TRAILER: Take a look at Rick Alverson's ENTERTAINMENT ahead of its fall release

Last week, the trailer for the dark comedy Entertainment was released online. Arts + Labor - which handled post production duties on it - hired me to be post production supervisor. It was quite a handful prepping and shepherding this ambitious indie (shot entirely in ARRI RAW) through post within such a tight window on its way to a Sundance premiere earlier this year. I learned a ton, though, from Aversion and his DP Lorenzo Hagerman. It is also currently playing at NEXT Fest in LA.

Indiewire wrote up a post introducing the trailer.

So did AV Club.

So did this website, Consequence of Sound, in which they wrote: "Similar to The Comedy, Entertainment is a very meditative experience that uses startling visuals to carry its strange narrative."

Here is Indiewire's review from Sundance.

Entertainment will be released by Magnolia Pictures in select theaters and iTunes November 13.

SHORT FILM: The Half Life of War Available Online

Last summer - while I was still in the middle of editing a feature documentary - I snuck in (to what little spare time I had) editing Kyle Henry's short film "The Half Life of War." Inspired by the memory of his father who was a war veteran, "The Half Life of War" is a 6 minute meditative piece that asks the viewer to consider how we memorialize war. It also illuminates how ubiquitous, yet obscure war monuments seem in our day-to-day lives.

Half-Life of War from Kyle Henry on Vimeo.

Kyle and I would meet in the evenings after each of us spent our respective days editing other projects. He shot the footage on and off for nearly a year, capturing a variety of monuments spanning cities and seasons.

An experimental doc was a new challenge for me - no script, no dialogue, no story in the classical sense to guide me. This movie was to be more about evoking a mood, a feeling, a conversation with the viewer. It would largely be driven by rhythm and juxtaposition. Kyle himself wasn't even quite sure what direction we might take. The footage could be combined and re-combined any number of ways. The sound editing could be realistic - perhaps all diegetic/environmental - or it could be surreal, or possibly more documentary in nature as when we discussed editing interviews with war vets under the images.

Kyle gave me some guiding principles: First, let's find a progression that we like (could be exploring the monuments by season, from day to night, urban to rural, rural to urban, etc.). Second, let's begin on a note of mystery and draw the viewer in to our themes.

I think one of the reasons Kyle likes working with me is that I sometimes try to deliver two or three different versions of an idea early in the editing process.  It gives him a something to react to and he can compare each version against each other. It helps him communicate as much what doesn't work for him as what does. No matter how rough or half-baked, he always tells me, "The first pass is about getting a dialogue started between director and editor." That's one of the reasons I love working with Kyle: he creates a safe space for me to experiment. Plus, since he's also an editor, he is able to try some things out too and is very clear with his directions.

Initially, we let our shots play long. This way we would feel the stillness and discover the cut points rather than, say, create the cut points. Every little tweak we made, we would watch from several shots back in order to get into the movie's rhythm each time we needed to evaluate a cut. So, you might have made a cut a minute and ten seconds in, but you're going to play back starting at the thirty second mark in order to evaluate it. Sometimes, no matter how deep our adjustments in the movie were, we'd re-watch from the beginning, make a change here, a change there... Then re-watch from the beginning again.

And so it goes when you build a film that is delicate and meditative.

We finished it in less than a month while Kyle finished a residency at Austin-based production company Arts + Labor last summer. It has since screened at the Cinedelphia Film Festival and the Mary + Leigh Block Museum of art, among other venues.

Check out the web site which includes not only the film but also original essays that discuss the film's themes, a director's statement, and 30 second shorts that re-appropriate footage from the film and the cutting room floor. We hope you enjoy the film. Please share it!

Half Life of War Facebook Page

SXSW 2015: "Sir Doug" World Premiere and "Entertainment" screens

This is going to be a super-quick update, but I needed to get the news up on the blog: Two movies I was involved with screen during SXSW 2015. The first is Entertainment, which I was post production supervisor for. Dark comedy with shifting tones, should make for some interesting screenings!

Entertainment screens Sunday, March 15th; Monday March 16th; and Thursday March 19th. Click here for specific times and venues.

