My Editing Work in Austin Film Festival!

Well last year I edited The Teleported Man for my thesis project.  I asked the director, Zach Endres, for that role because it was a really interesting premise.  Without revealing too much about it, the title obviously piques my science fiction interests.  But there’s a couple cool twists that make it more then just a sci-fi movie.

The reason I’m writing to you about it today and not just telling you the twists is because you should go see it!  The film is screening at the Austin Film Festival this week!  I’m currently unable to go see it, as Los Angeles is a little far from Austin, but you can see it in my place.  Ironically or coincidentally, I’m not sure which applies, two of the interns I work with are going to Austin for the festival and they’ll hopefully be checking the movie out.  I guess it’s more ironic then coincidental since they’re not even from Austin or UT.

Anyways, on to the important information, the screening times!   It screens at 9:30 pm on Friday, October 19 at The Hideout Theatre and on Sunday, October 21, at 7:45 pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Village.  I hope you enjoy the film, I enjoyed being a part of it!

Actually, let me talk about being a part of it.  This was a really fun project for me because of the people attached.  Zach and Irene were a great director and producer, and both extremely dedicated to the film.  And Cameron, the cinematographer, did an amazing job of filming in a style that matched the story Zach told.  Again, I’m being vague here so you can see what I mean by checking out the film for yourself.  And it was tons of fun to work with Mystie, who really surprised me as a producer and is currently doing a kick-butt job over at TSTV.

I was only on set one day to supervise a visual effects shot I would later be working on, and it was a fun and professional set.  Everyone knew their specific jobs and things were getting done fast, but everyone was having a lot of fun with it.  I remember making jokes about ridiculous directions we could take the VFX stuff once we had our set up done.  And in case anyone from the set is reading this, who put the U-Haul key in my laptop case?  We spent like an hour looking for that key so we could all drive home, and I found it in the back pocket of my laptop case.  Good thing I stuck around, too, because I was thinking of walking back home and getting some sleep, with the key stuck in my case and away from the crew looking for it.  Fun times.

Since that was the only day I was on set, all the footage was new to me as I edited it.  I usually edit footage that I’ve been involved with during production, so it’s always nice to edit more traditionally with a fresh pair of eyes.  It helps me make unbiased decisions about which takes to use.  I also enjoyed editing and making visual effects for someone else’s vision, not my own.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, when I make effects for myself I already have a clear vision of the end product in my head.  The same thing works for when I edit for myself.  But editing for someone else, like Zach, is a fun process since it’s collaborative and I get to discover and meld the footage into someone else’s vision.  It’s a great exercise in teamwork.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun working on it and I hope you’ll have as much fun watching it.  Everyone did an awesome job on the movie and it really shows in the finished product.  You can check out the film’s website here.