Movie Time!

Grab some popcorn and a comfy seat everyone! I am very happy to announce that all three of the films I edited last year as part of my Senior Thesis (Prism, Doppelganer, and For Jacob) are now available online for viewing. I am very proud of the teams I had the pleasure of working with, and I hope you enjoy the collective fruits of our labor.

Dan Warner is a desaturator, tasked with sapping beauty from the world in a future where color is used as energy. (Directed by Jackson Miller)

-SEMIFINALIST in the 42nd ANNUAL STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS
-63rd ANNUAL MPSE GOLDEN REEL NOMINEE VERNA FEILDS AWARD
-SAG 2015 LA SHORTS SHOWCASE
-AUDIENCE AWARD for BEST SHORT NARRATIVE at PRESCOTT FILM FESTIVAL 2015
-JURY AWARD for BEST COLLEGE SHORT FILM at CINEQUEST FILM FESTIVAL 2016
-JURY AWARD for BEST SCI FI at LAGUNA FILM FESTIVAL 2015
-OFFICIAL SELECTION at HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2015
-OFFICIAL SELECTION at SKYLINE INDIE FILM FESTIVAL 2015
-OFFICIAL SELECTION at LONESTAR FILM FESTIVAL 2015
-COLLEGIATE SHOWCASE at NEWPORT FILM FESTIVAL 2016
-2015 DMA AWARD for BEST VFX (DODGE COLLEGE OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS)
-Featured on Film Shortage 2016
-Featured on shortfil.ms 2016

A little girl’s relationship with her inattentive Father is changed for the better after an eerie and dangerous encounter at the neighborhood playground. (Directed by Carly Lambert)

-Los Angeles Cinefest's Official July Selection 2015
-29th Braunschweig International Film Festival Official Selection
-Official Selection Woman Up Independent Film Festival 2015
-Best Drama American Motion Picture Society Film Festival 2015
-Big House LA Entertainment Festival 2015

After his mother is arrested, a young man is forced to partake in a robbery in order to protect his little brother, Jacob. (Directed by MacMullin Freeman, password: jacob2015)

Grand Finale

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Link: Prism Facebook Page
Prism (2015) Copyright by Jackson Miller, David Reynolds, & Chris Purse

This past Thursday, May 14th, the third and final thesis film I edited this year premiered. It was the first VFX film I have ever cut, and I am pleased with how it eventually turned out. Our visual effects team did a great job at creating a believable world within the time they were given, and our audience seemed to appreciate their efforts. It was the film I spent the most time with this year, and served as the biggest learning curve in terms of communication and designing a workflow that accommodated both Editorial as well as the visual effects artists.

As this film enters the festival circuit, I am interested to see how it fares. I hope to stay in contact with the team I worked with, especially the director, as I feel given a story that we have more time to develop, we can create something even stronger. Working on this film was an experience I will truly never forget, and I am glad to have been given the opportunity to be a part of it.

Premiering

This past Friday, April 17th, the first film out of three that I had the pleasure of editing this year premiered. Doppelgänger was a success and played well for our audience. I received some compliments from viewers commenting on how eerie the film was. I was worried as to how the short would be received as I had been with it for so long and wasn't sure if the scares in the film were landing. Sure enough though, there was an audible gasp throughout the theater during the reveal of our title character.

With the film completed, I am able to take a step back and reflect on the timeline of creating this short. Our director did an excellent job communicating with each department, inviting their perspectives and collaborating in a way that allowed for creative freedom on both ends. Seeing the final piece colored, with a sound mix, and score in a full theater was surreal, and I'm so very proud of our cast, crew, and director for bringing this psychological thriller to life.

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Link: Doppelgänger Facebook Page

Doppelgänger (2015) film Copyright by Carly Lambert

Home Stretch

With only two months left to go, post production on the three films I'm cutting have ramped up as our screenings are just around the corner.

My latest film, Jacob, a quiet drama, has had the fastest turn around. Being that a week of work was going to be lost due to the university's Spring Break, I had to have a first cut completed within a few days of our shoot's wrap. As such, I chose to act as DIT on set so that I would be able to transcode, ingest, sync dailies, and begin cutting within AVID immediately. What definitely helped speed wise were the hot keys I had mapped out for myself on my keyboard. Thanks to working on Prism and Doppelganger prior to Jacob, I had a strong set of shortcuts to work with. I now know why my mentors at Pixar had such involved mapping on their keyboards! When you need to work fast, efficiency is key.

Over these past few weeks my director and I have been working hard at finessing the cut of Jacob. Following our initial screening, we received a handful of notes regarding issues of performance, lines to be cut, and questions of character motivation. When we sat down to create our new cut, my director and I immediately began to discuss which material we could remove. Before I knew it, we had cut out 3 minutes, and re-shaped the performances through the looping of lines and selecting of alternate takes. This past week, we presented the updated cut to our thesis classes, as well as one Graduate class. The response has been positive and I'm excited to see what these next few days have in store as we lock picture.

Yesterday, I was able to cut in the final pick ups for Doppelganger, as well as see a few of the rendered VFX shots for Prism. It's surreal to reflect on where each of these films began at the script stage, and how they've matured and evolved through production and post. Doppelganger is the first film out, premiering on April 17th, with Jacob on May 8th, and finally Prism on May 14th. Soon, I will be QC-ing each one of these shorts in Dodge's Folino Theater, diving head first into the film school's new onlining workflow. Here's to almost reaching the finish line!