Rough Cut Complete - Showing to Test Audiences

Well, I've put over 200 hours into editing the last two weeks. I got a rough cut ready to show some test audiences for feedback.

We went to the IFC meeting last night and it was so cool. At the IFC we have a part of the meeting called "Shameless Self-Promotion". I stood and held up the Racing Heart poster and told everyone that we're having a test audience screening at the Westport Coffeehouse and invited them to come. I let everyone know that Racing Heart is going to screen in San Francisco on April 12 and they all cheered for me!

I got so embarrassed I think I turned RED! It felt great though and I want to thank any of you guys that were there for that - you KNOW how much work it is to do something big in this market and I applaud all of the work my compatriots at the IFC have done as well. Good luck guys and we'll see you at the screening on March 5th!

Rough cut down to 2 hours...

Ok we've got something that's starting to look like a movie here!

I've been working non-stop and last night I got to the point where I could put each individual scene onto a single timeline and watch it all straight through.

It's amazing how it's coming together. The goal now is to look at the film and balance the story out. It's time to cut everything down to the essence of the story.

An important aspect of Racing Heart is this: Although Racing Heart is a true-to-life documentary film, it is an inspirational story about a racing team and thus should be a little more exciting than most documentaries.

Because of this I'm putting musical montage passages and trying to avoid long expositions. In many cases the images tell the story visually.

I think it's important as the editor to understand that you the audience are intelligent enough to understand what's going on without completely and boringly explaining every little detail.

Film is a visual language and it's important to both SHOW and tell.

Also working on the new website! Wish me luck!

OMG - SIX HOUR LONG ROUGH CUT SO FAR!

Well I've roughed almost all of the good clips into the timeline now and the rough cut is *really* long at around SIX HOURS!

Ok, so now I'll go through and tighten up each scene while still keeping them too long so that I have options when cutting it down further.

I should be able to easily axe half of the six hours of footage on the timeline right now so it'll be three hours left. That three hour cut will be called the 'First Cut'.

After the First Cut is done then I'll really start thinking of the *essence* of the story and come up with a plan of what should be kept and what should go. Hard decisions will have to be made about what scenes to cut and what shots need to go.

Filmmakers have phrases to describe cutting a scene or a shot that you really love. It's called "cutting limbs" or "killing children"

The good news: Anything cut from the movie can end up as bonus scenes on the DVD!

Peace, Love, & Happiness,
Chris Williamson
Producer/Director/Editor, Racing Heart

Moving Right Along!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been signing up on the email list! We are seeing a lot of interest in this film lately!

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OK we have been full steam ahead over the past month. We've captured all the footage. I've got the clips cut from twelve scenes and we've even got 20 minutes of a rough cut now. It's so cool to see the footage come alive as I edit. It's turning out really well I couldn't be happier. With Racing Heart I'll prove once again that low-budget independent documentary film can be as good or better as a big studio doc with hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.

It truly is about vision, persistence, and talent. You can't buy these things. A $20,000 video camera doesn't make you more creative or a better storyteller.

Heart does.