How to focus on an imaginary object

Paul posed this question as we were creating our shot list for the next shoot in quesadilla. We cant elaborate on why we need to focus on an imaginary object, but doesn't it pique your interest?? Don't you want to go and see Quesadilla??? After returning refreshed from our winter hiatus, 13Bit has been hard at work since wednesday preparing for the remainding Quesadilla shoots. Paul needs to watch Boccaccio70. I have never heard about it - but its supposed to be brilliant. So I am going to watch it too.

We also need to tie up some lumia loose ends.

I need to go now because paul is distracting me with questions.

"Donuts have given me power..."

There are many other titles we could have used the past few days, but they were all too offensive or politically correct, so we are going with the latest twig that we just yanked from the stream of Bit consciousness.

A discussion on the relative caloric content and damage of certain foods - I arguing that pizza is light, Meredith arguing that donuts are good for you - has led to this "Donuts have given me power."

I do not doubt that, six and a half. I do not doubt that. But let me tell you, donuts can kill. I have seen it with my own eyes.

Anyway, here's an update:

Quesadilla, aka Not Blavatsky, is going really well. We pulled a fast one on a Turkish Grill owner the other day. Not really, but it sounds good, doesn't it? We had two great shoots the other day. Also, and this feels right, we are about halfway through shooting and are already thinking about our next project.

We are getting better by the second and are very excited, beyond very excited, about the next project, to be code named Nashville for reasons we will disclose one day. The Bithaus will be closing up shop for three weeks so that we can rest and rejuvenate, Meredith in the pampas and me in the hinterlands. Then we will reconvene in mid January, complete shooting The System, begin to edit and do the sound, then start writing the next great thing.

We also want to get going again with another doc. We may have some festival news soon on Lumia, too. More on that in January, hopefully.

The Elevator of Doom

"My ego is being permanently damaged."

"Oh my God..."

"I want to kill this girl."

"I hate it here."

Okay, faithful readers. Guess what these quotes refer to. No hints, either, except to say that they have nothing to do with 13Bit, Project Quesadilla, or Lumia.

And The Elevator of Doom doesn't figure into it, either; it's where Meredith just was on her way from Mandarin lesson.

This is just an aside. We are taking the night off. I have work to do. She has to recover from her day, and 13Bit reconvenes on Friday evening, then all day and night, all weekend.

Can you say "burnt like a potato chip?"

Casting Continues

The question of the day - is Anne Coulter just a PR whore?

Actually, that's not the question of the day, that's what's coming from Meredith as she free-associates and pulls up the 13Bit master database, reads the news, checks her email, and reinvents the wheel via spreadsheet - all at the same time.

We are in the middle of casting and it's going well. "Such talent," as my non-existent Aunt Minnie might have said in some alternate universe.

It is tiring, but exciting, this casting business. We are grizzled, seasoned, well-traveled documentarians, so we have never had to cast. The closest we have come to that is ordering takeout food. Well, actually, we did audition people for the voiceover parts in Lumia, but this is different.

We are still writing. We are still figuring out our HDV workflow. We are still scouting locations and planning the other billion and one details that go into a feature film shoot. So, I'm not really saying much here except that we are insanely busy. And that doesn't even include the new super secret project, which we are calling Project Hans Ringo. More will be revealed later.

"This is New York, there are a lot of (fill in the blank)

We are getting ready to cast our first characters for Project X, code name "Quesadilla," and NOT "HH, not Blavatsky."

Anyway, we need some specialty characters. I don't think that naming what kind of people they are, or what kind of physique or other attributes they have, is really offensive, but Meredith tells me we have to exhibit the sensitivity we are famous for, so I will just say (Fill in the blank) and you will all see.

This *is* New York, though, and there are lots of everything here.

Still working on Lumia, incredibly enough.

FinalCutLumia8Sound

Tonight we are outputting a rough version of Lumia for authoring. Next step is to build the DVD. We are veryexcited.com
Tomorrow we will beginning spreading the seed or in layman's terms submitting to film festivals As I write this we are compressing frame 2816. By the time I am done writing this post we will be on frame 8000. Frames are fleeting.

Maybe not a total cliche

Today we are putting the final credits on Lumia. Paul is driving and I lending moral support my playing andean lute music on garageband and surfing the internets.

Tomorrow we start the final step: sound correction. Sound correction is very painful.

happy thursday

Why It Takes 13 Bits - Take Two

I was going to have a nice, long entry here, but Meredith is trying to hijack the timeline in Final Cut and I need to keep a close watch on her.

We have been ploughing along with "Lumia." We finished the title music much the same way we did the video - one of us doing some grunt work, then the other tweaking it.

