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Walk in the Snow by James Morison - Dynamic Lethargy Films in Literature & Fiction

The Singing Mountie

One of the old clichés of Hollywood movies is the singing mountie. Rose Marie with Nelson Eddy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028207/ is the best-known example.

I had an idea for movie about a very different kind of singing mountie. A true story I read about back in high school in Winnipeg about 1970 or 1971 inspired my idea.

Members of a local bar band was arrested in a drug investigation. It turned out that the lead singer of the band was, in fact, an undercover mountie. The band was just about to break out big when the arrests came. One detail I remember was the drummer said that he would still like play in the band with the mountie.

I thought that a standard rock band rise to success story could use this as a twist ending. Maybe someday I will follow up on this idea.

Cuts, Composites, 16:9 and My Next Film

Louie Koutis, who played the judge in My Most Difficult Case http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_most_difficult_case.php , came over for a visit this week. I showed him the most recent cut of the film and he had some suggestions. I had been thinking along the same lines, so I went ahead and did the cuts.

I tried to replace a picture on the wall in some shots of My Most Difficult Case with the composite tools in Premiere Pro. I have had some success with that, but it is a long slow process, and I haven’t been able to get something good enough to use. I think I can do that if I put more time into it, but I wonder if it is really worth the effort.

One of my ideas was to do a widescreen (16:9) version of My Most Difficult Case. I tried that out this week, and it was easier than I expected it to be.There are still a lot of tweaks I can make to it. I am not sure about the image quality though.

My distribution contract with Ouat Media http://www.ouatmedia.com/ for My Next Film http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_next_film.php comes to an end next week. I haven’t heard anything from them about it. I am not sure just when I can start selling it on my own. I did some work this week to create a good quality version of it that I can use.

My New Book is Available Now

My new book Walk in the Snow is a collection of my short stories and articles. You can buy the book at: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/walk-in-the-snow/9192996

I must admit that I published the book mainly to establish my copyright, so I am not expecting many sales. The book cost $8.99 plus shipping, but there is a download available for $2.99. You don’t have to buy it because all the stories and articles are already available on-line for free at the websites below.

Links to my stories: http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/writing.php

Articles I published on Bukisa: http://www.bukisa.com/people/DynamicLethargy

Stories and articles I published on Triond: http://www.triond.com/users/James+Beattie+Morison

Triond had a promotion on in August, so I published five new articles (plus one story) during August.

My Most Difficult Case 2010 September 12

I contacted some of the people who worked on the film to sign releases. Not everyone has gotten back to me, so I still need to follow up on this.

I read Michael Ondaatje’s book “The Conversations” recently. It is a series of conversations with Walter Murch.

In one section, Murch talks about using music to help a visual transition. There were a couple of transitions in My Most Difficult Case where I thought that might help. I added some music. It’s in the place where I want it, but the music isn’t quite right. I think it will work eventually.

I tried some experiments with compositing. There is a picture on the wall in one scene, and I have no way to contact the person who did the picture to get a release. I want to cover it up some how. I made some progress and I have something that looks OK. It is finicky business and it will take me a while to get it looking good enough to use.

My Most Difficult Case Progress Report – September 5, 2010

I got back to work on My Most Difficult Case (http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_most_difficult_case.php) this week. I didn’t do much in August, because I decided to write and post some articles on Triond. I did six altogether.

My first goal was to recreate what Vildo Sturam did when he did a re-edit a few years ago. I got that done this week. While I worked on the recreation, I got inspired.

I cut some of the Judge’s lines and I want to rerecord some of them with different emphasis. With the defence lawyer’s presentation, I only made a few minor changes. I redid most of the prosecutor’s talk from scratch. Besides that, I did several small tweaks through out the film.

Overall, the film is about nine seconds shorter. There is still more I can do with it.

The sound needs more work. I've done some stuff, but I think it is better to get an experienced sound person to help me on the sound. Someone suggested I add more music too.

When I sold My Next Film, I had to scramble to get all the releases in place. I have most of the releases for My Most Difficult Case in place, thanks to the production manager Tyler Shandro. Still, I have several more that I need to get. Mostly from people who worked on the later shoots.