Museworks Logo Intro

It's official. Love it.

Notice the details... logo gets bigger as it moves up the tree. First you see "muse", then there is a flash, then you see "works" as it fades out.

Superb music - nice rhythm, subtle crescendo, sweet dissonance, and a shift in key at the crescendo. It makes me feel like there are possibilities in the world.

In a word, Magical

Outstanding work by composer Douglas Pipes, artist Jennifer Downey, and special effects master Matt Rhodes.

The image can change, but this is the theme that's mine, for any film I do.

SWEATS & ICE CREAM: commuting and meeting LIVE with the computer

We're smack dab in the middle of editing. That's right, I said "smack dab." I have no idea what that really means or where it comes from, but it gets the point across. More than seven minutes edited, three key effects scenes in progress, listening to loads of music, long conversations with the music composer, weekly editing & effects meetings, and starting last night, my very first official Final Cut Pro class courtesy of Zack at Petaluma Community Access TV.

The class was long enough to get some real info, but short enough so my brain didn't short circuit. It's just enough to send me to the edge, but not quite over it... to work all day, come home for an hour, head to a class for 2 hours, spend another hour visiting Bunka (Vidal's cat, who I'm caring for while he's gone in Texas - who bit me by the way. Twice!), and then come home to hear that the cat poop needs to get cleaned up.... but that's another story. I did manage to listen to 10 new tracks I'm considering to license. And  yes, that was my Thursday. And now I'm up at 4:30 am. I have no idea why except that I had this weird audio-visual dream.

On Monday, Matt and I met for 2+ hours going over some effects he had done, and throughout I realize that I'm very bad at communicating in technical language. I'm a writer and musician, so I use a lot of metaphors, movie references, and general "music type" language about pacing. Sometimes, usually while I'm even talking, I will think "well, that's just darn inarticulate." Not like me at all. Yesterday in fact I realized that I had lost some of my mojo... Anyway, Matt, as gracious and positive as ever, got my rambling ideas and sent me a reassuring email. I like his new changes to the effects... just a little tweaking and I think we'll be ready to lay them on.

They always ask... what do you want it to look like? Sometimes I explain with strange-sounding adjectives and long-winded mini stories. Most often, I just refer to another film as an example. For the hallucination sequence, I've always appreciated the simplicity and humor from the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Thanks to Matt for digging that out. You can see it here.

Also viewed some sequences with Scott, who's managed to tighten up the key patio scene. We both agreed to break it up into three parts -- it's important, but at the same time, it's just darn long. The impact will be greater and at the same time we won't bore the audience to death. 

This week, we also finally caught up with our music composer, Douglas Pipes. Since his role in this production happens later in the process he's just getting up to speed. I spent nearly two hours going over the story, the vibe, what music I wanted, and what pieces we needed from him. He's the only one we'll be allowing to see the rough cuts and sequences that we're editing. He'll need to know what it looks like and what feel it should have. (Sorry folks, but to those of you who were waiting to see something, the trailer will be posted sometime early this summer.)

The amazing part about these meetings is that all of them have taken place with me in my sweats, usually with a bowl of ice cream, sitting at my desk, or even lying on my bed. With iChat, we've been able to talk live, person to person, listen to music, and watch clips together at the same time. Pausing them, refining them, and viewing shots to model after. This is real 21st century film-making and we're so lucky to be able to do this. Imagine how challenging it was 20, 30, even 50 years ago. Rolls and rolls of film, synching sound, huge editing stations. I've been a part of that early production process -- with a huge analog editing system, the dial and everything -- and it would literally just kill my enthusiasm, or as least drop a huge bucket of water on it. It's mostly all a good time now, except for this Final Cut Pro learning process, which is... I promise (to myself)... only temporary.

Although these "sweats and ice cream" visuals might blow my director image... I will tell you it's been efficient, comfortable and simply easier. Matt and Scott are 45 and 60 minutes away. Douglas is 400 miles away. But we are all on the same team, working on the same project, and heading for the same goal.

And yes, it's moving along splendidly, thank you very much. May the force be with you.

Meet Matt Rhodes... the master of special effects

In 2004 and 2005 I lost two of my beloved Aunties to cancer. Feeling helpless and craving somewhere to focus my energies, I joined the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training and spent four years doing triathlons and raising money to help cure blood cancers.

For my 2006 triathlon team I was voted Honoree Captain and had the great honor of scheduling the inspiring talks from people who were struggling with cancer. One of our honorees was Matt Rhodes, a Stage 4 leukemia survivor. We had a great season training together and his journey was motivating to all of us. Plus, he made me laugh, loved eating cheeseburgers after working out, and mixed up some tasty cocktails. With his wife Claire we all went to Hawaii and competed in the most amazing Olympic level triathlon on the beach in Maui. We had some great bike rides together too, and the best part is that you can actually see Claire and Matt cheering me on as I crossed the finished line. (Yes, that means they were pretty much done while I was still slogging along...) I figured it was a sign of our brotherhood/sisterhood/familyhood.

I was working on a video for the Alaska Federation of Natives and knew Matt did some film and video work, so I hired him to create the animated effects and educational sequences to insert within the program.  Later, when my favorite rock band, Two Sticks, wanted to make a video, we called Matt to help us edit it together, and included a photo of Claire in the infamous jean jacket for the DVD cover.... 'cause Matt and Claire are "like peas 'n carrots" (in Forrest Gump talk). Using footage from four cameras, I'm amazed at how creative he is and what he was able to come up with. So of course he had to be on the Bridal Film team. He specializes in special effects and has a great eye.

In January we met at the Marin Brewing Company to catch up, talk about the movie, and download footage from scenes for special effects. It's always memorable with Matt. Not only did we have a great time, but my car got hit in the parking lot, door folded like the page of a book, in the pouring rain, by two women going to 24-Hour Fitness in a red car with Louisiana license plates. It's another sign of our family bond. The Bridal Film team is lucky to have him and I'm excited to see what he's going to do with our hallucination sequences. Plus, now I have an excuse to hang out over at their house more. I'm adopting them both.


MATT RHODES, Special Effects

Matt Rhodes started Motivated Pixels in 1999 as a way to provide his services and experience to various marketplaces, including the interactive community, the game industry and the visual effects industry. With Santa Barbara Studios, Matt wrote custom software tools for the production of An American Werewolf in Paris. Working with the head of Research and Development, Matt wrote a portion of Santa Barbara Studio's hair renderer, now licensed to Alias. He was also responsible for creating most of the in-house Softimage plug-ins, mental ray shaders and custom tools needed for the Werewolf production. Matt continued with this role during the productions of Spawn, Parasite Eve (video game), and Paulie. 

As the head of software at Santa Barbara Studios during the production of Star Trek: Insurrection, Matt wrote tools, plug-ins and shaders for Maya, RenderMan, and mental ray. His volumetric shader was used to create 3D cloudy shapes for the film’s briar patch sequence.

* Photos of Matt doing the robot across the finish line at the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon.

You can learn more about what Matt does on his website for his company, Motivated Pixels. Or better yet, check out his personal videos. Like I said, he's a funny guy. Plus, he looks pretty cool with all those cookis in his mouth.