The Demon Files Journal - November 1993

November 4, 1993

Here ye, here ye. As of November third, in the year of our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Three, the rough cut of The Demon Files was completed. After spending $80.00 at the Editworks to do the first four hours of the rough cut editing, I was fortunate to find out the Edit 3 here at Nickelodeon was put back together. After some strategically placed conversation, I was able to finagle the use of Edit 3 for absolutely NO MONEY!

Thank you Lord!

The first day of rough cut editing in Edit 3 happened October 29th. I found out that day that I could use it for free and asked if I could begin that night, during off hours. They said yes. So, that night I started at 7 p.m. and finished at approximately 12:30 a.m. The following Monday, November 1st, I edited from 7:30 p.m. until 3:00 a.m.!!!!! Dea was pretty upset. It was funny. At about 2:30 she beeped me. I call her back and she says "This is ridiculous!!!" Not Hello, Hi, How's it going! Fortunately I was on the last scene, so it only took me another 1/2 hour. Then, Tuesday, November 2nd, I went down to Edit 3 and placed the Voice Overs and the train noise.

What do I think about it? Well, I think, for the most part, it looks pretty good. It's nice to finally see all of these pieces of the puzzle put together in the correct order. Some of the sound is problematic and the visuals aren't top grade, but overall, I'm pretty happy. After the first two edit sessions I wasn't too happy. I told Dea that I wasn't sure if I was a good director. I thought I could tell a real good story, but I wasn't sure I could actually pull off directing it. But, once I laid down the VOs and edited the final action piece together, I felt better about myself. What I really need the next time is a lot more money and a lot more time. It was so hard getting everything packed into the few days. And the space, not to mention, the heat, made even the most efficient plans eventually waver in a pool of sweat.

I must admit I was pretty surprised at how long it took to edit the show together. Editing took about about 16 hours. That's about 2 minutes of finished product per hour of edit time. And that's a healthy chunk! Usually it falls into the 1 minute per hour area.

I'm going to "premiere" it at the next Starving Artists meeting, which is scheduled for November 16th at 7 p.m. over at Chris Linn's house. Steve Holland, who worked as cameraman for most of the shoot, is going to see the rough cut tonight after he gets done working for promos.

I was quite amazed how much the VOs really helped the beginning. Without them there's about 10 minutes of nothing, just images of a guy sitting at a train station. But now, with the VOs, the character's movements and actions have some sort of meaning. Music is the next step. I was going to use Jack Sloss, but he bagged me when I needed him to do some music for Fred Sommers of Sommersports (for the triathalon I filmed for him). The way he handled it was such unprofessional attitude, that I'm not sure if I want to work with him again. It was as if it was a huge hassle for him to do it in the first place, and when he didn't return my repeated calls when time was getting short, well, I think the actions speak for themselves. I'm going to call Randy Glass, an old college buddy who's working over at Epcot Center, and see if he can put something together. I'm not sure what his equipment limitations are, but I know for certain that he could do the job. With music, the piece should really come alive. Especially the transitory scenes.

My next step is to get the original footage transfered to 3/4" or Beta (depending on what I can afford) and work on finding some place to edit for nothing. After that I'll get the real music on, put the sound fx and fix the vocals, and then try and raise money to shoot a real pilot.

As far as ONE VIEW ONLY, Universal (basically for USA Network) passed on the script. A man there really liked it, but his boss didn't. It's now at a place called Wilshire Court Productions, which is some part of Paramount. Mike Fields (the guy at Universal) said they have similar tastes as his and that it should get a good read over there. Pete Bailoff said I should hear something back by the end of this week, but I probably won't here anything until after Thanksgiving. If it's bad news, I probably won't hear anything at all.

Dea, DC and I could really use the money. Clarissa ends in a few weeks and there are NO OTHER JOBS LINED UP AS OF NOW!! I hope the script sells before CHRISTmas. That would be the best present the Lord could give. Dea is so miserable up here in Orlando. I wish she would try to make it work here. She's just fighting it and fighting it, but I really think this is where the Lord wants me right now. I don't feel any pull away from here. And, unfortunately, there's nothing I can really do for her. I've offered, asked and begged, but I can't do things that she needs to do in order to make herself feel good inside. I just keep praying.

