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Production Notebook: HD WINGMEN Vid
"I couldn't do that. Could you do that?
Why can they do it? Who are those guys?"
--Butch Cassidy
Dear Wingman,
This week was a post-production marathon. Saturday, Sunday and Monday Greg Martin finished up the EFX on The WINGMEN short, and editor Collin Selders and I worked Monday through Wednesday on polishing the edit from opening through end titles. Thursday Collin received the EFX footage and organized the audio tracks for delivery to the mixing engineer while I spent a full day with composer Fred Kron working on the score. Fred scored four minutes of wall-to-wall video in under nine hours, which is incredible. Friday I was back in Santa Monica with Collin, where we synched the score and locked the picture for the audio mix. Accordingly, I spent Saturday with Wingman James Musshorn, a stellar mixing engineer who mixed the sound for us at a cool, privately owned, backyard garage studio in NoHo. King of the Hill is one of the many music and TV projects mixed in that space. The owner, Craig Stall, and his wife are tremendous folks from Kentucky and Texas respectively, and during breaks you could find me sitting in their back garden under the fruit trees playing with their fluffy brown Chow dog, Hannah. I felt far removed from Los Angeles (in the good way). It was a beautiful kind of work day; listening to the fountain, finishing up the project and conversing about the state of media, movies and music with good company.
Greg and Collin got a call from me during the mix about something that James and I noticed needed to be EFX-ed out. You see, when you mix humans and cold temperatures there is a strong chance of cloudy weather, and by "cloudy weather" I mean "snot." Throw a bunch of HD close-ups into that equation and it's possible that you're going to get a view of the blockage up someone's nose.
It has been taken care of however. Let it be known that we have your backs, and will never air you out on camera with accidental snot visible in your nostrils.
The WINGMEN short has been produced professionally coast-to-coast by 100% volunteers, with Wingmen on camera taking on the role of storyteller. Like most of what we do here, this is extraordinary. Also extraordinary is that we did it for what I'm guestimating is under 2k. (I have yet to sit and crunch the numbers.) You can judge for yourself how amazing a feat this is once you watch our creation yourself. The 2k was spent on craft services during the shoots and post, coffees, tiny thank you gifts to the amazing professionals who gifted us with their time and expertise, a hard drive for footage, equipment rentals, props... standard costs. My parents also pocketed some of our expenses by putting on craft services for the DC shoot and The Grizz used his electrician skills to wire some props for us, for which he supplied the parts. I should probably mention at this time that, on the conservative side, I calculate the video would have cost us at least 16k if we had paid out for full rentals and crew, locations, and the many other things contributed by the overall team of renegade artists, craftsmen, venders and WINGMEN. Even if you weren't there with us physically, you made this possible.
Although I am short on time as I write to you, I want to pause to share how much fun I've had with the crew. It's been a long year and these are the circumstances I look forward to, and in which I thrive. The DP, Brad, and I are buds and he's a real deal film soldier who I really like to be on set with. We'd worked together before. Over the years we've also consumed inhuman amounts of tequila during our off time. Wingman Carly referred me to Collin, and it turns out we were very quickly on the same page. Despite having everyone else locked in as donating their time, I didn't think it was possible to get a professional editor under this agreement and was prepared to pay a low indie rate. (Editors spend loads of time on a project so this makes sense.) I met with Collin, he viewed some of the footage, leaned back in his chair in that badass "fuck it" kind of way that suits this movement and said "Let's do it!" With that, he was the final piece of the puzzle and we had succeeded in going 100% volunteer. For weeks we've been working together and if you follow me on Twitter you can tell we're always having a laugh while we do. I'm hoping to work with him again in the future. James, who I call "Mushy," is a Wingman and a friend, and someone who I've worked with in the past as well. He helped me problem solve the final hurdle of this video. I don't know if you'd enjoy sitting around for eight hours watching these guys spin the dials on the various software and arrays that affect the end product so profoundly in filmmaking, but I actually enjoy the postproduction process. Unlike math, filmmaking is a problem that I know how to solve.
Sitting with Fred, the composer, is nothing short of revelation. This is the third time we've worked together, the other times being smaller projects. He flat out has skills. Few filmmakers get to create original score - it's something I'm still developing a vocabulary for - so watching him layer the music and observing how keen his instincts are in terms of accents and so forth was very cool as well as enlightening. We were in great hands.
I don't mean to romanticize how exhausting production and postproduction has been. Brad gifted us with one of his few vacation days in DC where he had flown to visit his family, I've been working non-stop, Fred and Mushy fit us in on a day off between solid workweek sessions and Collin has been cutting full time on another project at nights after spending days editing with me. I'd also be remiss to leave out The Professor, who came down to DC from Boston to fill in multiple positions during preproduction and production.
There's also Greg, who worked all weekend (again) and sacrificed one of his vacation days to the cause, and who you know by now as we have been working closely for years; he designed the UI, layout and art of the site you are currently experiencing. These guys are good, just like Greg; like "Who are those guys?" Butch Cassidy/Sundance good. Together we can do more in a day than most people can accomplish in a month, and we do it original, representative of ourselves and the project. I encourage all artists to pursue those goals just as much as I encourage independent thought, standards in art (just as there are related standards in educational fair use and journalism), and standing up for yourself even when it may be unpopular, among other ideals. Getting to work with other artists who excel at the art of creating art to such insightful and weighty ends is the type of filmmaking that's as much a privilege to me as a walk on the moon is to an astronaut. When I watch the short I see the personality of each artisan working in harmony throughout the arc of the piece.
Today Collin and I will finish up the edit and later in the week I will have the video encoded for distribution. In the meantime, I'll be planning the online release. These will be an exciting few weeks, and I'll be very glad to have you be a part of the launch. This is about your role in this project and story.
We've made a professionally produced piece of art+commentary together. Part of my dream was to have a community like this (ballsy, team players united by individuality) and to be able to share the ideals present.
I will send you information about the virtual event launch as soon as all is prepared. On your end, please prepare to support the launch (assuming you dig the short, of course) and to send the short to your network of family, friends and press in order to help the project and also share the spirit of the work. We fired our publicist, after all, and rightly so: Thus it's up to us now.
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