Earthquakes are to a girl's guitar - They're just another good vibration

On Sunday we went to the closing night of Lydia and an earthquake interrupted the 2nd act. It was my first earthquake experience and I was relieved to have my dearest friends with me. Mari, Barbara & Bonnie (my LA mothers), Christine, Laura, James (Mr. Laura) and Matt were there to support my sister as she ended her run on a play that’s been with her for over a year. We filmed Love Song between the Denver & Yale runs of Lydia.

I am starting pre-production on my next project. I will once again collaborate with my sister, Matt, Christine & Laura. I consider myself blessed that I get to work with my friends and my family.

Last night we celebrated Laura’s birthday. We got to meet Suzi’s boyfriend, he’s a musician and generously gave me two cds to use on the film. Mr. Suzi is a known rock star so I’m very excited to use his music. There’s a song I LOVE that I’ll be pitching to Christine.

I am now the Music Supervisor for Diving Lessons & Love 10 to 1. Christine’s piece is currently titled Love 10 to 1. For those of you who don’t know, yes, I’m getting divorced. I try not to go into my personal life here but my soon 2BX was in charge of music. I had a lot of fun picking music for Love Song & he brought in a lot of great songs. We’ve edited so much of the film that a lot of the music he picked ended up on the cutting room floor or more appropriate in the "deleted scenes" hard drive. There’s a great piece of irony in that sentence somewhere!

It will be interesting working on music for Christine’s film, she’s going to want Lilith Fair and I want to give her Judas Priest (kidding).

xoxo,
Lucy

Another Song Cleared

I just heard back from Martin Walker letting me use his song "Fools" for Love Song. Matt and I are back at work on the rough cut and we stopped editing on the spot where that song goes (it was already 1:30am and I had to be at work at 8:30am the next day). I was praying that I'd hear back before Matt and I meet today. So on to finishing the cut.

xoxo,

Lucy

When Drummers Sing

A drummer is often overlooked. They sit in the background, propelling the rhythm, beat and movement. The singer and the guitar player have the spotlight and the drummer and the bass player usually get left behind.

A magical thing happens when the drummer moves up front to the mike. You get Dave Grohl, Don Henley, Phill Collins, Ringo anyone? Anymore out there? Yes, my myspace friend Mark Pickerel.

Mark used to drum for the Screaming Trees, the Seattle band that came up with the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam & Alice in Chains to name a few. By the time the Screaming Trees reached their pinnacle with the song “I Nearly Lost You” featured on the Singles soundtrack, Mark had already left the band to follow the beat of his own drum.

I had the privilege of finding his music when I was looking for songs for my film. I fell in love with “I’ll Wait” and I’m hoping that he lets me use the song for the film. He sent me a message saying that if I came to his show and bought him a drink he’ll give me a great deal on the songJ

So I urge all of you to please support Mark at the Knitting Factory on 1/24. He’s from Seattle and needs all the LA Love we can give. If you can’t make it, then please forward this to the music lovers in your life.

The best way to describe Mark’s music is melancholic rockabilly but that’s just me. Take a listen & enjoy.
http://www.myspace.com/markpickerelandhisprayinghands

In no particular order these are my favorites, why? Because I feel like he wrote them all for me, that's the magic of a great song, when you feel like it belongs to you and you alone.
I’ll Wait
Cherokee Grove
Graffiti Girl
Let Me Down Easy

Lucy

Music Clearance

I am very excited because today I got clearance for an amazing piece of music for Love Song. The song is Holiday by Dilana (she was the runner up for Rock Star Super Nova & she should have won). The song will be used in a montage of Shane & Dustin hanging around Venice Beach.

I managed to squeeze 2 montage/music video moments in the film and as we speak I'm working on adding a third; a series of time lapses set to music by The Fabulous Miss Wendy for the opening of the film. That will make 3 songs from Her Fabulousness/Dirty Virgin.

We've been toying with the idea that the song at the end of Christine's film should open mine but I don't know how we are going to make that work. Christine emailed me a song that almost made me puke. I don't want Vagina Music touching Love Song. If this turns out to be a juicy battle you'll have to buy the book. This blog is a small sample of what we've gone through to get this far!

I am super excited to have Dilana's contribution to this project.

Check out her myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/dilanarox

Purchase her music on itunes:

I need to reach out to three more artists whose music I love, and Watson will reach out to the rest.

xoxo,

Lucy

Progress; Music

So we're getting closer to a rough cut of the film.  Lucy has most of her film edited, and Laura has been working hard on her edits.  I met with my editor tonight and we were able to finish up another scene.  Only a few more scenes to go.   The three of us are planning to meet this weekend to see the three stories together.  There is still the problem with "Jim's" buzz haircut in one of the stories, while in the other two stories he's sporting a full head of hair.  I also realized when looking at some of my footage that in one scene, there is a calendar in the background with an August date, even though the scene was supposed to take place 3 weeks before Valentine's day.   It's funny because when we were shooting that scene, we discussed whether we wanted to worry about the big clock in the background, but no one noticed the big calendar.   Oh, the pleasures of continuity issues.   

I've been dealing with getting the music licenses for this one song that I'd love to have in the film.   I had previously contacted the musician's manager and he had originally told me that I can use the song without any fee for festivals.   But after jumping through a few hoops, it looks like they're going to charge for us to use the music.  Bummer.  Though the amount isn't very much as music license fees go, it's still more than what we can afford.  So back to the drawing board to find a depressing, heart-wrenching song.  

For those going through music licensing issues, be aware that you will need to get two different licenses: the synch rights and the master license.  Sometimes one person/entity will own the rights to both, but I believe most times these rights will be owned by more than one person/entity.  In my case, the rights were owned by 2 different parties, and both parties asked for license fees.  

Though I'm disappointed, I know that there are a lot of very talented musicians out there who would be willing to grant us music licenses without charging an arm and a leg, in the spirit of indie filmmaking and indie music.  I'm planning to meet up with Watson, our music supervisor, within the next week or so to go over the music.   It's wonderful when you discover a beautiful song that will fit with a scene.   And even better if the music license fees are affordable.

Music for Love Song

It feels like Matt and I have spent a better part of the summer working on the rough cut for Love Song. Matt is a busy cinematographer so I’ve been blessed to have him give me so much of his free time. We finally assembled a rough cut and last night added the potential soundtrack. The previous version had music from Matt’s iTunes (well known, unaffordable songs).

I gave the rough cut to Watson, our music supervisor. He put together a list of 10 songs and cued the music where he thought they should be placed in the film. I loved 8 of Watson’s picks and I added a few of my choices to the mix. At the moment we are working with 13-14 songs (including two from The Fabulous Miss Wendy). I am very excited at the prospect of having these talented musicians be part of the Love Song soundtrack.

I broke one of the cardinal rules of filmmaking when I fell in love with one of the songs on the first temp track; Mazzy Star’s Fade into You (from Matt’s iTunes). I even wrote a letter to Hope Sandoval via the Mazzy Star website to see if I could use the song (I have not heard back). The more I watched the clip, the more I fell in love with the song and it became all about THAT SONG. It made me realize that I needed to get back to reality and put the focus on balancing the film with the music and not the other way around.

Watson did a great job with the song/scene selection. The film now has a different vibe than it did before (in a good way). I love how all these different layers are coming together to further enhance the look and feel of the film.

xoxo,

Lucy