DC is a beautiful child. Yes, that's part the proud father speaking, but a lot of people have remarked on how pretty she is. Everyday she grows, the more love I have for her. She is so adorable.

Well, I have to get back to work. I will keep you informed of any further developments, exciting or not.

PFB


November 5, 1993

Well, tomorrow is Paul's birthday. He'll turn 32! Boy, we old get old quick (not that 32 is old, but that 18 doesn't seem that long ago). Steve Holland had a look at the rough TDF and he liked it a lot. He had minor problems with it, the biggest, which by comparison is pretty small, is that Poole shouldn't go back to the library for a second time. That should be cut as it is redundant. We should just move on to the next scene. After reviewing the tape again late last night (as we didn't get out of work until midnight! - ya gotta love when Mitchell, the Executive Producer, is in town) I thought he had a good point. It does seem a little redundant. It would actually work better, if I really wanted to keep the transitory scene, to have him going to the library after the Caldwell house scene (which is what I think I actually intended, but never really thought much about it - you know, it like works in your head, but it's not until you get another objective look at it that you see it the way you intended). Overall, I'm pretty happy with the directing. It's a competent Directing 1 attempt, but I've got a long way to go to become the master story teller in the same class as Hitchcock (which would fit around a Directing 10 class!). I think, for what I wrote, I told the story well, but as far as constructing the story as to best exploit the audiences feelings, well, I've still got a long way to go. I would need to set-up the audience better, by giving them more information.

I'm reading a great book called "Suspense Thrillers: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock." It's tremendous (unfortunately I left it down in Clearwater when I visited last week - and it was just getting really good, too). I was at the point where the author was discussing the guilt factor in suspense thrillers. See, the director must manipulate the audience so that they 1) want the main character to do something (which eventually gets him/her into trouble) and then 2) makes them feel guilty when the main character, after doing what the audience wanted them to do, is put into danger. Like in Rear Window: We all want Jimmy Stewart to look out at his neighbors, we've all wanted to do that. But, when it gets him into trouble, we feel guilty because it's almost as if we forced him (or "willed him") into doing it, which led him to danger. And talk about feeling helpless. There's nothing more effective than basically placing the audience inside the helpless character of Jimmy Stewart - what a master Hitchcock was. TDF is more like a suspense-mystery, not so much like a suspense-thriller. Since I wanted to write a serial cliffhanger style series, I needed the audience to discover a little each scene. I'm not sure that if I gave the audience all the information (which you do in a thriller), they could wait 13 episodes for the character to finally realize what you've known for the entire season. So, in order to keep the audience in tow, and in the character's shoes, I wanted them to discover a little at a time, as the characters do. But, in debt to Hitchcock, I gave them a lot of clues that they could figure out before the characters do, which should produce that "thriller" aspect.

I still have to expand the seven episodes I have now into 13. Maybe, in doing so, I can turn it from a suspense-myster to a suspense-thriller. We'll see.

Also, as shooting went into the late hours last night, I was watching the rough TDF in Chris Gifford's office when Neena Beber (the head writer and co-producer, and a hell of a nice woman) came in and caught me watching it. She was intrigued, but I was embarassed. I told her it was just something shot on Hi-8 and she said "Oh, I have a lot of friends who do stuff like that" so I promised her she would see it before the Clarissa season ends. But, not to leave her empty handed, and perhaps help me in selling the script, I asked her, before she left, if she liked thrillers. She said it was her favorite genre. Well, I gave her my ONE VIEW ONLY script, told her it got fourth at the Houston/Worldfest, and that I'd like her opinion on it. So, after she reads that, and, hopefully, thinks I have some modicum of talent, then I'll show her TDF so she knows I'm not some uncredible wanna-be. If she likes it and has someone she thinks I should give it to, I'll call Pete Bailoff a call and tell him about it. She'll probably read it over the weekend.

Well, I gotta get to work (again). I'll write again soon.

PFB