First teaser trailer is out for "Grindhouse" the new Rodriquez/Tarantino films that will be released in April (as a double feature).
Pretty cool - very much a throwback look to the 70's. I'm sure Rodriguez's film was shot on HD. Not sure about Tarantino's though...
-Blake
Our last round of QC was successful. We got the "Approved" stamp on the QC Report and made all our necessary dubs. And today, we're sending off the last of the required paperwork, etc. including our E&O Insurance Certificate to our distributor.
What a relief.
Delivering a movie is quite a challenge. This is my second time to do it, but my first time at this level. The first time around was NOT NEAR as "picky", time consuming or expensive. This one was tough (but not out of the ordinary).
Check out the next issue of Indie Slate Magazine when it hits news stands in January (I think it'll be January). There will be a piece on "Killing Down" and the delivery process we just went through. Hopefully it will be interesting.
So, that's that. Now we await payment from the distributor. Should be here pretty soon, and if so, will definitely make for a very Merry Christmas! :)
-Blake
We've made the recommended fixes to "Kiling Down" via the QC Report from Modern VideoFilm in Burbank. We now await the final report and will then make the appropriate dubs for our distributor.
What are these dubs?
An NTSC DigiBeta 16x9 letterbox, an NTSC DigiBeta 4x3 full frame, and the same but in the PAL format (for European territories). These PAL dubs are ultra expensive - the way we're going to do them anyway. Tried just doing a strait conversion from 29.97 to 25 fps, but the dubs sucked. They were roughly $300 each. The better way (and they way we're proceeding) is to dub them through a Teranex box. The Teranex is an incredible device. I have used it on occasion to do up and down converts for HD... I've never used it to do PAL conversions though. The kicker is due to the running time of the movie these dubs are going to be about $750 a piece. That's a chunk of change - especially for an SD dub. I'm hoping to get a deal on them, but either way it's expensive!!!
Once these dubs are done we'll deliver to New Film International (our foreign distributor) and we should be off to the races. What do I mean by that? Well, we start getting paid finally. :)
ALSO, the movie will be available and seen throughout the world (excluding the U.S. and Canada). We're still working on a domestic deal and will hopefully be announcing some good news there after the first of the New Year.
Oh, and one last thing... in the very near future we'll be uploading the first 8-minutes of "Killing Down" to YouTube. We'll post here when the footage is live.
-Blake
I'm deep into the "QC" process of my deliverables for "Killing Down". That's Quality Control (I guess you call it that). And I must say it's tough, tough stuff.
I've been involved with the QC process before, but from afar. Not directly responsible for the technical issues nor for the expense. On this run I'm responsible for both. Everything. And it's really becoming costly in both time and money.
Not that there is much wrong with the film, it's just that the QC process is EXTREMELY picky, and often it's WRONG TOO. What do I mean by that?
Well, for instance...
I have a fair amount of subtitles for some Spanish parts in the film. However, there is some Spanish that is spoken and I purposely did NOT WANT SUBTITLES THERE. It's a creative choice. But on the report I got the dreaded "3", meaning it doesn't pass. Of course I'll work this out with the QC facility and ultimately the distributor, but it kinda sucks having to go through this...
Or, I have some sound effects that cut in and out (purposely) and on the report they failed. But again, it was a creative choice...
I also have several issues with my titles (and subtitles) not being in the Title Safe Area. This is quite bizarre and I'm waiting to see exactly how far off they are. We did our HD online on an Avid DS Nitris (one of the highest-end of highest-end editing system there is) and I can't imagine the titles being positioned wrong. I'm going to verify this later this week.
Anyway, long story short... this stuff is not fun. I can't wait to get back to MAKING another film and leaving this "business side" behind - I mean 14 hour days, no sleep, and little food actually sound pretty good right now. :)
-Blake
