Music, music, music!

The first whole songs have started to trickle in from Richard.

VERY excited; we'll probably start laying down the tracks something this week, and we should have received the complete score from Richard by next or so (crossing fingers!).

Unfortunately, can't quite share the tracks or anything just yet - we want it to be a surprise. Well, I'd be happy to post a track or two, but Marc insisted on keeping things tight so you can all blame Marc.

We're planning on screening the updated cut perhaps here in New York, and probably another one back in California when Marc and I both get back.

Otherwise, feel like the film has received a directly injected boost of caffeine in the arm.

Keep an eye on this space, I'll have some more updates posted soon.

Holy shit, it's been a while.

Indeed it has.

I'm terribly sorry for the long gap between this blog post and the last one. I'm afraid the twenty or so people who actually read this blog might have gotten the perception that we'd stopped our work on Parachute Kids, and shelved it for good.

Which is totally not true.

We've been working our asses off.

We've drastically recut the entire film, which basically means we watched the film several times until we found out what worked, and what didn't, and then proceeded to fix it. Entire scenes have ended up on the cutting room floor, and we've restructured the film so it hopefully flows better. We've also added title cards that we actually shot, but I won't say too more on that (not to over hype it, or anything. They're just title cards). According to our producer, the music should be done sometime this month, maybe sometime in the next two weeks. And once we get the music in, we should have a drastically different cut worlds away from the one some of you viewed a couple months ago.

Our hope is that this cut will be loads better. Once again, not to over hype that as well, but we are crossing our fingers.

That's all for the moment. I'll be writing another post next week or so to provide an update on the music, and other little things that may have popped up.

freedom at last!

hey guys,

last night i finished my last paper for class this semester... which means i'm free for the next month! which really means, i now have no excuse to not work on the film!
... but really i'm looking forward to having some solid time to dedicate to it!

ema's working on editing it down a bit this week (really just tweaking it hear and there)... and then it's pretty much just color correction and the score...

i'm excited to come back to california... it's getting quite chilly here in new york :)

-marc

Decemberpost.

This is the first week of December, which is as good of a reason as any for a new blog post. So here we are.

No news on the music thus far, although we expect Richard and Katie are hard at work at it. After all, you know what they say: "You can't rush art." Of course there's the obvious example to the contrary - we shot Parachute Kids over seven days, and finished editing in about a month and a half - but that's besides the point. I like to believe somewhere in the strange, fantastical regions of my mind that writing music is different.

Unless it just so happens that Beethoven finished his Symphony No. 9 in less than 24 hours. Nope, I just checked on Wikipedia. It took him six years. Ha! My argument still stands.

slashfilm.com posted this on John Hillcoat's next film, which he also briefly talked about when Marc and I were at the Apple Store in Soho for The Road. It was pretty depressing. Apparently Nick Cave had just finished a screenplay, people had read it and agreed that it was better than The Proposition (which is a pretty high bar to eclipse), Hillcoat had gotten big-profile names like Shia LaBeouf, Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson interested in it, but it's going to be nearly impossible for him to secure funding for it because film execs these days are all half-assed pussies only willing to push "franchise films and low budget comedies".

But anyway, they're going to call the film The Promised Land. Which is very funny, but only because a film in the works by a good friend of ours (and the co-director of Parachute Kids) David Kirkeby, happens to be titled Through the Promised Land.

Marc pestered him about the title on Facebook, and he kind of mutely replied, "generic title". Which it is, in a way.

UPDATE: Just heard this, but apparently Richard has started recording the score! Hooray! I can't wait to hear it.

John Hillcoat.

Marc and I were at the Apple Store in Soho last Tuesday.

No, we weren't there to admire the Appletech on display, although I must admit that it's one of my favorite pastimes. John Hillcoat, director of the soon to released film The Road was there to speak about the movie. As Marc and I were ardent fans of The Proposition (a badass Australian western, also directed by Hillcoat) and Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, it seemed like a pretty logical thing to do.

The moderator/interviewer wasn't too inspiring, but things got a lot better when they opened up the floor to questions from the audience. Marc totally got up and asked a question, which is only cool because they were filming the interview which means that if you download the John Hillcoat interview from iTunes Podcasts, you'll probably hear/see Marc in it. Well, his question was pretty cool too, but the fact that he's on the podcast is so much more fucking cooler.

Another guy admitted to having smoked a joint before asking his question, whereupon things in the room immediately got very quiet and awkward. I wonder if they left the guy in the podcast. I have a feeling they might have edited him out.

What made it all worthwhile, though, was when John Hillcoat started to paint a very dreary, apocalyptic view of the future of the film industry. Well, what he basically said was, "for the next eighteen months, the film studios will fund and release nothing but franchise films and low budget comedies." He then railed on about how the faltering economy had scared film studios out of taking risks, and that in this day and age it would be nearly impossible to get the studios to agree to produce a film like The Road. Or for that matter, a film like There Will Be Blood or No Country for Old Men (Marc can probably think up of better examples).

Pretty scary. But Marc got his copy of The Road signed by Hillcoat, which made everything better in the end.

I feel like this blog is slowly becoming The Adventures of Marc and Michael.

Hi There!

Michael's been bugging me for the last month to post something up here... so here it is!

In case you don't know me... hello, pleased to make your acquaintance.
I was a director on the film, Parachute Kids, along with David Kirkeby. I'm currently in New York and working hard on finishing the beast... well, I'm not working so hard anymore, but the film is being worked on...hardly... i mean, very hard... i mean, well (this is dumb, i know)... we're trying to get the score together before i get back to L.A.. Picture's pretty much locked, just need that music...

This film has been in the works for a long long time and everyone who worked on it put so much love and effort into it. It wouldn't have been possible without all the wonderful passion and support we've gotten from everyone involved. It's been one of the best experiences i've had so far (in film, in life). So, thank you so so much! I hope you get to watch the film soon, and I hope it doesn't disappoint.

enough cheesy sentimentality...

we will be posting more as soon as progress is made... well, Michael will probably be posting... or maybe Adriana... me if you're lucky...

spread the word!

-marc

Rambling.

Just checking in to make sure I don't lose your attention.

We seem to be in that awkward phase where we don't have much to do work-wise with the film but this one thing, and we're all waiting eagerly for that one thing to get finished. But because it isn't yet, I think we're all pretty unsure what to do with ourselves.

Mind, we've been working on Parachute Kids for about a year and a half now. Probably more. It's a bit of a surprise to all of us that we actually got it finished, and now that's it's nearly done, our hands (and I suppose our minds, at least figuratively) are being fidgety.

We've thought of a few ideas as to what our next project might be, but none of us really wants to commit ourselves to anything just yet with Parachute Kids still unfinished. Oh, and just a sidenote - when I say "we", for the most part I mean just me. Now that I think about it, I'm not quite to sure what that whole "we" thing was about. Huh.

Anyway, expect to see more mindless rambling hereabouts. Just a disclaimer. I'm going to try and get Marc and Adriana and some other people to post some as well, just to spice things up. And if anything substantial does happen to Parachute Kids (updates on the score, festival submissions, what have you) we'll keep you posted.

Haha. I've always wanted to say that. "We'll keep you posted." Although I've realized that it's what people say when they find that don't have anything else to say.