Constructive Criticism

MG came over yesterday to give us feedback on the film. She basically picked the whole thing apart and left us bleeding on the floor (but in a nice way). We were devastated at first. But then... slowly...during a twilight walk along the Thames Southbank, we started to digest her critique...talk about it...formulate ideas of how to carry on. And, you know what, it's gonna be alright...better than alright.

Getting criticism is difficult...especially when you think that you are almost at the end. But, all of this has been good for us...not just with regards to Tokyo Cowboys, but as writers/directors in general. It's good to be able to take criticism and use it for all its worth...for the betterment of your art. And, we've been lucky so far. None of our critics have been mean. They've just told it like it is.

Patrick says that, in a sense, we are going back to some original concepts that sort of got lost during the long cutting process. So, we are stripping out all of the voice over, which was problematic anyway, and going back to basics. MG says "Trust the footage," and that was genius. Let the guys tell their own stories. We are not getting rid of the voice over entirely, though. From very early on, we had these sort of post card style voice over bits...bits about Tokyo and her relationship with gaijin. Those will stay and serve as breaths in the film. But there will be only about six of them and probably recorded by a professional voice over artist. My first choice, of course, would be Alexandra Stewart...the most sublime voice of Sans Soleil. But, that might be just too much to ask for...

A pile of shit

Tried to write today, but nothing was forthcoming. Sometimes I just write shit for hours and hours. Shit, shit, shit. The thing is working without hardly any narration, which is really good. But, that means the narration that's in there has to be perfect. And, here's me writing a load of shit.

Saw "Running Stumbled" last night at LFS. It was made by a native Louisianian...a documentary about his fucked up family. He was there to give a Q&A, and I had a brief chat with him. But, I was so tired that I couldn't do proper networking.

I am certain that if guys had periods, weed would be legal.

Fighting it through:

Patrick and I are fighting every day now about the film, so I guess that means we're getting close to finishing. Today we pretty much finished Cloudy. There are some tiny details to work on, but he's basically finished (for this cut, at least).

I think I mentioned before that, after the last feedback session with Martin, Francois, Claire, Barney and Val, we cut out all of the V.O. to see if we really needed so much. It turns out that we hardly need any of it at all. This prompted Patrick to ask the question that's been on both of our minds: Do we need voice over at all? I kind of think we do. But, I'm thinking maybe we don't need it for exposition. We need it for the poetry. That tells a story as well.

Tried...

tried, tried so hard to write some new voice over for Cloudy this evening. Patrick has re cut Cloudy's bit, and it is really working. It's more like a story now instead of some bizarre collage. We've removed all of the V.O. from his bit as well, and there was a lot of it. It just needs three bits. The first bit is already written, but I want to re do it...so tired, I'm not making any sense....

Meltdown

Yesterday we had an editing meltdown. Patrick was all "This fucking thing is driving me insane." And I was all: "Shut up and get back to editing." The thing is that, after the last round of feedback, we decided to put the film on the table, slice it open and take everything out. Once all of the guts are out on the table, though, you start to worry if you are every going to put everything back together.

Today was better. Went to the day job and chilled out. It's funny. Most people get stressed when they go to their day job. But mine is like a vacation. I don't have to think too hard, the people are cool, and there's usually lots of free biscuits and coffee. Sometimes they give us liquor. Where was I?

Oh, yes....the edit. So, Patrick calls me up at the day job and says: "I have an idea." He luanches into it, and, yes, it is the most brilliant idea on how to re-cut Cloudy. He's the one that our test viewers are having the most trouble with. They like him, but he doesn't have an story arc. It makes people wonder why they are watching him. Patrick's brilliant idea gives him an arc.

The beginning is still problematic, but we've left it for now. I like what Patrick has cut for it, but I need to re-work the Voice Over a bit. It's a more personal beginning, and that is making me a bit uncomfortable. It's not that I have a problem with laying my life out for everyone to see. That's what I do with my filmmaking and with my writing. I just have a problem if it's stupid and self-indulgent. But, I guess that's what the test viewers are there for. Trusted people who will tell you if you are being stupid or not.

Random unrelated Thoughts

Naoko says that Patrick Harlan is the most famous gaijin on Japanese T.V.
Gagan says he saw my post on Fucked Gaijin.
In the background, Patrick is recording my memories off the TV screen.
My voice is so annoying.
Note to self: get rid of some of the voice over.

Time Tripping Again

So, I'm time tripping through the latter part of the late 20th century. Patrick has suggested that I look through old tapes from my time in Japan before coming to London. He's doing an experimental cut now using footage of those early years for a beginning montage. I'm not convinced, but, as the judge says, I'll allow it for now. He's thinking that, instead of the wall of text at the beginning of the film, a montage would be more appropriate.

It's a bit freaky and sad watching the footage...especially the stuff with Mark and myself. This was all before we knew things were going to break down between us. On an interesting note, there's a bit of Mark and me in Kansas city. I was talking about making films...Mark would make porno videos and fund my more "legitimate" films.

Pretty trippy.

