Tyler Gibb - Writer, Director, Editor, Filmmaker

Whoa!

What happened to August?

I was doing so well at updating this thing weekly and then… Post-Production. What can I say? My sincere apologies to my loyal readers - both of you - I’m going to do better from now on.

So the big news (for me) is that I’ve officially finished posting the movie! Until I watch it again a month from now, hate it and decide to change everything. But for now… For now, it is blissfully in the can. From script to final viewing in seven months. Not bad next to my track record. At this rate I could bust two of these out a year (or so)… And look forward to a heart-attack and the ripe old age of 35.

Well, my head’s still in a flurry so I’m really just checking in here to say, I’m back… Back with nothing much to say. That’s not entirely true but the rest will have to wait a little bit. Though the movie is done the fine art of getting the word out there is only just beginning and that’s actually what’s got my head in a flurry.

We’ve got plans. Oh, yes.

I’ve spent the last week trying to hack my way to a couple of Myspace pages that don’t look like total gash and I’m happy as could be expected with the results. Bottom line, it’s Myspace, so it’s always going to be fairly crappy looking and have the functionality of a one-armed semaphore signalman; however it’s also Myspace, so I’ve had to learn to suck it up. Ditto Facebook, who seem hellbent on making my life difficult (right down to covertly editing posts to my FB Refrain group without notice to remove offsite links - I shit you not). They may be networking monstrosities but they’re also networking monstrosities, and to try to shut them out of promoting this movie would be putting pride before productivity and I think I’ve made my position on that clear in previous entries.

Hey, look at that, turns out I did have something to say after all. When in doubt, kvetch.

So that’s what’s been going on. That and the search for festivals. More on all of this soon. Til then I invite you (both) to have a look around at the growing Refrain network! You can start here:

Refrain’s Homepage

What have you been up to?

T

I’ll eventually get a higher quality version of this teaser up on the Refrain homepage, but until then: View it, share it, embed it, enjoy it on the following sites:

Revver
Youtube
Veoh
Vimeo

And as always, Refrain has pages at the following sites:

Facebook
MySpace
IndieGoGo

Cutting ain’t easy.

Let me tell you a little about me. See, I have a tendency to over-think and over-work things. I scheme, I plan, I contrive to the best of my ability in order to fulfill what I speculate to be the best result for whatever project I’m working on. Unfortunately this generally backfires on me because I tend to sacrifice artistic integrity in order to please the masses.

Screw the masses.

And while I’m at it, screw artistic integrity as well.

The masses are fickle and artistic integrity if not kept well within limits leaps right into the domain of pride which the Catholics made a mortal sin for a reason.

These days I’m looking for the middle ground. Filmmaking seems to be, if nothing else, about making compromises. People who say they don’t compromise are lonely idealistic fools or soon-to-be-dead tyrants.

I’m currently in the throws of applying these punchy little catch phrases to the editing process on Refrain. See the argument over which a compromise must be found is; do I cut the movie down to an easier to swallow 90 minutes or leave it at its current 110 minutes. These days I’m seeing movies geared toward the mainstream running as short as 80 minutes, credits in. Clearly our attention spans are diminishing. However I’ve also seen some 2hr flicks paced so slowly that it makes you want to file your taxes early just to add some excitement to the evening.

So which is Refrain to be? The movie was planned to be anything but a roller coaster, that’s for sure, it’s a drama and a quiet one at that (despite the knife wielding ninjas and shocking lesbian action). But will it work on that level without putting the audience to sleep?

Pleasing the masses says, cut it down and punch it up.

Artistic integrity says, stay true to the vision of a quiet slow-boil drama.

So where does that leave me? At about 100 minutes even I guess.

Well… Maybe 105… If I’m going to err, I’d rather it be on the side of integrity.

T

Phew! I can finally start growing out the post-production side of my production beard.

Done!

Refrain is in the proverbial can.

The hard part is finally over; now for the hard part.

The final tally is roughly 28 hours of footage (I have no idea what’s average for a feature) covering about 150 scenes and somewhere in the vicinity of 700 shots all gathered over a two to three month period.

Who’s tired?

Fans of superstition, coincidence and/or Tyler trivia will love to note that we’ve wrapped production on Refrain today the 10th of July, 2008 and that exactly one year ago to the day Minsuhi premiered on the big screen at the Fantasia Film Festival. I did not plan for these milestone dates to coincide. The scheduling of our final shoot today was decided by the owner of the location at which we shot. Moreover in the movie a flyer advertising a musical performance quite significant to the plot makes an appearance. The date chosen (months ago) to appear on the flyer: July 10th, a tribute to the Minushi debut. The venue connected to the performance advertised on the flyer: The location of our final shoot, today, July the 10th completely by coincidence.

At times like these I’m glad I’m rational.

T