I originally drafted this post on April 14. I updated it to reflect more changes that have occurred. To put it concretely, this is our plan that will guide us (and may change) over the next few months as we continue to edit:
As you can see, as I post this, it’s much later than 2 or 3 months after we started the entire project in late November, which would have had us finishing the project and saying goodbye in February or so. That’s how long we originally intended to work on the project. But when we first started realizing that we’d be shooting and then editing instead of both simultaneously, we shifted back our sights and told people we thought we’d screen the film at TVN (where they intend to do a big red carpet event for the whole community!) in late April, early May. This is no longer realistic either. In fact, it’s not even close, considering that it’s now August, and we’d have to time travel to make that deadline. We’re looking at December 31st, 2009 for an end-date to the creative aspects of the project. In other words, have a finished product on our hands by the end of the year, February at the latest. That’s a full year later than we originally thought. But, it’s in line with what all the pros told us: they’ve never edited a documentary in less than 6 months to a year (and that’s just editing).
Now how does that sound? Things have definitely changed, but it feels good. We both feel good about this, despite any issues or grievances that have arisen like in any relationship. We’re on course and trekking forward. Look for less frequent blog posts but more substantial ones when they come, though we’ll still give the occasional post-production status update via vlog.
Since I last began writing about The New Deal, even more has changed. Ashley’s now back in Oregon doing producing work, while I’ve stuck around in Dallas to continue editing. My goal is to have a rough cut of the film done by September 1 (may be pushed back a couple of weeks because I just got back from that long in NYC), and Ashley’s goal is to raise money for finishing funds (such as for titles, graphics, removing all those damn reflections in people’s glasses, and DVD mastering, authoring, and replication). In addition, Life’s Waltz has taken on an intern (volunteer?)! He’s already been doing a lot of assistant editing work and has even started cutting some Old Stories. Finally, to give y’all sense of direction, we received some excellent advice from Mark Harris (Producer, Darfur Now), whom we met with when we sojourned to LA a couple of months ago, to try to aim for a premiere at SXSW – South by Southwest – the now-famous Austin film and music festival. That’s in April, and submissions are likely due around the end of the year, so that puts us on an interesting and healthy timeline.
We’re excited, we think we have a much better grasp on the realities of what we’re doing, and barring unforeseen acts of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, we’re in it for good for the long haul.
