The Coming Of Seditiosa

Thank you to all who remember and sent their best wishes on my Birthday!!

You must also know that both, Jac and I, celebrate the same birthday date. Yes, the 7th of October is my birthday as well as Jac’s but with 13 years difference.

Jac had all the intention of missing his birthday this time, so he could finish the job he was doing by Saturday evening; however, on Friday night, the 6th, he was dragged out of the house by his cousin to go to a club where Erix, Jac’s son, was performing. So he went. A couple of beers wont hurt, he told himself.

Next morning Jac got up early enough with a bit of a hangover, he not only had beers, he also had rum and not very little. As far as he was concerned, he had a good birthday celebration the night before, so he sat in front of his computer to get into the work; but then his family, led by his brother, dragged him out of the house to a huge family party they call Salteñada, where the main dish are some exotic and delicious meat pies… but there were tons of other food, and drinks, and cake, and candles and the party lasted ALL DAY, the last guests left after midnight. The party began at noon.

His brother had sent invitations to a lot of people with the theme Jac’s eternal 17 years.

Jac decided to work on the film all Sunday, but he had some issues that day too, people arrived to visit him to continue with the celebration … all in all, his entire weekend was dedicated to celebrate his new year on this planet. There were over 50 people at the party. Mostly relatives, but some of the regular cast and crew were attending too.

I’m not in the same city, so I did not participate in person. My bday weekend was more modest, with few very close friends and family enjoying food and drinks. But we called each other and participated in both parties by zoom. It was beautiful. But Jac was very dictatorial. He ordered me to take the weekend off, completely. So I did. I took the entire weekend off.

We are in the middle of October and the tensions are very high where our incredibly dedicated Team of One is working to release Seditiosa.

There are intense discussions between Jac the director, Jac the editor and, most importantly Jac the producer who is wielding a heavy whip to make those other two work faster, particularly the editor, in whose hands the fate for the film rests.

At one point Jac the director, who was watching the work closely, said to the editor: That’s good, I think that’s good. Set it up so I can see it all together and process a clip of the one hour and 15 minutes part for me and work on the fine cut of the last 20 min post haste!

The editor looked into the director’s eyes reflected on the screen with a smirk on his face, and proceeded to do just that, without any promises, while the director wandered into other fantastic projects in his brain.

When the clip was done and was approved by the director, the editor passed it along to the producer for him to upload it to Vimeo so the uncredited Associate Producers, the initiators of the film could see it and render their opinion.

Jac the producer sent the link to me so that I could share it with the privileged two, who then had the chance to see most of the film without the benefit of color correction and sound mix which they understood.

I’m really happy to report that the film, or at least most of the film so far, made a great impression on its very first three viewers, one of those viewers was me. I will comment about my impressions in the future, all I have to say right now is that it looks amazing… ehem… to me.

In my experience, showing the film for the first time to people who are behind it can be stressful. Will they like it? Will they be disappointed? The reality in making movies is that movie directors cannot please everyone, not even themselves, ask Woody Allen.

Another reality is that the original vision goes through a thousand changes as the film is made, even during post production… and that can cause people to not be very happy with the end result. That’s normal and there’s nothing one can do about it. Some people will love it, some people wont.

Having said that and having watched the film as well, I have to say that I’m truly impressed by it all. So I share the feelings of the Privileged Two.

Incredible stuff, Margot. The whipping scene was gripping, and the carrying scenes contain some truly stunning landscape shots.

The whipping scene was the harder to shot and even harder to edit, so many shots were involved, so many situations, and there were so many difficulties that made Jac the director bitch and bitch some more. But I have to say that he pulled it off.

Early in his career, Jac learned that the editing of the film creates its very soul. It is the most important part of making a movie.

When Jac the editor was going over the footage, he bitched a lot more than the director. That’s a fact. He even blamed Jac the Cinematographer for all the problems he had putting the film together. Why is that stupid guy wearing a hat? He screamed at the cinematographer. Didn’t you see that? WTF!

The cinematographer did not respond, he was just as annoyed… there were many little things like that at times an the editor had to deal with them.

This was a good morning! Viewed the film for breakfast with a good coffee. Great stuff M! I salute the project as a whole! 

After having the Associate Producers watch the film, at least 1 hr 15 minutes of it, and exchanging comments, with me, mostly, Jac took a good look at the film, specially the last 20 minutes, which Jac the editor had worked on for a couple of days, and decided, as a good director would, that there were some things that could be done to that last part of the movie to make it even more intense.

Some critical parts of what was already cut in the clip he saw, had to be cut again and merged into the last 20 minutes. A complicated task, the editor complained, the cinematographer did not shoot it with that in mind, he almost whispered under his breath, but he didn’t have to, he simply transmitted his thoughts to the director, very much aware that the cinematographer had total access to those angry thoughts. The director made me do that, the cinematographer was heard screaming from way back in Jac’s brain. The director wanted to blame the producer… but at the end just shrugged his shoulders

So, the editor got back at work, to comply with the director’s wishes, he was compeled to open his mind as he did for the very elaborate and intense whipping scene. He marveled at the mental suggestions the director sent his way. It is so obvious! the editor was heard screaming by the pigeons up on the roof and the cats on the couches in the editing room. He got very excited about the possibilities but first consulted with the cinematographer.

Those nice open shots with all six women on them will disappear, he told him. WTF! the cinematographer screamed from a far corner where he was working on some test shots with Ligia. But after hearing the reasons why those shots will be gone, he had to agree, reluctantly at first.

The editor worked on his idea, on an alternative Premiere Pro Timeline so as not to loose what he had worked on already. After cutting, here, cutting there, bringing that shot here, that shot there and eliminating those shots back there, he had something to show. All four of them, Director, Editor, Cinematographer and Producer, sat in front of the monitor, the big monitor, and all four in one person, with though two green eyes, saw the new cut. All four of them said … Wow!

It looked that good.

Great, finish it and let me know when I can share a clip. Exclaimed the director and the Editor is working on that right now.

Meanwhile, the inside discussions by our team are interesting. Some think that the film should get a big release in movie theaters, that it will be controversial because of the subject matter, a female Christ, which has a strong feminist angle, particularly these days when the Nobel Peace award went to a woman who is in prison for defying the rulers in Iran and was sentenced to 154 lashes, apart from a jail sentence. I read a bit about that amazing woman and she’s very much like Yahel and Judith, facing practically the same kind of paradigm two millennias apart.

The theme of Seditiosa is both ancient and contemporary, that makes the film incredibly interesting and the way it is portrayed has the potential to attract viewers not very familiar with Jac’s work and it might very well reach a larger audience way beyond our fans. Having a theatrical release is becoming more and more an attractive proposition.

We are in the last stage of the project. We are working on the details of the release all this week. That includes de sound mix, color correction, title and credits, subtitles, and other little details. When that is completed we’ll process the master of the film.

Our plan looks like this.

• We will be uploading a clip of the complete film for first viewing for the privileged ones any moment now. This clip will not be the master.

• Once the master is done, we’ll be releasing the film to those who contributed to the IndieGoGo campaign and to our pre buyers, we will be uploading the film to the platform as early as next week. We’re thinking of a premiere type of streaming on October 31st, on Halloween, yes. As soon as the film has been uploaded to the platform we’ll send links to it to our supporters.

• At the end of November we will have the Official Premiere of the film at an International Film Festival and at a movie theater for its limited theatrical release, after that, the film will be up in our stores, platforms and so on.

To be part of the pre release experience you can still contribute to the cause here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=JSZNKPF77PFDY

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