4.24.09

Hard core editing sessions lately.

Taking it down in 4 hour increments when I get home from work. If I had to guess, I'd say the initial, rough cut is around 70% complete. 

There's just so much footage; it's like a whale beached itself, and I have to carve out the nicest piece of whale-steak from the carcass, acting quickly before the meat spoils, acting quickly before I starve. You don't want to know what it's like.

Follow DorsiaFilms on Twitter! We're hip to it only a few weeks after your mother. Will there be more frequent status updates than there are on the Production Blog? At only 140 characters, it's a certainty.

Finally, the Live at the Showbox DVD is the 100,628 most popular in the Movies & TV category on Amazon.com! Why not buy two? One to open, and the other to keep in the display case with the action figures.

3.19.09

Just read that former Long Winter Sean Nelson will be hosting the morning radio show "The Morning End" on Seattle radio station 107.7 The End next week, March 23-27.

Say what you will about The End and their merry-go-round of host and format changes over the years, but I think bringing in a local musician to host the show is a good idea. From listening to his Audioasis appearances on KEXP and his guest appearances on The End through the years, I think it's a good "get" for them. Sean's good at the radio thing, and he brings a singular wit that assumes intelligence in the listener so often lacking from the morning drive radio shift.

Eddie Spaghetti from the Super Suckers hosted this week, and there's no indication yet of who will host the week after Sean. Seems like the station is trying to guage response, so if you like the show and you want to hear more of it with Sean at the helm, a call or an e-mail is a good idea.

3.9.09

In what will likely be the last review the Live at the Showbox DVD gets, we have one from Blurt Magazine.

Many reviews have come in the form of backhanded compliment, along the lines of, "well, live show DVDs are generally garbage, but this one is pretty good!" In that way, it's nice to at least be near the top of the pig pile.

Snow is falling, the whirring engines of the Mac Pro are heating my room, and with that the work continues on the first cut of the documentary.

3.5.09

Just updated the dorsiafilms.com site with a few housekeeping changes. A few things you might notice:

1. In an effort to transition away from auto-playing Flash videos, we're switching to the more user friendly Vimeo embedded videos. This should make it easier to both post more clips and for other people to embed them in their own personal sites for sharing, which is encouraged. And it kicks YouTube's ass.
2. Added some animated banner ads. These were going to be for the new www.thelongwinters.com website relaunch, but we like them too much to wait. Feel free to take and share those too on your social media platform of choice. They're so cool, it won't even feel like you're advertising for us. Promise.
   

The Live at the Showbox DVD has almost sold out. If you haven't purchased it yet, now is the time because we're not sure yet if there will be another pressing. That decision should be made within the month.

Do you miss the banter of TLW shows? If you aren't following John Roderick via Twitter, you really should. Regularly updated, you'll learn things you never knew about the day to day life of JRod. It's rock star demystification in 140 characters or less.

1.30.09

I was cleaning the lense of my camera before going to John Roderick's house this week and thinking about how long it had been since our last on-camera interview. Too long, and the dates written on my archived tapes proved it. I had become sidetracked with the production and release of the Live at the Showbox DVD, a process that took me away from my initial ambition. I had been editing all along, but not shooting, and the story doesn't just stop when you turn your camera off.

What began as an exploration many years ago of a band recording a CD and the people behind the music has become something more. The documentary is not about Putting the Days to Bed, and the more I think about it the more I realize it never was.

So in the unseasonably bright afternoon sunlight, I woke John with a knock on his door. Robed and bleary eyed he let me in so I could set up. Lately he's been keeping banker's hours.

If your bank is in Amsterdam.

I shot 3 hours of interview footage with John, picking up where we left off last time. I think editing has made me a better interviewer, because as I sift through the footage I already have I see spots where I could have narrowed the focus sooner and made my job easier.

Thing is, I'm not sure that my interviews with John could ever be called that. He's like a Rube Goldberg Project of conversation; I'll ask one question and get the answer, rolling the egg down the ramp into the bunsen burner that burns the string above it that leads to answers to another 10 questions I haven't even asked yet. It's a great experience and a challenge to edit, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Some of the topics we covered included the process of recording the newest record, choosing to live and work in Seattle, how and were the music and the lyrics are constructed (including tools used for their construction), addiction and sobriety, and his father.

We also discussed some roster changes. As has been reported elsewhere, Nabil Ayers has accepted a job as a label manager in New York for 4AD. I'm positive success and happiness will follow, because that's how it goes for Nabil. More than being a great drummer, he's also a great person and while I'm sad his new responsibilities keep him from the band I'll be pulling for his success in this other endeavor.

12.29.08

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating their mono/multi/a/theistic holiday of choice.

A few more reviews are online, one from Tim Hanken at Easy Street Records, a really great music store in Seattle, where they made it a "Staff Pick".

Another from My Old Kentycky Blog.

Have you already purchased the DVD? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Why not review it on your blog, or at Amazon.com, which I've heard is a somewhat popular internet site for buying things. Because the marketing budget was $0.00, every little bit is appreciated.

12.8.08

A few more reviews to read:

One from The Stranger, and another from The Seattle Weekly.

The DVD is selling really well, and it makes me happy that so many Long Winters fans have something to watch and re-watch until the band goes on tour again.

Be sure to support your local, independent record stores this time of year. It may be easier to just stay home in your jammies ordering gifts, but they, and I, need your support in order to keep working.

On that topic, I want to emphasize that I am not making any money on the sale of this DVD, and in fact am taking a large financial loss. Even if every one of them sells, the best case scenario is that I get back half of what I put into it.

Please consider donating to DorsiaFilms (using the button on the upper RIGHT corner of the page) to help offset this burden and keep future film projects (like the documentary film) going. Thanks!