Even when I think Nothing is Happening

Was really depressed yesterday. I meant to write the intro to Ken voice over, but...worked up at the school all day. Then came home and tried to do a load of laundry while cooking. The washer spewed out a load of water so that I was standing in 1 inch of it while cooking on an electric cooker. Turned off the electricity, cleaned up the mess, finished off the laundry in the bath (don't try this at home), then finished dinner. By the time I finished eating it was 10 p.m., and I was in no condition to write. Just when I thought all hope was lost, Patrick said "have a look at what I edited today while you were at school." It was brilliant. We also decided to carry on with the edit before writing any more of my voice over. I'll save that for last.

Also applied for several credit cards on line. These are supposed to be 0% interest on new purchases for 12 months. If I can get one, we are going to buy a new system...the MacPro. It will scream.

New System

Had a look at the Nice Guyjin stuff that PJ cut. Also thinking about Ken's introduction V.O. I've been thinking more about a dialogue between my voice over and the cowboy voice over. Will spend some time tonight working on the intro vo for Ken. Things are moving along, but wish I could build up more momentum.

Thinking about getting a credit card to buy a new editing suite. This is against everything that I've come to believe about finance. But, we need a new system. It's either that or sell some of our sweat equity, and I just don't think I can bare going back to selling shares. It takes so much time, and I hate, hate, hate it. Begging for money...I think this will be my reality for the next few years at least.

Technical Hell

Spent the whole morning trying to get the computer started. It's definitely straining under the weight of the four external hard drives. Sometimes three hard drives mount, sometimes all four. And, I can't figure out why. I think our Mac has been brilliant over the past six years. It's an outstanding Power Mac g4. But, it's time to upgrade. PJ and I decided that I would go into the bank on Tuesday and try to get a loan for a new computer.

We finally got the computer up an running (albeit, hard drive Bruce wouldn't start at all). So, we decided to back up all of the projects onto Angelica. Because she's a USB hard drive, this took three hours. After all of this technical hell, I just didn't have the will to carry on with editing. I feel terribly guilty.

The new direction is going well, though, so I'm happy about that.

New Direction

After taking 6 weeks off to earn a bit of cash, we are back to editing Tokyo Cowboys. Patrick re-cut the first 50 minutes to focus on Ken's story as the backbone of the piece. His story has the strongest arc. As off shoots of his story, we will be making segues into the lives of the other cowboys.

We've been frustrated about our inability to create momentum with the cut. It seems that earning a living is interfering with the completion, but we continue. I guess this is the way it is.

56

Whey! Patrick's cut the first 56 minutes of the film. We are now officially smokin'.

Moving Along

Now moving from Ken to Mark. Doing this with a little segue into East West: Christmas 1997. Old footage of Ken (when he was fat!) and Mark winning every award there was to win at the end of the year. Wrote the voice over last night. Recorded it during lunch today (doing a paid gig today).

Trying to find money...free money. Don't want to de-value the shares, so the only way to go is with grants and schemes. May be spending the 12th and 13th with one of the very early investors in TC to brainstorm how to get more money in. It would be so good if I could do TC full time and not have to work for money (although I am so thankful to the people who give me work).

Introduction: Ken

Start off with Ken's V.O. about sacrificing a lot to come to Japan.

October 4th, 2002

I think sacrifice is a good place to begin. I used to think that Cowboys led a glamorous and charmed life in Tokyo. But Ken's life is more about balance...a security/freedom balance. Money buys security. But to make money on the urban frontier, you have to sell freedom. He's trying to balance by working from home as a freelance recruiter: the more you put in, the more you get out.

The Rainy Season

October 1st, 2002

We arrived in the middle of the rainy season.
Hot
and humid
and rain
and wind.

It's a fitting welcome. Tokyo is washing herself clean.

There's a Tsunami warning today.
It's supposed to be a big one.
But in the time it takes me to get from Shinjuku to Roppongi
on the new Oedo line,
it has passed.

Tokyo.
How Iíve missed your inconsistent and charming self.

This is Where it Begins

Tokyo September 27th, 2002

We arrived today.

Coming back here is like falling back into a dream...
it's utterly familiar,
yet everything concrete
slips through my fingers
like water,
like neon.

It's a two hour bus ride
from Narita Airport
into the city.
The jet lag hits,
you have to close your eyes...
settle into it.

Patrick says:
"This is where it begins."

We've come looking for Cowboys...
the foreign men
who leave everything behind
and cross oceans
to be here.

What do they give up?
And what treasures do they gain
out here
on the postmodern
urban frontier?

Jason

Jason rolled into town a few days ago, and I'm still recovering.
Called Ken and Brendan in a drunken stupor. Ken was in Hawaii. It was 6.30 a.m. in Tokyo, so Brendan just laughed at me and said he'd call me later.

Jason's on his way to a four week intensive film course in Prague. He wants me to go out there in the middle of August to brainstorm some ideas for a script. Fuck it. Why not.

Rainy Season VO

Needed to cut the Rainy Season V.O. down to 30 seconds, so rewrote and recorded it today. After Patrick dropped it in, it seemed to be lacking a bit of energy. Patrick's suggested that I record it while walking around in the garden. I think he's right. I want it to have the effect that it was recorded on the fly as we were shooting the film.

Tsunami

Oh, I am so pleased. We have finished the opening sequence and are now slotting in the sequences in loose chronological order. As faithful readers of this blog (I know of only three), you will recall that we spent the summer cutting sequences in Rockhammar. I think we cut something like 75...I lost count after 52.

