Happy Ending to Hard Drive Saga

I got all my footage recovered from the defective hard drive! Thank you Universe! And thank you Lori and Quent (tech guru/extraordinaire) for your generosity and kindness.

Throughout this whole process, there were so many shitty things that came up. Some stuff were human errors, like having our footage recorded at two different frame rates, which required a lengthy conversion process to make all the frame rates the same. Other stuff were things that we couldn't really control but just.. happened. Like a defective hard drive. But as Laura told me several weeks ago as I was about to pull all my hair out, it's just the film gods throwing obstacles your way to see how much you really want it. I am so grateful for everyone who crossed our paths on this journey to make this film and lent a helping hand or even just a few words of encouragement. The three of us were talking about the end credits several weeks back, and our collective list of people to thank is quite long.

Now, back to finishing up post production on the film!

Hard Drive Saga Continues

Well, the 80-90% certainty that the Lacie tech had about replacing the power cord to fix my hard drive problem turned out to be 0% correct. I spent the past few days visiting a couple of data recovery places trying to get a quote to recover my media and project files. The really great news is that the data is recoverable, or so I'm told--for a big fee. But the other really great news is that a friend may be able to have her IT friend recover my data for the cost of a free meal. Deal. What else can I do at this point but try not to freak out so much and just ask the Universe for some mercy. Please.

So I have to admit, the real reason why I'm blogging right now is that I'm completely procrastinating on working on a new script. It's been a while since I've worked on a screenplay, and getting back to writing on a regular basis is difficult. My evening debate consists of: Gym? Nah, tomorrow. Trashy reality TV show? Hmm, definite possibility. Work on script? See response to gym above.

Anyone have tips on how to juggle a full-time day job and creative projects after work?

What's Taking This So Long?

At the end of the day, it all comes down to money. Anyone who's ever made a film consider yourself privileged and if it was someone else's money you spent on your film then consider your self privileged, blessed and lucky.

Team Good Karma was lucky to get money from "investors" (friends and family), about 85% of our financing came from our hard work, savings and 401ks. Yes, the best decision I made was to pull my share of the film out of my 401k because the economy tanked shortly after and that would have been the end of most of my 401k anyway, at least now I have a film to show for it.

It costs money to make a film and a lot of money to make a feature. We were naive in thinking that if we had enough money to shoot the film that the money for post would come. We got the money for post the same way we got it the first time, we worked for it. It was hard to pay for living expenses and finish the film but we sacrificed and made ends meet.

So now that we are really almost done, it turns out that we need more money. It's going to cost Christine a lot of $$$ to retrieve her footage from the damaged drive and that sucks. We are so close and this happens! I was really hoping for a Valentine's Day screening for our cast, crew, friends and family.

What's taking so long? MONEY

On a happy note, the trailer is coming soon.

xoxo,
Lucy

Are We Done Yet?

2010. Yay! But wait, Mercury Retrograde is in effect right now. Just found my hard drive with the latest cut (and contains most of the media files) is not mounting (i.e., not working). Oh My God. Called the Lacie tech and she offered to send me a new power cord. Will it help? She's 80-90% sure it will. Crossing fingers. Send good vibes. Otherwise, I may just decide to crawl under a rock and not leave. Ever. Have been told that the G-Raid drives are the best. 1st advice of 2010: when using digital media, DO NOT cheap out on the hard drives. Get the best, most reliable drives you can. And if you get the drives with the larger storage space, it will save you a lot of trouble later on when working with your editor. Like 2T of storage space. Trust me on this one.