Pictures from Brent

Here is the lovely Brent who we shot for Tokyo Cowboys. Brent is not in the final cut because, honestly, he is just too big for film. He will, however, feature on the DVD special features.

Cutting and Trimming

In the past few days, we've gotten great feedback from several viewers. One big thing is that the film is too long. I think we knew that, but we were just so in love with everything, that it was difficult to cut. But, it definitely needs to be cut down from 1 hr. 53 mins. to 90 mins.

There's also way too much narration, so we did an experiment and took all of it out. Patrick is trimming now, and we are going to watch the whole thing without VO tomorrow. It's quite exciting. We had a peek at the first 5 minutes without VO, and it was startling how little you can get away with. I think this shakes things up a lot, and it's infusing us both with excitement.

Tokyo Cowboys Summer Update

Hello from the Tokyo Cowboys homestead. Hope you are all well and ready for the hot summer months ahead. Work progresses on the film, and we are getting very close to finishing. Below is the summer update. Please get in touch if you need further info or just want to chat.

Hugs,

Daneeta & Patrick

1) HOW DID I GET ON THIS LIST, and WHAT THE HECK IS TOKYO COWBOYS?

2) CUT 4.0

3) SOUND

4) CLEARANCES

5) MARKETING

6) FESTIVALS

1) HOW DID I GET ON THIS LIST, and WHAT THE HECK IS TOKYO COWBOYS?

"Tokyo Cowboys" is a wholly independent feature-length documentary shot over a two year period. The film provides a fascinating insight into the lives of ambitious Westerners trying to make it "big in Japan." The film was written and directed by Daneeta Loretta Saft. It was photographed and edited by Patrick Jackson. And it was co-produced by Saft and Jackson.

I (Daneeta) have consolidated all of my email addresses from various accounts to compile this master list of interested parties. If you still do not know how you got on this mail out and want to get off this ride, please let us know. Or, perhaps, you'd like to know more. If so, then email me or visit our website at www.tokyocowboys.com or our blog at www.tokyocowboys.blogspot.com, and read on brothers and sisters, read on.

2) CUT 4.0

It's hard to believe, but we have made it to cut 4.0. We are presently distributing this cut to our merry band of test viewers for feedback. Our random sampling of viewers includes fellow filmmakers, film technicians, professional critics, keen cinema goers, and a couple of Joe's off the street.

3) SOUND

As you might have guessed, after we lock the picture, we will be turning our ears to sorting the sound. Sound is extremely important in a low budget documentary. It can make or break the sale. We are therefore looking for a super talented Sound Editor to come on board. We have our sources, of course, but if any of you would like to nominate a friend or colleague (or yourself, even), please email me with details.

4) CLEARANCES

For those of you reading the blog, you know that obtaining clearances has become the focus of my life. We have issues ranging from people singing Karaoke to music playing in the background at a party...from TV footage to home video footage. There are 67 separate issues to deal with.

5) MARKETING

As all of you know, we are wholly independent. That means we were funded by investors, angels and lay people, most of whom are not in the film industry (a big thanks to all of them). We are not attached to a production company or a broadcaster. Because of this we are free. We are also responsible for our own marketing. Online marketing will be key to our strategy to get the word out, and we hope that we can count on you all to publicize the film on your blogs, websites and through the power of email when the time comes. We need you to create a buzz. Your voices are our biggest asset!

6) FESTIVALS

We will be sending the film out to the first festival in September. For Tokyo Cowboys, the festival year will kick off in January of 2008.

Thank you all for your generous support over these past 5 (count 'em 5) years. We are almost at the end of our journey, and we are so happy that you have all elected to come along. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. And, as always, you can visit us at the blog for day to day updates. We have been blogging since this whole thing began in March of 2002.

Hugs Again,

Daneeta & Patrick

3 Lousy Sentences

It happened again. Last night I was at a networking event, and the dreaded question was asked: "So what's your documentary about?" I could go on for hours. But, that's not what people want to hear, and that's not how to sell a documentary. I need a snappy three sentence this-is-what-the-thing-is-about. Funny thing is that I've struggled with this since I started making the film. It makes me think that maybe even I don't know what the film is about.

Imagine: Tokyo...Early 21st Century
The city is flooded with gaijin...
foreign men seeking their fortunes
in the wild, wild east.

Most will crash out or cash out within three or four years
Tokyo Cowboys is about those who stayed.

That's the best I've come up with so far.

Emailed the music rights company to get advice.
Continued to build the TC network (this is my secret marketing weapon to be revealed later)
Worked the day job.
Rice and beans...

Finally managed to compress the film onto one disc using Compressor...yeah. I've started to distribute the disc around again. I'm just ready to move on to the next step, which is locking the picture and sorting out the sound. But, as Orson Welles said, "We will sell no wine before its time."

Half Empty...Half Full...

This is the glass half empty:

I'm just getting so frustrated. We finished the 4th cut on Wednesday and were going to burn the DVDs on Thursday. After spending hours exporting the Quicktime file and importing into DVD Studio Pro, we find out that the film won't fit on one disc. Not, we have to figure out how to compress (read picture quality suffers) or burn it onto two DVDs (really inconvenient for the viewers) or burn it onto a dual layer disc, which is about 5 times the price of a regular DVD. I won't even go into the nightmare it has been to try to source these discs. Give me an effing break!

