'Final Picture Editing' or 'Joe Will Fix That'

I don't know when it started, but we have a nickname for the computer counter that we use to track scene numbers. I have no idea what it's really called, but one day in complete frustration of trying to ask for 'that scene counter thing', I simply called it 'puff-puff'. It has remained 'puff-puff' ever since. Even In serious retake meetings, Clay Renfroe (stone faced with a business attitude) would ask for 'puff-puff'. It is now universally understood what 'puff-puff' is and I don't think I'll ever learn the real name.
Why would I want to?





Final picture editing is the one of the last steps in bringing KP to cable boxes and dishes around the world. We receive the raw animation (without sound effects and music) from our overseas animation studio and we cut, alter, re-time, flop, re-sequence to our satisfaction. Sometimes we will try to get closer to the timing we had previously established in the animatic phase. Sometimes the raw animation will bring a new beating heart and we will have to follow a new road it has presented before us.
Joe Molinari is a very important man behind the scenes at KP. He has edited final picture for me for a long time. He understands the pace and feel of KP and always brings fresh insight to whatever crosses his Avid. No matter what the schedule is like, I want Joe to do a first pass on raw episodes. There's no need to discuss the episode upfront, In fact, I prefer it if he knows nothing about what he's about to work on. It provides a fresh, first time perspective and he can base his opinions based on first impressions, instead of an idea that I've lived with for months. I know that shallow praise is handed out too often in Hollywood, but Joe is the real deal. He understands film and respects the vision of what the director is trying to achieve and makes it better.




When we received the raw footage from Part One of the finale it was pretty straight forward. Starburst did a very good job of following the boards and enhancing the acting.
Part One is mostly all 'set-up' and it all seemed to work from the beginning, but it still provided a challenge. How do you establish the pace and feel of a 2 parter without having the second part? We were able to finesse the timing on STD and SIT because we had all the parts at the same time. This time around we had to rely on what we had established in the animatic and keep our fingers crossed for the best.

Part Two was another situation entirely. While Part One has an intricate set-up with well written dialog and groundwork, Part Two is a Michael Bay style apocalypse. It is massive and loud with CG characters running around blowing stuff up. It is requiring a strong shared vision to plow forward because there was a lot of 'elements', but little flow.
Joe did a terrific job of making sense of all this chaos, but ultimately it was one of the longest sessions we have ever had. However, after a 2 day session, I feel we wrangled this bear of a show to the ground. The show isn't 'locked' yet as it is being reviewed by executives, but we will lock the final episode on KP on Monday. After that, it's all about the ADR, retakes, sound effects, music and sleep.



'Soundtrack Of My Life' for the week of 6/11-
Crowded House- Time On Earth. People are like suns, indeed.

KP countdown- 28 days.