The second movie I was involved with is a documentary about Texas music legend Doug Sahm, Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove. I served as an additional editor and once again as post production supervisor. There's a lot of anticipation for this one and the entire talented team put a lot of love and long hours into getting it finished (this week!!).

Sir Doug premieres Thursday night, March 19th at 730 PM at the Paramount Theater, then it screens again Friday March 20th and Saturday March 21st. Click here for specific times and venues.

Here's the rockin' trailer:

UPDATED: ENTERTAINMENT premieres at Sundance, then New Directors/New Films

Last fall, I was brought on as post production supervisor by Arts + Labor for an indie feature film called Entertainment (not to be confused with this Indian film where Entertainment refers to.... a dog?). This is director Rick Alverson's follow up to The Comedy which premiered at Sundance in 2012. This weekend, Entertainment makes its Sundance debut.

Plot synopsis: En route to meet his estranged daughter and attempt to revive his dwindling career, a broken, aging comedian plays a string of dead-end shows in the Mojave desert.

Indiewire is looking forward to it, listed Entertainment as one of the 30 most anticipated films of the festival. On top of all this Sundance excitement, Entertainment will also be screening at the prestigious New Directors/New Films in New York.

I hope to write a slightly more detailed post in the near future about our post workflow. It was probably the most ambitious technical challenge I've faced to date in post production. I learned a ton. If you are up to your shoulders in ARRI RAW workflow, I'm you're guy. Final color and visual effects were done at Arts + Labor. The final movie is going to look exquisite thanks to the collaborative efforts of editor Michael Taylor, cinematographer Lorenzo Hagerman, colorist Joe Malina and visual effects artist Kirby Conn.

Friend and colleague Andrew Logan also served as its executive producer. Want to see a terrific short film he produced not too long ago?

UPDATE 1-26-2015: Entertainment is sparking lots of discussion; few folks seem to fall in the middle and have a strong reaction to the movie no matter whether its positive or negative.

As Scott Foundas - writing for Variety - put it: "...[T]ake it or leave it, Alverson’s fourth feature is singular stuff, and it reconfirms the director as one of the truly bold voices in the all-too-homogenous U.S. indie film scene."

Eric Kohn at IndieWire writes: "offers a fascinating look at the tension between personal aspirations and the harsh realities holding them back."

Rodrigo Perez at The Playlist (an IndieWire blog) sums it up well: "... Alverson may have outdone himself with “Entertainment,” an even more abrasive, alienating, and nightmarish masterwork about the cruel futility of connection, performance, and existence."

It screens next at New Directors/New Films.

UPDATE 1-27-2015: Here is an interview with director Rick Alverson over at Filmmaker Magazine.

RECENT WORK: Texas Exes Distinguished Alumni Awards

This year, Arts + Labor was commissioned to create the introduction videos for the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards put on by the Texas Exes, the University of Texas' alumni association. These awards are given to members of the Texas Exes who have made an impact on the world and on the University. When they are inducted, they receive a burnt orange jacket. Gotta say, they look pretty snazzy.

I was hired to edit the videos. Arts + Labor interviewed colleagues, friends and family members of each recipient. We then weaved together 3-4 minute videos that highlight some of their greatest achievements and philanthropic endeavors (not like there was pressure to sum up somebody's life work in such a short amount of time). Once I we had shaped each person's narrative with some photo cutaways, the talented graphics team at Arts + Labor did their thing to the photos and titles. I think these turned out really strong.

You can view all the intro videos here as well as each recipient's speech here.

It was fun getting to know some of these public figures better. Growing up, my parents told me stories about seeing Earl Campbell live on the football field. Watching Matthew McConaughey get better and better on screen over the past twenty years, it was cool to hear more about the j.k. livin' foundation. And while I already knew Jody Conradt is a badass, I didn't fully realize how badass she is until I worked on her video.

Those are just a few examples. Each of the recipients - some whose work has been in the public eye, some whose been behind the scenes, and in one case, one whose work has been in outer space - was very deserving and have great stories to tell. (One more to name check: Dealey Herndon has leaft a lasting mark on Texas history for the last thirty some odd years. Her work is remarkable.)

