"Redemption" – Project Greenlight, Episode 8
Posted on Sat 07 May 2005 (1794 reads)
Having wrapped the filming portion of Feast last week, John Gulager sits down to begin the editing process of his film during post-production. We start on day one of post-production. "We just finished shooting Feast," Joel says, "And we've just started editing." Mike notes that editing is just as fun as shooting a film to put everything together. Kirk has been putting together pieces in a way he thought they went together, but now, they will work together to finish the movie. "This is the time of the movie when the producer leaves the director alone," Mike explains. John asks when it gets down. "I don't know if you're going to have that long," Joel tells him, when normally they get six to eight weeks to edit it, and because of the nature of the project they won't have that long. Dimension apparently wants to see it today, but unfortunately, that just isn't the case. However, Andrew or Bob Weinstein could walk in right now and tell them that they want to see it, which they will have to do whether they are done or not. "Usually we can put them off a week or two," Mike tells him. "There's nothing more depressing than the first assembly," Joel teases. Kirk and John sit down for the first time to watch the film as it's put together now. "It's rough," Kirk says. "I'm kinda worried we didn't get all the shots we needed to make a good movie," John relates. They watch various scenes, John reclines and he looks bored. "How long was this?" John asks, it was only 95 minutes. "I have some issues with the film, but it's pretty good." "What's our biggest problem?" Joel asks. "You're asking me that already?" John replies. "There's plenty to fix and we're going to start it." Joel teases it's the first Gulager movie that's ever been close to being really finished. "I didn't think Navi was right for heroine," John reminisces, "And when she came back, I still really didn't feel it." He's watching footage of her, knowing it's too late to change that part of the film, and he looks distressed over some of her scenes and how they were shot. "I'm going to try my best [not to cut her]," John admits, telling Kirk to cut different parts relating to her. "When people aren't doing things that are working, you cut them out." Michelle goes down to see some of the films. "Just chucking, chucking," John laughs. "I just stopped by to get some boxes," Michelle says, saying hello to everyone and talking about the film. "I'm not sure Navi ever wanted to be heroine," Mike tells her. "She came in twice, she's very nice, and I just got a sense, 'Why am I in this movie?'" They refer back to the fact that many people thought she wasn't right for the movie. "It bothers me that Mike had to say that to me," she says before she leaves, because it's too late to do anything about it. Matt, Chris and Wes Craven are coming in over the weekend to see what they have done so far. They reflect back that Matt Damon was the one who really jumped for him to be the director. "I never would've known from the interview," John says. "It's a little nerve-wracking, because you never want to let anyone down. I guess we're just going to do whatever we can in the next couple of days." On the day Matt comes on set, they all get together to shoot promos for Project Greenlight. We're shown some of Matt's commercials and cut-aways for the promotions for Bravo. During the break, he came over to the editing trailer to see some of Feast. "You always have trepidation for screening scenes that aren't ready," John says. Matt's laughing at the footage. "I'm extremely excited with the footage, he's clearly the right man for the job," Matt praises. "He really had a great understanding of how to make that movie work." He jokes it might not be glory enough, and they all laugh at it. "Great, great job!" he tells John. "I'm so proud John Gulager did a great job. I really put my ass out there for him, and I'm glad he did a good job." John and his family spend some time together. "I guess there's only a few more months of employment here," he tells his family. They discuss bringing down a lot of his family and friends to the premiere. Diane is worried about the money running out, because they're spending everything he's making while working for Feast already. "I think that would help," she says if he gets more work. Clu offers to buy his son an Armani suit for the premiere and he tells his dad not to do it. Diane is worried he's not fielding calls from agents and doing what he needs to do to continue directing others fields not that he's been given this chance, but he's not doing it, and that worries her immensely. John reflects on his mother having passed away last year, too, and how much he loves her for what he's doing. "We thought it would be a good idea to give some feedback from him on what he had," Mike says about showing Wes the footage. "The film was great, it was exciting, interest shots. I was very, very impressed by it," he praises, too. "I think it's all a matter of early screenings, if Bob just looks at it, he'll know. He'll get a sense." Wes says that he's made films this long gives him the stamina to work on projects well until they're finished. Joel and Mike head down to see some of the footage. Ben Affleck wants to come and watch a "first" screening of Feast that week, and they tell him to come down and see it. "We felt our hands were tired and arranged for him to see it," Mike explains. They felt bad Chris might be left out of it, but that was the hand they were dealt. They aren't really ready for a first screening, and it's a rough cut as John says. "Houston, we have a problem," he jokes. Joel comes in and asks who invited Ben to the screening. He's angry. Joel wants to know who told LivePlanet about the screening, and Aaron is the one who told them. "Chris might be a little bent," Joel says and Mike laughs. "We have to invite Chris," Joel says without a doubt. "It's still in a rough state," Kirk is dismayed at what is cut now. On the next day, Joel wants to get Nick in to see the first screening, because he was leaving town, too, so that he could tell Bob Weinstein the film is okay. "I'm not really sure what the right politic approach is on this," Joel tells Kirk. "Andrew is hammering Nick to see the movie," Joel explains, "I'm planning on trying to keep them at bay." "The whole future of the film rests on that first look," Joel says and sets up the screening. "I just wanted you to weigh in and do what you wanted," Kirk tells John. Joel is worried how upset Chris is going to be because of not being invited once he finds out. They're doing more promotional shoots now that Ben is on set to do it. "This is a lot better looking that the real Chris Moore," he jokes at Moore's prosthetic head for the particular commercial. He's shooting the promos and episode introductions for him. Chris Moore shows up on the set to see what's going on