What about the scene inside the van when you're panning back and forth from between JP and Ricky from behind.

Jeremy Benson: You mean my shot stolen from Kevin Smith! We lit that, well we shot them from side angles too, but we didn't use that shot till later, when the cop stops them. For that shot we had a big light in my lap, it would move as I moved. Mark and Rezia had touch lights in their laps. It was just something William rigged together. With the touch lights it was hard to keep Rezia from picking them up and saying "Do these look like tits?"

Jeremy Benson: It wouldn't have looked so clean if Rusty hadn't of been here. Trust me.

Rusty Herring: Well (acting humble)...

Rusty Herring: It doubled the length of post production. We had to edit the thing twice. Once for video and then had to go back and edit for sound. Actually it probably more than doubled the time of editing.

Rusty Herring: Well, the camera that was used to record the video didn't have a working microphone input plug. So you had the choice of using the on camera mike, which makes your talent sound far off on long shots. So they used a boom mike and a second camcorder. They ran both cameras at the same time. They got video and a scratch track of audio on the SVHS and then using a High 8 camera to record the good clean audio. We had to replace the scratch track sound with the good sound in post. So it at least doubled the time of post production. Its a little harder to synch up the sound than it is a picture. You can look at two frames and if they are close you can move a frame or two and find where they match, but with audio it is different. You have a wave form that you can look at to see if you are in the ball park, but you have to tweak it a little bit to match it up with the video. It has been a challenge.

Jeremy Benson: Another problem was that we didn't have a time code on the little camera (used for the sound only).

Rusty Herring: Oh yeah.

Jeremy Benson: We had no way to find the pieces of audio we needed other than sitting in here and fast forwarding the audio tape until we found what we needed. We definitely learned our audio lessons on this movie.

Rusty Herring: Yeah, put the sound on the same tape as the video.

Jeremy Benson: Or use time code and a scene board. "Scene 1, take 1!"

Rusty Herring: You definitely need some type of synch system. When we shoot the next one we are hoping to use a stedi cam. Now that is a very delicate balancing act. You can't hook the microphone to it. You have to use a DAT machine (digital audio tape) and a boom. We will synch the two things together. When we get to post, the first thing we will do is marry the two tracks together from the synch point on. Anything not shot with the steady cam will have good sound going onto the actual master tape. This will save us a ton of time.

Jeremy Benson: Well, my knees don't move much....

Jeremy Benson: The first time we shot it he just walked up. I said that he needed to be more animated, so that's when he added the little jump step. We just thought it would be funny not to show his face until JP came out to meet him. It was our idea that if we showed his feet and then his back and then told his name that people would get the idea that this guy is trouble. That he is going to cause JP a lot of trouble.

Jeremy Benson: I'd like to get it submitted to some festivals, to Sundance or Cannon, either one, but they're so hard to get into. From what I understand, you have to have an excellent piece of film to send them or they won't even consider it.

Rusty Herring: Or have someone write a great review to make it sound like a great movie!

Jeremy Benson: We didn't even pay actors, what are you talking about!

Jeremy Benson: It's in the works. (It is up and running now.)

Jeremy Benson: They haven't seen anything. I told my dad that he could come to the screening but that he wouldn't like it. He said, "Son, you or your actors can't say anything on that screen that I haven't heard before." (I wonder about the Shrimp scene), My Mom said, "I don't think I'm coming.

Jeremy Benson: No. You don't know my Mom. My mom is a church lady. She's not big on bad language. She thought "The Green Mile" had way to much cussing in it. The whole time we've been editing this I keep saying to Rusty "I can't let my Mom see this." I told her she could come, I'm proud of what I've made, but you can't tell dad to turn it off half way through. If you want to kill me, you'll have to wait till the next time I come over to your house. I'll just have to wait about 7 months before I go over.

Jeremy Benson: What impressed me the most about the whole experience was the way everybody got behind it. They gave up their week nights, their weekend. They are all working full time and still, they showed up. Sometimes I had to prod them. But the truth is that they would show up in a good mood, with the exception of Rezia, who wanted to be doing something else. Once we started shooting, everyone got into it. After, they wanted to go back and watch the footage. They hounded me. When are we going to get to see it? I'd say, when I get the money to edit it. I was real proud of everyone.

Rusty Herring: I'm impressed with it too. I've said that too. In fact a couple of people that work here have seen parts of it and are impressed. The kids did a great job.

Jeremy Benson: The one thing that people have said when it comes to bad acting is that scene, when Andy says about the bird "Did it die, It can't die." And then he falls back. That's how we wanted the scene to go. He said it like he was trying to make a joke and they didn't laugh, so he says "Sorry."

Jeremy Benson: No. I mean, I wish I had an older English man to play the part....personally, I don't think Mark did that bad of a job (playing JP's Grandfather). You can't understand a lot of what he is saying, but you get the gist that he's going on and on about batteries. It happens, it's over with and you get back to the story. I think it's one of those things that after you see the movie, you can sit back and ask "What about that guy with the batteries. What the hell was that all about?" It's just a crazy scene. I'm happy with it. It was a lot longer, but thanks to Rusty it got cut down.

Rusty Herring: We had a logistical problem in that to enter the film into the film festivals that he was looking at, the film had to be 90 minutes long. The longest broadcast quality tape I have is 93 minutes. So we have a very narrow window of opportunity for the thing to end. That was one reason we cut the film like we did. We cut it into 6 sections. I didn't have enough drive space on the computer to put the whole film in there and adjust the time that way. We did it in 6 segments and timed them as we went along. We were able to fit it on the tape.

Jeremy Benson: 91 minutes 53 seconds.

Rusty Herring: We have each segment on its own 30 minute tape. We will take each segment into the analog suite and drop each section onto the master tape, tweak the audio as we go, put the film finish look on it and the widescreen masking effect.

Jeremy Benson: That gave it that strobe effect.

Rusty Herring: Yeah, it makes it look like it's lost a frame here and there. It all adds up nicely.

Rusty Herring: Is it next Thursday?

Jeremy Benson: (exasperated) yeah it is. You better be there.

Rusty Herring: We better hurry and finish the last segment.

Jeremy Benson: You want to see the closing credits?

Jeremy Benson: I'm real proud of this.

Jeremy Benson: That's Stone Temple Pilots.

Jeremy Benson: I wrote to Atlantic Records and they wrote back saying contact Warner Brothers Special Section. I just wrote Warner Brothers. They sent me back a letter giving me festival permission to use the song.

Jeremy Benson: Yeah, as long as the film is entered into festivals it's OK to use the music. If we sell the movie then we have to contact them.

RETURN TO BEGINNING

Rusty White