The glass is half full:

Hurrah! We've finished the 4th cut. It will take us a few days to iron out the technical issues of burning it onto DVDs (we are becoming tech wizards!), and then we can send it off to our viewers. We are so so close to a picture lock.

4th Circle of Hell: Can anyone else smell that?

We've got the 4th cut, or pretty much near the 4th cut. Patrick is in Sweden for a few days, so I watched the whole thing over again and made notes. My notes are getting shorter and shorter, which, I guess, is a good thing.

The rights could be an absolute nightmare. Coppe and Terminal11 have been so cool. They have given me permission to use "Bird's Midair Heatstroke" at the beginning of the film, so that's one down and 67 more to go. Been doing a lot of research on Fair Use and have found some good stuff at Center for Social Media. Also went to Borders today and read a bit of the The Documentary Film Makers Handbook: A Guerilla Guide, which clarified a few points...mostly that I should have raised more money and hired a music supervisor. Live and learn.

But, still...there are some things that I have no idea about. For example:

Home video Mark took years ago at EWC (permission was verbally granted at the time)
Video of a live Sumo event that we shot
Video of a Baptist revival that we shot

Well, onwards anyway...haven't gotten a paid gig in ages so back on the rice and beans:

"rice and beans, rice and beans, we love rice and beans!"

which means some wicked farts are coming out of my butt.

Recent Stuff

OK, so we're almost at cut 4, and I think that might be a picture lock (although we will remain relatively fluid until the Online). Patrick has been fast forwarding through all of the tapes (500+ of them, as you might remember). He's looking for possible shots that he might have missed. At first I thought this was a big waste of time, but it's really paying off. The last time he looked at all of the footage was 2 years ago. At that time, we didn't really have a film. Now we do...we have a context. The bits and pieces he's extracting from his breakneck revisitation are adding richness to the film.

I've been tweaking the voice over, researching rights, and trying not to get overly excited. I have a festival wheel on my fridge. Sometimes I just look at it and dream of that future...that very near future.

We've been showing a few people cut 3.2. And, we are getting extremely good feedback. We showed it to MK the other day. He's Japanese, so I was very keen to get his take on the film. He really liked it, and he thinks that it will have a market in Japan amongst the Japanese. That is fab. I just hope the cowboys are ready for that eventuality.

After this cut, we are going to show it to some really hard critics...just to see if the film and the two of us can stand up to it.

Rights

Just got the wedding video from Mark. It's actually better than I expected as I wasn't expecting a TV Infomercial featuring their wedding. It's fab! Patrick quickly cut it together, and I wrote the voice over. New he's laying it over the scene and popping it in. That will bring us to cut 4.

Spoke to DJ a few days ago. He watched cut 3.1, and he really liked it. He biggest criticism was that the film seemed to end too abruptly. He wanted to see a "where are you now" bit for each cowoby. Actually S & M mentioned that when they watched it as well. So, I've written all of the cowboys to see where they are now, and I've got the scoop. So, we'll cut that in to 4.0 as well.

Rights are giving me a headache. Where do I start? There's all of Ken's TV stuff, the Patrick Harlan TV & Radio stuff, "I'm just a Girl" (I've heard that Gwen Stefani never gives rights). And, I would need them given as I don't have any money.

Tired now.

It's Hard to Believe

I know! We are so close to a picture lock. We're just cutting in bits of Mark's wedding video then sending it out to our test audience. After feedback from them and some adjustments, we can finally move on to the next step, which is sound design. Yeah.

Thanks, thanks and thanks again.

Tony comes up to me today and says that he's read the blog all the way through. I am chuffed. Didn't think anyone was reading except Rob and Nat. He inspired me to go back through and read it myself. So, I got through about half of it, and, you know what, there were some really important things that it reminded me of. So thanks for that Tony!

Before that, got up early and worked on a short story about Tokyo, which I'm entering into a contest in June. The prize is £5000. Imagine wild success and just a little bit of partying if I won that. Then went into LFS and worked. Came home and watched Sans Soliel again. I just love that film, and it inspired me again. That was Patrick's suggestion. He's also put all of the Tokyo footage onto two DVDs (3 hours worth) for more inspiration, so that's my remit for tomorrow.

Gave the film to Alan for a crit. Thursday is the day. Hopefully.

I have so much to be thankful for, and sometimes I forget it.

Joe is in hospital, and I am thankful that he is getting better.

Thanks to the universe and to "the man upstairs" for looking after us all.

Screening

Screened the cut of Tokyo Cowboys to one of our investors on Friday. I think it went well. He really liked it and gave us some good feedback, which we are now incorporating for the next private screening tomorrow night...another investor. I think in about a week, we'll have the next big cut. Then we'll start to screen it to a wider audience.

Tired, but happy.

High Quality Trailer

You can now see a high quality version of the Trailer here. Enjoy!

We burned a copy of the whole film last night. On Friday we will have our first screening, so here we go!