Official Date of Completion: June 28th, 2007

Whooo hoooo. It's official. The film was recorded onto HDCam 23.98 ndf videotape last night making the date of completion officially June 28th, 2007.

I'm going to the Jazz Festival tonight to celebrate!

On a side note, I've updated the products in the smoking moose store with new and improved images of the characters from the film.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

The crazy thing about submitting films to festivals is not only trying to choose a festival that is appropriate for your specific film but also making sure that you can meet the requirements of the festival you submit to. I've recently decided not to submit to the Festival du Nouveau Cinema, partly because I'm not so sure it is a good fit for my film, but mostly because I would need to make a 2nd digiBeta master for the subtitled version (or have professional subtitles done) and I just don't have the cash (or the energy to own more master video tapes). There are 2 other events in Montreal around the same time that I will submit the film to. Of course I will keep the subtitled version that I've done for the DVD.

Tomorrow I'm going to drop of my disk drive at Vision Globale so that they can make me a digiBeta master videotape. That will mean the date of completion is near (might be tomorrow or Wednesday!). I need to decide how many digiBeta copies to make and how many BetaSP copies to make.

By the way, the new web site is live and I really like it ;o) It's kind of crazy -- it is basically one html page -- with the exception of one or two pop ups and a few pdfs that will also pop up (depending on your browser pdf setting).

I've also installed the new version of Softimage XSI (6.01) and am re-rigging the moose. Using the Rig from Biped Guide makes the rigging so much easier and creates such a better rig than I could create drawing skeletons (mostly for the feet but also for the hips and upper body). The tediuous part though is still the enveloping and although it's looking pretty good I think I need to spend a few more hours on it. Next will be to set up character key sets (new in 6.?) and then animate a teaser (the reason to re-rig the moose -- although getting up to speed in xsi 6 won't hurt me a bit!).

Preparing to transfer to video

The sound is done. Thanks to Serge at Net Post Production, who designed better sound effects than I had, recorded foley and mixed a much better mix of all the tracks. Thanks Serge!

Next up is the transfer to video. Today I'm backing all the video and sound stuff up and then I'll export the final picture to take to Vision Globale to transfer.

In the meantime I've also been submitting to festivals, and working on a new web site which is about to go live. I'll need to update this blog to make it match the new site.

I've also installed XSI 6.01 so I can start working with the characters again for promo shots.