The Truth About Romance | Clip

Here are the first 7 minutes of the film.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMANCE | CLIP from A TINY ADVENTURE on Vimeo.

Well, in actual fact there is a two minute introduction, but this is where the film begins. I'd also like to state now that this isn't the finished version, there are a few issues I want to work on, but I figured it was in good enough shape to show the world. Let them get a taste of my little production.

When you've spent a long time editing lots of footage and you have to keep switching between scenes to keep your eyes fresh, you end up with a whole lot of unfinishedness... And that isn't good for you, creatively and mentally. As a creative person I like things to be finished and perfect. Editing is a very tedious thing because you can quite easily get carried away editing the same section for days, weeks, even months. When really you need to get a rough edit finished of the entire film.

The problem I have is; I wanna see some of it completed, just a tiny section, just to reassure myself that I'm doing things right! Then I thought; why not, why not complete a small section... It gives me something to watch and I can show those that worked on it. I'll be reassuring everybody!
With that in mind I set along the journey of finish the opening scene. It's a good place to start.

Since finishing the shoot back in July 2012 I've been constantly asked these two questions, "When will it be finished?" and "Can I see any of it yet?" I thought this is a really good time to give people a taster. The opening doesn't give too much away, but it does leave you wanting to find out more. (Well, hopefully.)

I really hope you enjoy it, and I'm going to take a couple of days off because if you watch that 7 minutes over and over again for two weeks you'll know how I feel. I've gone a bit mad. What I will do is write a series of blog post about some of the technical aspect of the 7 minutes.

James G. Wall

Take Time, Move On & Enjoy the Process.

It's 2013. Twenty Thirteen... That sounds insane.
When I set the original schedule for The Truth About Romance I had November 2012 as the deadline to have the film completed, finished, done. 
Wow, who was I kidding!?

After I failed my 'Editing Challenge' I whimpered for another week, I honestly just didn't know what to do with myself or the film. 2012 as been an extremely strange year for me personally, and October was no different, just another confusing month. I may have had a mental breakdown of some sort, because I did some really bizarre things. Again like my last post on this site I will eventually go into some more details because man, it's a funnily depressing story.

You may be asking what as happened over the last two and half months? Lots. Lots and lots. However, as far as The Truth About Romance is concerned, nothing, absolutely nothing. Well not up-until two weeks ago. I needed a break, not just from this film, but from everything. I needed to get my personal life back on track. I wasn't concentrating on the edit properly because my brain was cloudy with a shit storm of other things.

Two weeks ago at 2:20AM on one of my many sleepless nights I naturally plugged in the hard drive for The Truth About Romance and started editing. It was a beautiful organic moment, I wasn't editing because I felt I had to, I was editing because I wanted to. I'm now looking at the footage clearly and enjoying the process. I needed to take a break, to forget about the film, although that was hard because it's the only thing people talk to me about. When I'd taken a couple of weeks off from the edit before the 'Editing Challenge' the film was still very much in the forefront of my mind, which meant after a week of editing I was right back in the same place.

Making this film as been a constant learning curve, not just about filmmaking but also about myself.
So my advice to anybody that is having problems is to take time, move on and then enjoy life, which in my case is filmmaking.

More to come about the edit later this week!
James G. Wall

RE: EDITING CHALLENGE.

Well, in fairness it was a failure. However, it wasn't completely my own fault. You see, I got ill. Illness is a pain in the ass. It slowed me right down. I didn't want to get out of bed. I was cold sat at my desk. My brain was telling me to power through, but my body was telling me to lay down. And, my body won.

All is not lost, even though I failed at my challenge it did exactly what I needed it to; get me backing editing the film. Watching the footage and putting together some scenes was a great reminder of what a fun and great experience it all was, and a great achievement for all that was involved.

I have found a few problems, which had me scratching my head. I hate it when you realise something and there isn't a lot you can do about it. One problem, although I'm not sure if it's a "problem" but it's definitely something that got me thinking, which will have me continuingly thinking until I've finished the rough cut. I'll explain more... when I know more.

James G. Wall

THE EDITING CHALLENGE.

I've had a few weeks away from the film, for various reasons and plus it's always good to have a break. However, now I feel the need to dive right in. It almost feels like if I don't push myself to finish it it'll become one of those projects that lingers away and I find it in a years time and think "Hmmm, I should've really finished that." I don't want that to happen. When we finished shooting the film I gave myself a November deadline to have the film completely finished!! That was incredibly ambitious, but then I'm an incredibly ambitious person. I still think I could've made that deadline, but we can't predict what happens in life.

So, we refresh, reevaluate and re-plan. 

All week I've been figuring out how I can get back in the editing room. It's not as simple as just sitting there and opening up the project, well it's not for me, I'm just not that sort of guy. Everything has to be a task, a challenge, with targets and rewards. Then BOOM, I make myself a challenge. From Monday 8th to Sunday 14th I aim to finish a rough cut of the film. I would estimate I have 35-45% of the film roughly edited, which has taken me a few months. In 7 days I will have the rest of it roughly edited and my reward will be awesome, on Sunday evening I'll get to watch the first rough cut.

Now, I may cause myself some illness, because in order to do this I'll have to hard extremely hard and sleep very little. Plus I still have to go to work 5 days-a-week. But hey, it wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy. The aim is to put in 30+ hours of editing, which isn't that hard... I can break that up into small chunks throughout the week. Easy-peasy.

I'll keep everybody up-to-date on Twitter (@atinyadventure) and Instragram (@jamesgwall) so you can follow me into my quest of insanity. 

Here we go!
James G. Wall