She's raving like a delirious person about our secret new flicker-reduction method - bringing down the whites instead of using a flicker filter. These details are not really that important - at least not until we forget them and need to remember them for the next movie - what's important is that we are figuring it out now and getting it done.

Halfway through the film with color correction. The sound comes next. Then the end credits and the publicity materials. We could probably edit it forever, but we need to say "enough is enough" and lock it in. The we move on.

Found out today that at least one person is reading our blog. Hi AJ!

Quick Bit

Today we stretched our canvases for snice. They look hot! I am very excited dot com. Paul is saying "I know you(Meredith) are back when you have 50 tabs open (in firefox)." Yes I like tabs. Paul is now giving me some flashlight show and tell. He has a flashlight that blinds people and then can be used as a weapon.

It is hot and our brains are melted. But hopefully they will become solidified for our final lumia push!

that is quick bits - we love you all

What to do?

Today is an in-between day at the 13bit compound. We were aiming for a final cut today, but since we are going to add two more scenes, the final cut will have to wait.
The two scenes will serve to place lumia in a wider context. I dont want to give too much away. Anyway this is my first post - I think it is distinguished from Paul's posts by the use of - , ) poor spelling, passive verbs and dependant clauses.

In any case, our most recent discussion was about using a narrator. I was against. I believe you have to have faith in the film and faith in the director that she has a vision and she will deliver you to a destination. In this heated discussions, I always invoke the immortal image of Michelangelo Antonioni. His movies dont exactly move like "The fast and the furious" but I sort of appreciate a director that makes you work for your movie.

Maybe I its because I'm a masochist.

A film does not have to appeal to all audiences. I am ok with that.

I would also like to share with you a piece of Lumia that we cut last week. It involves Thomas Wilfred - the father of light art in america - and his early career as a lute player. All music is by fleabye and the bogus beats and sort of remindes me of kings quest circa 1984.

Enjoy!

The Full Lotus

So, tomorrow is now today and we are here, ready to screen "Lumia." After that, we have another test screening on Sunday, make the cuts and then decide whether or not we have a final cut. Most likely, even if we do, we'll watch it one more time in 6 weeks, when we re-convene, just to be sure. It's also nice to have a little time off from it to get some perspective. Much as we like to all believe in the immaculate conception when it comes to art, our experience has been that it actually takes work, editing, difficult decisions on what to cut, what to leave, risks and perseverence. I have sounded very stern today and yesterday when talking about what it takes to make good work, but that's the way it is.

Yes, sometimes, it just flows and there it is. With a long form, though, such as a feature movie or a book, there is more involved than just letting it all come out. Of course, "On the Road" proves me wrong again, but that's okay. Perhaps our next film will just come out in one long take, of a piece, with no cuts or editing needing.

Anyway, one of the true stars of Lumia is Christian Sidenius, perhaps the last of the analog Lumia artists still alive. This is an outtake from the film, and we are thrilled that we can use it here. By the way, can *you* sit in the full lotus position?

Project X

The House of Bit always has many irons in the fire. Our mainstay is filmmaking, but we also create other things.

Tonight, we finalized our order of giclee prints for our July show at S'nice. We are super excited about these large format prints on canvas and we intend to show smaller prints there, as well.

In addition, we spent time tonight on what I'll call "Project X." Not a creative name, I know, but it doesn't really matter what we call it. We just don't want to talk about it in public yet. It's not art-related, but we are hoping it will buy us the time to make art - the eternal struggle.

So that is all to report, but it is enough.

Tomorrow we watch "Lumia" again and on Sunday we have another test screening. It is close to a final cut.

To paraphrase the immortal Sun Ra, it's all about discipline and sacrifice. Mainly discipline, though.

Hail to all chopniks.

The Amazing Bread Wrapper Device

After almost three years of toil, joy, dead-ends, major discoveries, and thousands of miles logged; along with a lot of tea drunk, quesadillas eaten, and some kidney stones passed, we are on the verge of a final cut for "Lumia: The Story of Thomas Wilfred and Light Art." (working title).

We think it's an amazing movie, and we think it can go further than our initial effort, "Video Out" (http://www.videoout.net).

We are each taking a trip in the coming month and, when we return in late June, we will finish titles, credits, color correction and sound. We'll keep you posted along the way, partly for your entertainment and partly so that we remember what we did and can return to it for the next film. Do you really believe anything I say by this point? It's all true.

Anyway, in the spirit of wide-eyed innocence, discovery and sharing, we wanted to start posting short clips and outtakes from "Lumia." This is a little edit of Craig Antrim, a brilliant artist from San Pedro, CA, and the nephew of Charles Dockum, whom we feature in our film, describing his uncle's first experiments with light art.



Enjoy!