This little travel-log will be divided into four parts, both for your reading benefit and for my writing benefit.Some members of our group had staged a getaway so they could go see some films (filmmakers wanting to see films? What is the world coming to?). Before they could escape, I leaped from the bus and asked some quick questions.
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Lanre Olabisi - Writer/Producer/Director - August the First
So what do you think when you first hear "Atlanta"?
The South, Fried Good, College (because his roommate was from Georgia)
What was the biggest challenge in making this film?Everything is a challenge, but currently, distribution is the biggest challenge (although this is the film's fourth festival).
Why should filmmakers make flims in Georgia?The varied landscape and the good weather.
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Phyllis & Lia Johnson - Producer - I'm Through With White Girls (The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks)
What do you think of when you hear "Atlanta"?
Rap artists, plantations, and peaches.
What films are you hoping to catch at the festival?Someone Else's War,
Killer of Sheep,
Reservations----------
Although some members of our group was now lost to the sands of time (or other festival activities), we soldiered onward to
Crawford Communications, the largest post-production facility in the southeast.
Our first stop was a sound-mixing lab where we watched some of
Novum, "One if the best films no one is ever going to get to see." But like the screening room at Cinefilm, the auditorium we were in at Crawford was a high-end sound set up which allows mixers to accurately mix sound to a stadium setting. They're also the ones who work on the Regal Concert Series, seeing as people who handle live performances don't worry about the center speaker and the sub-woofer and those two elements are somewhat vital to a screening experience. As we left, the tech gave us a very important note:
always clap at the beginning of a take and end with two beeps because sync is far too time consuming for how easy it is to bypass sync problems.
We moved on to one of Crawford's editing suites, where we learned another important lesson:
Talk to your post-production facility before you begin filming so you can save time, money, and heartbreak. Senior Editor Tom Roche then showed us a film
Dare Not Walk Alone, which was a fantastic documentary but desperately needed a skilled and focused recontrasting and brightening. For a few thousand, Crawford provided those services. While such a service may seem like a luxury to a filmmaker on a tight budget, it's a shame if you have a great film and no one can tell because it looks wretched.
Tom then showed us some of Crawford's fun side where they edited together a concert of the Japanese Punk Metal band,
Melt-Banana, whose lead singer doesn't speak English but has access to an English Thesaurus and that's where she gets the lyrics.
We then moved on to the Spirit 2K Data-cine that allows for massive color correction because it's transferring digital information and--oh no, my brain broke trying to explain it. Once again, for a better explanation, talk to the experts. However, I do know that it will get your film up to broadcast standards should it air on television.
It was now time to leave Crawford which meant it was also now time to conduct the last interviews of the day and visit one more, very different post-production facility.