You don't always get to view short pieces like these with an audience, but I was able to attend the awards ceremony last month with the team from Arts + Labor. We were so pleased with the reactions. I think Earl Campbell's video especially hit the right note with the audience:

Half-Life of War

Half-Life of War - South Boston Korean War Memorial from Kyle Henry on Vimeo.

This summer, even as I was still finishing a feature documentary, I managed to squeeze in a short documentary for friend and collaborator Kyle Henry. His short "Half-Life of War" is a brief but powerful meditation on the ubiquitousness of war in our everyday lives. This week, Kyle has launched the Facebook page for the film.

Visit and like the page here.

When Kyle isn't directing, he is an accomplished editor and instructor at Northwestern University. His editing credits include the brilliant Where Soldiers Come From and the beautiful, emotional Before You Know It. This is not the first project that I have edited for Kyle, but I still feel honored whenever he calls me up for a collaboration because he has wowed me with his own work so many times. He raises my game every time we work together. Thanks in part to his teaching background, I think he is able to distill his direction in a very clear way even when he's experimenting and still trying to find the film.

This project is driven by its visuals and sound design. It's an experiment in pacing, composition and juxtaposition to try to arrive at both an emotional and intellectual climax. It was a new kind of challenge for me, one that I've always wanted to take on: Execute a purely immersive and experiential concept.

Check out the video above for a short-short idea of the tone of the film that Kyle recently posted to his Vimeo page.

Kyle and I would try different combinations of ideas and visuals, varying our pacing and re-combining pieces of footage that may not have seemed to initially go together until magically they do. I'm speaking vaguely about the process on purpose because the movie is not yet out and I think it's a great movie to discover and have catch you off guard. Maybe after its online premiere I'll talk in a little more detail about our process.

In the can

Can we still use that phrase, in the can? The state of film being what it is, you'd figure that such phrases will be lost to history soon, yet I don't know if there's a digital equivalent. It's on the drive. Not that hard drive - THAT hard drive!

Anyway, this is one of those Been-Awhile-Been-Busy-Oh-Man-Sorry-I've-Been-Away-Just-A-Quick-Update-Neglected-This-Blog kind of blog post. Maybe I shouldn't call attention to it at all, but February to November is a pretty big gap (assuming anyone noticed in the first place). 

Last summer I started work on editing a documentary feature, my first as editor. The director is Jesse Lyda, the producer is Jason Wehling. It's a documentary about the inner life of folk singer Ana Egge, raised by hippies in New Mexico and who draws on her personal life for her music. So personal that when she found her latest album being produced by the legendary Steve Earle, she decided to explore some long brewing issues within her family that had not been confronted in decades. This leads to some family strife on her pursuit of commercial success. 

It's an emotional journey and the most personal documentary I've seen about someone who has yet to be a household name. 

If you follow me on Twitter, you've seen me strongly advocate and stand up for Apple's much maligned flagship editing program Final Cut Pro X. At the time we started the doc, I think FCPX was on version 10.0.8. Maybe 10.0.9. I had just finished cutting a short doc with it and was excited about the possibilities of what you could accomplish on a feature doc. So, with Jesse and Jason's daring permission, I was given the opportunity to go forth in uncharted territory. 

It was a ride, and I pushed that version of FCPX to its limits. Version 10.0.x was not ready for a feature film. Not quite. But when Apple updated to 10.1, it changed the game. They cracked the code of how to make that app functional for such a large project. 

I loved the experience. It's hard for me to go back to a track based editor now. I can do it because the platform doesn't define my work or my abilities. But FCPX is a step forward in a new direction, a forward-looking direction, and proves we can break away from old paradigms and still get our work done. (Maybe even by 5PM ;).

I plan on writing more about the experience as we just recently finished color correction and sound mix (and yes - for anyone reading this and doubting you can take an FCPX project all the way through post, including Pro Tools and color in Resolve, and back again - you can; it's not 2011 anymore!). I've moved on to other projects, not all of them in FCPX, sadly, but I've stretched my skills by editing a documentary from start to finish. That is what I'm most excited and proud about. Looking forward to sharing updates on the film's life-after-post in the future.