Monday, March 02, 1998 - On My Knees At The Finish

Major milestone. Once I can lift my head I'll fully realize it. Finished the online version today. Now I need to make dubs and that portion of post will be complete. There are some things with it that I'm not satisfied with, but I'm going to stop saying this because it's always going to be the case. Today was the day to finish and I did. Dinked around with the credits maybe a little too long, but it's so easy to get anal in this phase of post.

I've been thinking a lot about the things that I did right and the mistakes I made for this production. I think it would be a good exercise to list them. Good lessons for the next production, where I'm sure I'll make other mistakes and do other things right.

Speaking of the next production, I'm kidding myself to think I won't need a breather before starting, so if I say that I don't I'm lying. I won't even try to deceive you about this! But, you know, when I do start the next production, if ever I crawl my way out of debt, I was thinking: It's great to think about having more money and going to larger format, etc. etc. But it would be more rewarding to limit myself to the same budget that I had for this one and see how much better I could do. $80,000, I've proven to myself that I can make a good film for that. Now that I know the ropes, I know I can make a great one for the same amount, using the same format. A lot of the groundwork has been done. I've amassed a goodly amount of high-quality equipment, know my camera, the sound equipment, what the media will allow. Let's say I make a modicum of money with my current project and break even. I've already paid the tax on it. Let's sit down and right a script and base it on these funds.

But first I'm going to lie in the sun with that little girl...

-George