Saturday, July 21, 2007
Monday, September 18, 2006
A long overdue update: The Perfect Cow progress report
It's been over a year and...
the rough cut of The Perfect Cow is done!
It literally took hundreds upon hundreds of hours of logging and editing footage, but it seems to have paid off. We now have a 44 minute movie, still entitled "The Perfect Cow", to show for our efforts.
The direction the movie took in the editing suite is a little different then the movie synopsis posted on the site - As it currently stands, the film The Perfect Cow is about Benji, and what a truly interesting and lovable character he is. The perfect cow still plays quite a significant role in the film, but the search is more of a framing story. That's all I am going to reveal for now - (I'm not going to ruin the ending for all of you!)
So, where to go from here? Well, the rough cut needs to be edited into a final cut, music has to be added, a voice over artist has to be hired, titles have to be finished, and a final product has to be outputted to DigiBeta / DVCam. We're on the last lap!
Once the movie is completed, we'll begin shopping it around to distributors (both TV & film, although due to the movie's length TV would likely be the most suitable destination), and possibly submit it to some festivals like HotDocs.
Stay tuned for more updates, and if you're interested in seeing the final movie when it is done PLEASE join our email list so we can inform you at that time.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Manitoba is one flat place
One thing that really bothered me about Manitoba was I never knew how far away I was from anything. We would be driving down a highway, towards a silo in the distance. The earth was so flat that we could see things which were like 20-30 km away. So we'd be driving towards this grain silo, and I'd be like "Oh that grain silo isn't so far away", but as I drove more and more it wouldn't get any bigger. It got really frustrating.
Now in Ontario, usually when you drive towards something it gets bigger as you approach it. So you basically have all these mini goals you reach throughout your trip (Over the hill, past the service station, etc...). Not in Manitoba though.
Aside from that I start my "real" job soon, and so my travels with Benji shall soon end. Jon will likely continue to travel with Benj, and will hopefully take some good footage while I'm gone. I've still got lots to keep my busy though, specifically a few dozen hours of video to capture and review...
Sunday, May 29, 2005
GPS is my saviour.
Well, we just finished traveling for one week straight, making our way up into
Anyways, next stop, the prairies!
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
3 Hours of sleep never felt so bad
Last night we had a steak dinner. But it turns out the steak was illegal or something, like some farmer just cut it up in their backyard. I made sure mine was cooked well done.
Benji eats his steak blood red - I mean the inside is still almost frozen sort of deal. He can eat steak like no one else i've met - I think he had three steaks last night. No other veggies or potatos, just three steaks. He washed them down with a Coke Classic, telling us he'd usually do it with some 4% unpasturized milk but our soundman is lactose intollerant.
Tomorrow morning we leave at 4:00 am, which means we wake up at god knows when. I'm too old for this.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
On the road again...
We're then in the Cornwall / Southern Quebec area for one week, head back to Toronto for a night, fly out to Winnipeg for two days, then fly back to Toronto for good. Phew.
The movie is evolving as we spend more and more time on it. Aside from are "documentary"techincal skills improving, we've realized a few really important things: Tape is cheap, so always keep the camera rolling. People are much more comfortable talking to you on camera after they know you in person, so it helps to shoot the shit a little before actually sitting them down for an interview. We actually had our first person refuse to sign a release form just the other day, which was really strange considering nothing at all really happened while we were at his farm (He wanted way too much money for his herd, so Benji just looked at them for a few minuets and and left). We weren't going to use that footage anyways, so the joke is on him!
More importantly, all sorts of new sub-plots and stories are developing as we spend more time with Benji. This movie could turn out to be a very interesting character piece if we continue to get the right footage.
In other news a cow just sold for $1.2 million dollars. Personally, I think that is pretty crazy. In fact, I think that is crazy enough that if I go to New York or Los Angeles and interview people on the street about what they think about it, I'll get some pretty funny footage. So that is what I will be doing later on this summer hopefully ;)
Anyways, let's see how these plans change tomorrow -
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Damn I am tired.
Today was the first early morning. I was on the road by
Met many interesting characters today. We even visited a peacock farm. I also stepped in some cow dung and got my pants all dirty. That was pretty disgusting. At least shit is water soluble, and should therefore be pretty easy to wash out.
Our future travel plans seem to be more up in the air now then ever. By