In the Light of the Shamrock - (c) 2003

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

We were set to begin the scene at McNamara's Pub at 7:00. That began just a hair after 8:00. We were slow to hit our groove as we were continually interrupted by small children making noise outside the bar. Finally, we got cranking and finished the bar scene (Scene 2) at 10:00 (our original stop point for the entire movie.

Once finished there we caravaned to the Diamond Shamrock gas station at 61st North and Broadway in Park City. There we spent the next 2 1/2 hours shooting Scenes 1 and 4. Fortunately, when I went into the gas station to ask the night manager for permission to shoot in their parking lot he said to do whatever we wanted. That was pretty cool of him- especially considering I should have cleared that much earlier than five minutes before shooting!

Around midnight the manager of the station left but not before telling us that the Park City Police patrolled this area frequently and that if they stopped and asked what we were doing to tell them we had his permission. Within 30 minutes of him leaving, a PCPD cruiser pulled up to us interrupting a key shot.

Basically, after circling the area and watching us for two hours they finally decided to come check us out. We talked briefly during which I informed them that we had full permission from the night manager. Satisfied that we weren't up to no good, they left us alone for the remainder of the evening. During one of the shots in the final cut you can see them drive up Broadway behind Keri!

I do think in the future if we're going to be shooting in public locations in Park City I'll contact the Mayor and Chief of Police beforehand.

Finally we finished the gas station scenes around 12:45 am... nearly three hours after the time I figured we'd stop.

The next night we all met again at Christopher Engle's farm and spent two hour shooting the farm scene. Despite the fact that I didn't feel good at all and my brain seemed to be severely clouded we were able to pull it together and nab some great footage.

With the movie all shot it was time for me to start dumping it onto the computer and beginning the editing process. It was then that I learned with great horror that we were having microphone issues and nearly 75% of what we had shot was completely MUTE! When Tim de Bakker and I shot Deserving Selfish we relied on the on-camera mic. Although we never had any problems with the sound we were left with an uneven sound mix depending on how close Amanda and Rebecca were to the camera. This time around we sought to solve that problem by using a boom mic always in close proximity to the actors.

Except the cable was loose on the boom mic and sometimes it was plugged in to the camera, and sometimes it was just lose enough to not connect but also keep the on-camera mic from operating.

Fortunately, about 75% of the dialogue in this movie is voice-over narration by Tim Rogers that I was going to record separately, but we did lose some original dialogue.

I have now decided to always use looping in the future. Keri came over first. Basically she watched herself saying each line on the monitor and then re-spoke her dialogue into the on-camera mic doing a "live-synch." The next day I recorded Christopher's looping and then later Tim Rogers' looping as well as the narration. Soon the looped dialogue was on the computer and I was synching it up to their lip movements!

As I was completing each rough cut and looping in the dialogue there were several instances where something happened that should have resulted in a sound. I believe there is ONE natural sound effect in the entire movie and that everything else was recorded later and mixed in.

There are 14 different special f/x shots in this movie that were added in post-production. However... I will not tell you what they are right now. Can't ruin the surprise before the release!!

On the afternoon of Friday 27 June 2003 I sat down before the computer again. I was determined to finish the final cut. With the fact that the film had to be post-marked by 28 June 2003 to be eligible for the Tallgrass Film Festival I had to ram my nose to the grindstone. I was still making cuts, still tightening to pace, still recording foley sounds, and still rendering f/x shots. Around six in the morning I set Adobe Premiere to render the file and dozed off reading Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix. I woke an hour later when the file was completed and continued working. Later that morning I transferred the movie onto a VHS screener and set off to the grocery store to mail it.

After printing off some black & white photos to include with the press kit and screener I finally sealed the envelope and mailed it off!