Since my previous Production Log post back in June of 2020, life in America has experience some really polarizing events. A rise in public demonstrations ending in violence across the country, COVID deaths on the rise with a possible vaccine in sight and a change in the American Presidency that sparked a riot at the Capitol building. In the midst of all of these historic events, I have some personal great news to share on this project:
We have PICTURE LOCK!
Can you believe it? I certainly can’t. I have to pinch myself to fully comprehend that this moment, rather this MILESTONE is finally here. So what does this mean?
- VFX – All Visual Effects (VFX) shots are completed and edited. In total, I counted over 750+ so that’s crazy.
- SCORE – The exceptional talent of Jordan Shababy, my composer, has completed the score to the entire film.
- SFX – All of the sound effects have been completed. This includes having two foley sessions in a studio recording custom made sounds to match the film that we did earlier in the year, along with a crowd recording session with friends and family which was led by Crowd Recordist Stephen West this month.
If you aren’t aware of what “foley” means, that’s okay.
Foley – Relating to or concerned with the addition of recorded sound effects after the shooting of a film.
The name “foley” comes from the recording artist named Jack Foley, who helped work on the first “talkie” motion picture called the Jazz Singer. Jack had a background creating sounds for radio and carried his methods over to the silver screen. Because of this, he has name has been coined as the practice at hand. In my experience doing foley for this film, it gave me a whole level of appreciation for sound designers and foley artists that do this for a living. It gives you a different level of creativity by taking random objects and creating some unique sounds by blending them altogether.
So with that all being said, the film is now being passed to our wonderful and incredibly talented sound mixer, Marshall Bales. His task is to now balance ALL THE SOUNDS to the film to make the final viewing experience enjoyable to watch. Blending the dialogue, music and sound effects is a tough task so I’m personally grateful for Marshall to champion this part of the process.
Over the next few months, Marshall will be busy mixing the film so in the meantime, my goal is to continue researching potential Film Festivals to submit Gauntlet upon completion. This will be tough because I’ll have to balance which festival highlights low indie budget films/sci-fi fantasy categories, cost and high acceptance possibility. Not every festival will accept your film but will gladly take the non-refundable submission fee. But to be in this position after the now 10 years it took to get here is truly humbling.
The ball is surely rolling fast and soon we’ll have our grand premiere. Stay tuned!
“It doesn’t matter whose idea it is or where it came from or when it arrived in the process. The best idea is the best idea no matter what.”
– Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home)
