Picture Lock

Photo: David shows Michael the theater.
(Kurt Ela, Stephen Simyak)


What does "Picture Lock" mean? It means that we've completed a vast majority of the post-production for "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!" Of course, little things like final credits and the title sequence will change slightly for music and timing purposes, but editing the film has been completed.

Other news for the week of June 16th, 2008: Original music is being composed as we speak (type, whatever), it might actually be finished (I have to make a phone call).

News for the week of June 23rd, 2008: Next week we'll get the film into the hands of the sound editor. He'll be working with the film to smooth out all the rough edges, and enrich the film with layers and layers of sound. I did some work like audience walla (a cute term for non-descript background conversation) and other stuff like that, just to have a temporary sound mix to send out to some preliminary film festivals. Now we'll really get the ball rolling and make it sound professional.

~Eric

The first blog...

This is the very first blog for our short film. Since we're not quite finished with the film, let's start with a little background...

The film is a short comedy, written and directed by Eric Naughton and produced by Anthony Sword and Eric Naughton. Eric and Anthony have been working together since 1990 when they were studying film production at Penn State.

Production of "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!" started in November of 2006 with the shooting of a few scenes at Anthony's house. In January and February 2007, scenes were shot outside of the NoHo Arts Center which served as the theater exterior. After securing the final locations, the rest of the film was scheduled to be shot in September.

The production met with a little snag when Eric was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. With so much work being done on the film so far, and so many people generously donating their time and efforts, it was unthinkable to postpone the shoot. So the production went forward even though the majority of the scenes would be shot only two days after Eric's first chemotherapy treatment. In November 2007 the last couple of scenes were shot and Eric took some time off to finish his cancer treatment.

Post production really began in April of 2008. Eric began editing on Avid Express Pro at home and slowly but surely, the film took shape.

As picture lock is nearly here, we are looking forward to beginning post-sound with original music being composed and all other sound design and editing taking place over the next couple of weeks. The film is projected to be completed by the end of June 2008.

Look for more blogs in the coming days and weeks from Anthony and Eric and from the cast and crew.

~ the folks at "Cross-Eyed Dinner Theater Presents!"