whole thing. There's not a single interview or talking head in the War Room. Being a documentary still photographer, I thought this would be a natural style for me to slide into. Having done it, I've got to say, "Damn, it's hard!" Watching War Room again, I see the subtlety of their work - it feels like you're a fly on the wall, watching events transpire in real time as Bill Clinton ran for office, but the filmmakers carefully rearranged events slightly. Events are grouped to follow storylines, so that those stories play out without much distraction.

So while I'm rearranging things, here's a little something to keep you busy. It's the first 15 minutes of the movie - pretty much everything leading up to the start of the race. I haven't shown this section in its entirety to anyone yet, so I'd love any feedback you have.

First off, is it interesting? If not, where do you tune out?

Second, is anything confusing or disorienting? Do you feel you know what's going on in this and what this movie is about?

Anything else stand out in your mind? (good or bad)

Don't worry about the sound editing or color balance & such. I'll do that once I've got the slicing & dicing done.

And for those, just joining us, here's the whole saga of me making this movie.

RAAM: Rough cut complete

Rob McKaughan — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:03:47 +0000

I just finished the first complete assembly of my RAAM documentary. Heck, I’ll even call it the official 1st rough cut. It only took me a year and a half, but hey, I made it this far, and that’s farther than I would’ve guessed a while back. In a few days, I’ll watch it from start to finish for the first time to see if it makes any sense. After a few tweaks, I’ll unleash it on my unsuspecting friends. Bwahh, ha hah!!

RAAM: time to slice & dice

Rob McKaughan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:17:40 +0000

Phew… Just finished reviewing all the footage. This project proves that you should never loose faith in a project, no matter how discouraged you may feel. There’s a lot more good stuff here than I had thought when I filmed it. I think the distance that the span of a year gave helped a lot, as did my new logging method (taking much more detailed notes, real-time).
I still don’t have a concrete outline of the story, but I do have a nebulous idea knocking around my head. I can see several of the key scenes, how to assemble each scene, and how several relate to each other. I’m a stickler for structure, though, so I still feel the need to have a single thesis to hang it all off of.
In the meantime, enjoy this little clip. While reviewing the footage, I took a few still frames from each segment as a form of visual note taking. On a lark, I chained all 341 of them together at 1 second a piece. Just sit back and let it wash over you. Leave a comment with your impression — I’m entirely curious about how those impressions correlate with mine.

RAAM: a little distance is good

Rob McKaughan — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:12:53 +0000

When I finished filming RAAM, I thought it was a dismal failure. On top of being sick, I had allowed myself to be made crew chief of the rider’s team part way through the race, knowing that I’d have to give up shooting. The first two thirds of my footage are only from the first third of the race. I thought I had missed all kinds of story elements — especially the competition with the Brazilian team which egged our team on through so much of the race. I have to admit that this cynicism is a big reason why I procrastinated on editing it.
Now that I’m re-reviewing it all one year later, I see that there’s plenty of stuff here — including bits about the Brazilians. It’s mostly people talking about it instead of showing it, but it’s there. It’s amazing what a little space in time and in emotion. (And, thanks to friend and documentary photographer Amanda Koster for giving me the appropriate kick in the butt about keeping an optimistic attitude)