with the promo and for his part on it, too. Ben and Chris are talking about the film. "They liked it," Chris says of some of the studio seeing it. "Yeah, they're saying they want to screen the whole movie on Thursday," Ben tells him. "Apparently, Gulager was going to show the movie to some people," Chris says, "I had not explained to them that that wasn't a greenlight in screening." He calls and asks for Mike or Joel. "I want to be in the first wave of people who see the movie," he says. He talks to Aaron, getting angrier by the moment. "I want to give you a piece of advice," he tells him, "Don't ever try to schedule anything at LivePlanet that doesn't invite me." "It made me think they were trying to exclude me from the process," Chris explains. Aaron screwed up beyond belief, and he tells him so, before asking for someone in charge. He demands to talk to somebody who made this decision. "I really wanted to see it. I have a lot riding on this movie," he calms down a tiny bit, and he hangs up to go back to talk to Ben. "Good work!" Ben jokes before going back on set to shoot their promos. "Right now our goal is to get a good solid cut on this movie," Joel says. "He's got to stay awake and get through it." However, in the editing room, John is clearly bored by the process and he falls asleep more than once during the day. He eventually falls out of his chair because he fell asleep, breaking the chair in the process and laughing at himself. That night they're having their producer screening. Ben comes in to see it, and Chris also comes in to see it. It started out with just four or five people supposed to be there, and unfortunately, a bunch more people showed up. John introduces it and tells them how rough the cut is nervously, which Chris notices. "I think there's a lot of potential," Chris says, "I think there's still scenes that need to be worked on, but my general feeling was excitement. Let's stay focused on making it a better movie." Nick from Dimension was happy with it, too. Ben says he wasn't expecting much either, surprised by how polished it came off even for the first screening. "I think you did a great job," Chris says. "I think Bob is really going to like the movie," Ben tells John. He also gives him some ideas on how to fix a certain section that needs to probably be cut. "My first instinct was to reshoot the monsters at the beginning," Ben notes, eating another slice of pizza. He talks about maybe changing the way it's edited in the beginning and end in order to make it more exciting and to make the creatures scarier, which is a big problem. "This isn't going to be a walk in the park," Joel sighs. "I just feel you were really the right choice for the movie," Ben admits. "There said very positive things which made me feel really good," John smiles the biggest smile of the whole process. They all now have to get the next screening ready for Bob Weinstein, who has the power to say yes or no as to whether the film should continue being produced and put together. Mike calls Andrew and finds out that Bob wants to see the movie as soon as possible. "Bob has heard through the grapevine that we've started screenings and he wants to see the movie immediately," Mike explains. "So, can we show him the movie now?" Andrew inquires. "We were really hoping to set it up Monday," he replies, trying to delay the inevitable. Andrew offers to try and delay it as long as possible until he can no longer do it. "I've realized something in light of this particular project, if you want to watch something or screen something, everyone wants to see it. People are rapid to see this movie," Mike tells Joel. "This film is on his radar now. The urgency has wracked up tenfold," Joel says. Joel tells everyone that Bob wants the film now. They have a seven o'clock deadline with the courier, so they begin working all day up until then to do what they can to edit it. Aaron reminds them that they need to get the courier, but then he goes and calls the courier to push it back a half an hour. Joel asks if they are outputting, but they aren't, and they begin to set it up so that they can tape it over to VHS to send to Bob Weinstein. Now, the machine isn't working properly, and they can't get any audio to record. Aaron tries to fix it, but he doesn't know what is wrong, and he can't figure it out. Eventually, they get the entire thing outputted and given to the courier to take to New York. "If he doesn't like it, I don't even want to think about that," John says. Andrew discusses how important it is for this screening of the film in a mini-theater. "There reaction is going to tell us what we're going to do with the film," he says. "A lot of films have lived and died based on screenings like that. It's really the first time people get the chance to see it." He talks to many of them and gets their input on what they saw; it's very tense, "Today unfortunately Bob couldn't be there." Mike, with distribution from Dimension, said he liked it and that was good. Joel and Mike take Andrew's call. He says that John needs to call him. "Congratulations, job well done," he says. "You'll earn your bonuses," he jokes. "Based on the screening we had in New York, he pulled it out." Bob and Harvey are going to watch it tomorrow. John and Kirk head down and they hear the news themselves. John's beaming, relieved now that he did a great job. "I think there's some pacing issues," he tells them, but he's optimistic that they can cut it down as it's too long. "I just looked at John, I know what he's feeling, you don't put 46 years of your life into something and feel nothing when it's validated," Joel beams, too, for John's good fortune. "You try to do your best and hope somebody responds," John explains. "It doesn't matter what I think," Andrew says knowing the Weinsteins are watching it as they speak. "The future of Feast is coming out of that screening," Mike explains. Nick wants to set up a call for them to take one from Bob about what he thought of the screening. "We're going to give Bob a call," Joel says. John calls him, he gets put on hold, and then he's told the call will be returned. "One thing that's true is that you they don't find John, John finds you," Joel jokes. Chris calls to ask if they've heard anything. They keep trying to get a hold of Bob, but it's to no avail so far, and they try to set up a schedule. Bob finally calls them back. "This is the call," Joel says. "This is the one we live and die on." Joel begins to listen to the call and John hears the news, coming to the door to hear it, and Bob asks that the camera crews and everyone else to step out so that he can take the call privately. Carpesomediem is an aspiring freelance writer from Lancaster, Pa. who enjoys music, movies and writing about the way the world works; you can contact her at carpesomediem@realityshack.com to talk about this week's episode or anything at all.

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