Revelry, Realization, and Relocation

Well here I am coming to the end of the Hollywood Bowl project. It's now 3 days until the performance and here's the latest...



We finally got feedback from MGM on Monday and so far there's been several changes. Most notably to the "Pink Panther" montage bacause they wanted to have Steve Martin's forthcoming Clouseau included (The new "Panther" opens next summer), yet couldn't decide whether we should here a line or two from him or just see some slapstick moments. After going back and forth a few times they decided we should hear Steve introduce himself. 98% of the montage, of course, is Peter Sellers.



We finished the "De-Lovely" music video, thanks to a reel of dailies from MGM featuring Robbie Williams' entire on-camera performance of the song for the movie (!). Previously we only had whatever they'd cut for the finished film. Now we were gods, having the ability to plop him in wherever we felt he was needed. Overall it looks a lot snappier and more like a true music video as opposed to seeming a little too much like a movie montage. We also received his isolated vocal tracks since the Bowl orchestra will be playing the song live.



Tomorrow we'll start laying the final sequences off to digibeta masters for the performance. This coming Saturday at 10am it's back to the Warner Brothers scoring stage on the lot for the first of two rehearsals with the LA Philharmonic. The second will be at The Hollywood Bowl itself where I'll get to come up on stage for a while.



They've been trying to line up a singer to perform one of their Bond tunes for the encore. Paul McCartney said no, Shirley Bassey wanted too much money, and they couldn't get a response from Nancy Sinatra. So...Sheena Easton will be singing "For Your Eyes Only" from the film of the same name. Undoubtedly I'll get to see her up close during the rehearsal at the Bowl where she will be on Sunday morning.



I'll be making sure to pick up a number of program books before the performance since my credit will be in it. I'll also be snapping a few pics whenever possible during the concert, of course not during the montage sequences because my eyes will be glued to the screen! All in all this promises to be an insanely amazing weekend!



Tuesday, Laura and I will reconvene to lay off the actual orchestra tracks onto the masters from Sunday's performance. This should only take a day. At that point she said I can run off anything I want for my reel...and you don't have to say that twice! Updating the reel is a major priority of mine. Of course now comes the realisation that I am not scheduled on anything immediately following this project. The real good news is I ran into the senior editor, Andy, who was talking with someone outside after work. I needed to check in about a possible beta deck problem, but also mentioned my strong interest in continuing with more projects. He smiled broadly stating he definitely wanted to meet with me later in the week about that. He also said that in between his own projects, he had a chance to catch one of the montages I had completed and thought it was amazing. Plus he was impressed there had only been a slight change to the opening of the "Cellular" promo and that I 'd done a great job with that as well.



My overall impression from this, as well as other very positive nods I've received for a job well done, is that they want to keep me around. Plus if there was an opening, a staff position may be presented to me. No promises, just a feeling I'm getting. If this does end up happening I would surely take it. Autonomy has a great overall atmosphere, the people are nice, in general it feels confortable. However the one thing I need to keep my eye on is the future. I've been trying to get in touch with Hammer Creative Advertising since last Monday to say 'hey, I'm open starting next week!'. Left a voice mail message, but other calls found my contact away from her desk. Gonna try again tomorrow. Just on the off chance Autonomy doesn't have anything immediately, I am perusing the editor and entertainment industry job sites online, and am about to get in touch with Tim at ipostini and Beth at Pongo to check in.



Overall I think I'll be hanging around Autonomy after The Bowl is done. BTW, I also spoke with a freelance sound editor we've been working with, Mike, who also says work doesn't seem to be slowing down one bit...which echos what Gina said two weeks ago.



Finally...after pretty much living in Woodland Hills for the past three months, I've come to the realisation that I never do anything here. Sure it's a really nice and confortable place. But whenever I go to the movies or shopping or what have you, it's always east of here; Sherman Oaks and Burbank. So I decided to give some of the eastern suburban sections of Burbank another look this past weekend. It's still reasonably far from the city so I don't feel too closed in, and the commute (for working in Hollywood proper) would only involve a short drive on the 101 freeway...overall about 1/3 the distance as opposed to the entire trip from where I am now which is 45 minutes in the morning. I did look through Burbank a bit last year, but am now finding a desire to be more centrally located to the industry and industry community. Burbank of course is where all the major studios are, quite a number of post houses, plus a lot of great stores, restaurants, and one giganticly amazing 16 plex movie theatre!...because it's Burbank of course. So at this point I can definitely say I'll be relocating there whenever the move occurs. Besides, for the time being there's an Extended Stay America in Burbank near the airport. Which, depending on my own work 'extended stay', I'll possibly be moving to next week. Why not start residing there as soon as possible!



More updates as we enter the weekend and performance time...