We recently completed post production on our first feature length film. The One I Wrote For You is a wonderful, family oriented film that was shot here in San Antonio. Written and Produced by David Kauffman, the movie stars Cheyenne Jackson, Kevin Pollak, Christine Woods and Christopher Lloyd. Be sure to check the website for the movie for a complete listing of cast and crew. www.theoneiwroteforyou.com
Cheyene Jackson as Ben Cantor.
Kevin Pollak as Mickey.
Christine Woods as Alicia Cantor.
Christopher Lloyd as Pop.
All Footage was captured digitally in 4K with 2 RED Epic cameras. Drives from each days shooting were shuttled to the Geo offices for processing and back to set the next day. We immediately archived the footage to LTO-5 for safe keeping From there we ingested footage to our servers, set up audio synced multiclips for every shot and finally developed and organized a file structure for all 72 hours of footage. The film is centered around a musician and some of the performance scenes had up to 25 different camera angles to pick from!
Multitudes of multiclips!
The goal of our first cut was to deliver the actors’ best performances and to stay true to what the director shot during production. We did not make any major editorial changes at this point and the run time was around 150 minutes. Fast forward many weeks and long hours with Director Andy Lauer and we emerged with a more concise and compelling story. “I found myself overwhelmingly satisfied at the level of craftsmanship, ability and professionalism that San Antonio-based Geomedia was able to generate for our feature film,” said Lauer. “Their passion rose above anything we’d hoped for and it reflects in their work. Owning all the latest technical equipment is great, but creating cinematic art is a a skill money cannot buy.”
Geomedia Senior Editor Jeff Chesnut in his element.
Once we had our Locked Cut, our DP/Colorist Guru Zach Nasits took over, utilizing Davinci Resolve to get the most from the RAW R3D files. – “It was very exciting to have the opportunity to color grade this terrific film. Grading 5k files from the Red Epic with DaVinci Resolve enabled so much versatility and latitude in achieving DP, Phillip Roy’s vision. He shot with just about every kind of glass there is and on multiple cameras so it was sometimes challenging to match color and texture. Ultimately it all came together and looks amazing.”
Final 4K color-graded shots output from Davinci Resolve.
We sent OMF and reference files over to Harter Music. They had the mammoth task of scoring, creating foley, ADR and final mixing of the film. Plus, the movie has a sound track album that they produced as well.
ProTools Audio session in progress, courtesy of Keith Harter Music.
Effects work started before shooting even began with the development of “The Song” logo animation loops to be used on-stage during production. Post production effects work included skyline enhancements, full length 3D animated show opens for “The Song”, numerous screen replacements and even an explosion. 3D and VFX work was executed by our own Jeff Stoyer and Martin Jaeger utilizing Softimage XSI, Nuke and After Effects.
3D animated titles for “The Song” show open.
Deluxe in Los Angeles was chosen to take our digital master and create the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) that would be delivered to theaters. Our workflow resulted in a master file that was a true 2K, 2048 x 1024, ProRes 4444. Deluxe would deliver at either 2048 x 858 or 1998 x 1080. The former would crop 8% from the top and bottom of our picture. We felt this was too much so that option was out. To shrink our picture to 1998 x 1080 we could scale down 2.4%, add a little letterbox and keep the picture at the same aspect as it was shot, but instead we chose to crop off 23 pixels from the right and left sides so we would not have to re-scale and possibly lose some sharpness. We have heard horror stories about the stringent quality control process required by distributors. We are happy to say that we passed QC on the first submission and it looks amazing on the big screen!
“Geomedia’s skill set and team spirit is on par with the best Post Houses for feature films,” said Writer and Executive Producer David Kauffman. “They know their craft. And at the end of the day, they’re story tellers just like us. It was a great ride and we’ll work with them on our next film.” We are looking forward to the next one David. This one has been a blast!
