Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Burned Fly & Mysterious Herring


bink--who made the movie poster, right-- came over last night for a final session recording her voice-over narration (made trickier by the iMovie freeze of a couple weeks ago), and she ended up spending 3+ hours helping fix some music transitions--and now
*drum roll*
Orestes and the Fly is done!
A FLY OFF THE WALL Production.
Safe from worms and mice, burned onto a DVD this morning. (Below, left is what the DVD menu will look like, except parts of it will be moving!)

I put a Thank You to the Friends of Astronave in the credits:
You all who've written encouraging comments and e-mails over the ONE YEAR it took me to complete this 8 minute 8 second movie have been more help than you probably know.

I'm planning a premiere for the actors in a week, and then a general premiere when I'm housesitting later in the month and have room for guests. Somewhere in there I'll post it on youTube too, and, of course, here. And The Making Of too.

I feel I should say something profound, but mostly I'm just stunned---and so sick and tired of looking at the thing that while I trust that it's good (for a first try), I never want to look at it again.

I wish I'd kept track of how many hours I spent on it. Hundreds, all told, and many more if you count everyone else's hours, especially bink's.
Some of that was because I didn't know what I was doing; but some of it's simply the normal "film 10 hours to get 1 minute" norm of moviemaking.
[I made that figure up, but surely it's about right. For instance, the 48 Hour Film Project expects you to turn in a 4 min. film after 48 hours, and I don't think they expect you to sleep much.]

The Next Thing: Herring?

Now I have to put music on The Disinherited.
Then, it's The Next Movie. I'm thinking of something Ingmar Bergman-esque, something interior, what with the winter coming on and me working on northern Europe.
Maybe something exploring the wisdom of that famous Finnish proverb:
"PieniƤ on silakat joulukaloiksi."
Translation: "Herrings are quite small to be served at Christmas dinner."

(If there are any Finns or people well-acquainted with herring out there who would like to take a stab at explaining this saying, please, feel free.)OMG! Searching for images, I see that if I hopped on a plane, I could go to the Helsinki Herring Fair, October 4-10, 2009.

Perhaps I could make a movie in my little apartment reenacting the events of the 1704 Herring Fair, in which Helsinki vendors put 8 of their competitors from Porvoo in the hospital.

9 comments:

ArtSparker said...

I know I asked a Finnish woman what finns did to celebrate Christmas, and she told me they ate fish which didn't taste very good.

Fresca said...

Ah. Well, that wouldn't be the delicious herring then! Maybe she meant that lye-soaked cod? I must do more research... : )

deanna said...

Wahoo!! It's done. I'm finding, thanks to you and other creative types I'm getting to know, that cheering on these sorts of projects is as much fun as completing my own. Greatly looking forward to seeing your movie. Will you serve herring at the premiere? :o)

Fresca said...

I agree, Deanna--in fact, cheering on can be MORE fun than completing one's own work, which can just be drudgery. Anyway, thanks.

I love your idea to serve herring at the premiere... except that I don't like to eat fish. I have seen chocolate sardines, maybe I could find some of those. Oh, or "Swedish fish" gummy candy!

KMH said...

As I sit here trying to generate a fifteen-minute talk out of my thesis, I sympathize greatly with you on not wanting to look at the finished thing ever again. But I'm very excited to see "Orestes"!

Fresca said...

Hi, KH!
Yes, it reminds me of Edward Gorey's "Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel." (You must know that.)
Can I come hear your speech?

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo said...

Yes!

And well done...!

I'm off to Sweden next week, I shall try and look over the border, see if the Finns have got anything better than ABBA, Volvo and IKEA...

Fresca said...

MANFRED: I hope you will write an article for the Herald Tribune on your findings!

I posted Finland's answer to Abba---Ultra Bra---today. And surely the Herring Festival is more than a match for IKEA, at least. As for Volvo... um, reindeer sleds?

Fresca said...

P.S. What was I thinking? Finland's answer to Volvo is Nokia, the world's leading cell phone manufacturer: even Captain Kirk uses one, in the 2009 Star Trek film!