Anyway, we're dropping those sequences into a Final Cut Pro Project aptly called "Tokyo Cowboys: The Whole Thing." We've had to break the TC project into about 9 projects to keep the computer from getting overloaded. She's a good computer, but she's a first gen. G4 bought six years ago for film school. She's souped up with 1.5 Gb of RAM wired up to 5 daisy chained LaCie harddrives totaling 3.5 Tb (that's roughly 3,500 Gb).

At the same time that Patrick is doing this, I am writing and recording voice over. We'll have guide tracks at least. Then, when the whole thing is put together, I'll go back over the voice over to polish it off.

Here is a sample of the most recent voice over penned by yours truly:

October 1st, 2002

The Japanese say they have four seasons. One of them is the rainy season: hot and humid and rain and wind. The shoes in your closet go green if you're not careful. It's a fitting welcome. Tokyo is washing herself clean.

There's a Tsunami warning today. It's supposed to be a big one. Shops shut down, the streets are deserted. But in the time it takes me to get from Shinjuku to Roppongi on the new Oedo line, it has passed. Tokyo. How I've missed your inconsistent and charming self.

And it will go on like this. Mixing with the voices of the Cowboys to form a story made up of many stories. I am so excited. IT IS FINALLY COMING TOGETHER!

By the way, if you have an rss reader, our rss feed for this blog is:

http://www.tokyocowboys.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Thanks for reading and for your continued and much appreciated support!

Coming Together

Amazingly, it is starting to come together. I recorded some guide voice over today, and Patrick popped it in. It's working! So HP was right. I should listen to him more often. It's still rough, but I can see the shape of the beginning.

Breakdown

Had a bit of a mental breakdown today. I started to feel the fear, and I let it get the better of me...saying things like "I have no idea what I'm doing," and "This film is going to be crap." Patrick talked me down from the window ledge.

I think I just get frustrated when I have ideas then try them out and they are not perfect on the first try. I must remind myself that there are steps to the process and I must walk before I can run.

We've intercut the cowboy arrival stories with my beginning voice over. Then I wrote the voice over to introduce the rainy season and to introduce Ken. It is coming together. I just have to trust myself and trust Patrick.

East West

Patrick has suggested looking at some of the old EWC footage. This is stuff that I shot from 1997 - 2000 of various East West Consulting functions, parties, etc. I shot it on an old consumer camera. Two of the main characters and several of the subsidiary characters worked there during the late 90s during the Head Hunting bubble.

Patrick thinks we can use some of this footage, particularly the stuff where Ken is really fat. I looked at some of it. Ken looks like a baby. I guess he was--22 at the time.

We've dropped the footage into the first act of the film. It really works. It shows where Ken came from...where Mark came from. That culture. I'm trawling through the interviews of former EWC people to put together a collage of voices describing this HH boom. I'm getting so excited about the film. It is shaping up. I can see it now. I can see it!

Arrivals

Still working with the arrivals stories. I've got good ones from the likes of Ken, Mark S., World Family Mark, Cloudy, and Patrick. Still capturing others. Patrick pointed out that they can be anybody's arrival story. Any of the several hundred people we interviewed. The stories are being used in the sound track only...most likely over the footage that Patrick has just cut together to form the beginning of the film.

H.P. says that I'm closer than I think. He says I have all of the bits I need to make a great film. I just need to put everything together. Yes. That's what I need to do. Put everything together...one chunk at a time.

Met with Alex about my voice over. She's the Actress/Singer/Voice Over Artist who lives next door. She's helping me to slow it down and put some feeling into it.

I feel good. I'm trying to relax into the pace of it...the rhythm of it. I was thinking it was too slow, but now I think it's just right.

Really miss my family. Wish I could go home. Feel bad that I can't.

The went there with nothing but their preconceived notions about
the postmodern
urban frontier.

They all started teaching English.
Some of them even found their passion
doing
just
that.

Some moved on...

To Headhunting
To Entertainment
To Business

Always searching.

They began to make her their home.
They found freedom and opportunity.
They were favored.

But they were still restless.
They had not yet found the thing that had
called them
to her.

And
in this restlessness and searching
they struck some...strange...kind of...bargain.

They would never find peace like this one.

So they decided they were home.

They Arrived with Nothing...

Circumventing the ailing Bruce, I'm cutting Ken's arrival story on Big Mamma. I think this is going to work: cutting together all of these mini-narratives of the Cowboys' arrival stories. Together, they create...not a grand narrative, as such, but a cacaphony of possibilities on this postmodern urban frontier. So, this is how I'll proceed.

They arrived with nothing...

First Shot

I think I've decided that this is going to be the first shot of the film. I'm thinking in terms of Westerns. They usually start with a wide shot of the "frontier." This is my post-modern urban frontier. I may use voice over from the Cowboys and others to describe Tokyo. Patrick is cutting it over the next few days.

I was freaking out again about the edit...not thinking that I was moving quickly enough...whatever. I invoked the muse praying for her to guide me. As I lay in bed the other night, this shot came into my imagination. I just decided to trust the muse. After cutting this opening sequence, Patrick will go back to cutting all of the bits together. We are on our way.

Harddrive Blues

Our 1000 GB (1TB) harddrive, code named "Bruce," crashed and burned yesterday. Fortunately, it's only media on there, so the project (the edits) are safe. We've had to purchase another harddrive (£372), which I'm hoping will be able to communicate with Bruce to take over the media. Then Bruce will go in for repairs.

Anyone wishing to submit a name for the new harddrive can do so here. Perhaps something Japanesey

Ourotherr drives are:

Elektrik Zoo (70 GB)
Slave (70 GB)
Big Daddy (500 GB)
Big Momma (1 TB)
Angelica (500 GB)

And, yes, they are all full.