Out of town firefighters pay their respects

The EvenHand Journal entry can be found below.

MORE SEPT. 11th MUSINGS:

Here are some photos taken around town, six months after the September 11th attack. The image of the World Trade Center has endured in an interesting way. The twin towers are featured on logos of all kinds around the city; store awnings, the sides of trucks and busses, coffee cups and T-shirts. All of the ones I have seen are pre-9/11. What is interesting to me is that while the buildings themselves no longer exist, they are such icons, and so much a part of the identity of New York that I think we will continue to see them depicted as part of the skyline for years to come.

On September 12th, I remember seeing a man at one of the Times Square souvenir shops gathering armloads of World Trade Center postcards. He clearly thought these would be difficult to come by in the coming months. On the contrary, when I walk by that same store now, their postcard rack has almost nothing but WTC postcards. Some have a memorial supertitle, but most are just the same pretty pictures of the Manhattan skyline that were there on September 10th. While I understand — and share — the need to hold onto something that’s no longer there, I find the postcards especially unsettling. Maybe it’s because postcards are traditionally a casual visual shorthand for a place; a way of saying “here’s where I am.”

Well, since it took me some time to actually write this journal entry, “Close to a Lock” became “Lock.” The picture editing phase of a film is all about choosing takes of the shots from every scene and putting them together in the order and rhythms that work best for the film. In the case of EvenHand, there was also a considerable amount of shuffling around of the finished scenes (see the File Cards journal entry). When this process is finished, picture is locked, meaning that all of the specific editorial choices are finalized. Once this happens, a whole bunch of other events occur.

On the purely creative side, the score begins to take shape. Joel Goodman, our composer, has been working on themes and some specific music cues over the past couple of months. But now that picture is locked, he can begin to write much more specific music, knowing that the internal timing of specific scenes and the scene order won’t be changing.

I have also begun the process of finalizing deals for other music for the film. When we were in San Antonio, Lovisa (my assistant) went out almost every night to local clubs and listened to a huge amount of music. She returned to New York with a giant stack of CDs. As a result, almost all of the songs featured in EvenHand are from relatively obscure Texas bands, many of which are San Antonio-based. Without exception, all of the music is awesome. Check out our LINKS PAGE for more information on the bands and their music.

I have also commissioned a great songwriter and former lead singer/songwriter from a legendary band (a friend of Bill Dawes’) to write five songs for EvenHand. He has surpassed my expectations and delivered some incredible music. I will announce his name soon, pending the crossing of T’s and dotting of I’s on his deal.

There’s also a bunch of technical stuff that happens once picture is locked – EDL files are generated, DAT tapes are shipped, ADR spotting sessions occur. I tend to get a fixed, unfocused and slightly drooly stare going when it comes to the technical requirements. But, as long as I have some competent people around who can make sense out of it all, I’m okay. Thanks, Alex.

– Joseph Pierson