PYRITE Blog

Been such a long night here that this "June" update has technically trickled into July! Let's run with it anyway!

I'm not quite sure how it can possibly be July tomorrow, but okay then -- time for an update from the land of Hollywood 27. It feels like I've been all over the place in the past few months, and although it's all been important, I'm glad to be staying home from now until the PYRITE DVD Release hits late this summer. Lots of work to do, and it all happens locally now. So here's what's been going on...

SOUND DESIGN
The peak of the Spring chaos was probably a marathon 14-hour work day at Cobblesound Studios in North Hollywood, on Memorial Day of all days (because holidays are for wimps, LOL). Klint Macro and I pretty much skipped meals after breakfast (because food is also apparently for wimps) and pressed on until about 10pm... but I left Klint's studio with the first take of the 5.1 Dolby Digital mix of PYRITE! I then snagged about 4 hours of sleep (because, ummm, sleep is for wimps?) and then drove back to Phoenix the next morning. And no, I don't really think any of those things are for wimps by the way, but they helped to rationalize!

So after Klint and I ironed out a few glitches and finished some tweaks... and my continued education in Adobe's Creative Suite – specifically Dolby Digital encoders and AC-3 files – I gratefully had a 5.1 PYRITE DVD in hand last week. Klint then put the finishing touches on the mix last night, and we are 100% stamped DONE as of today! That's the main reason I was waiting to give an update – I really wanted the sound design complete so I could check that big milestone off the list. I need to give heartfelt thanks to Klint, Alex Ullrich, and newcomer Matt Russell (IMDB credit as SOUND EDITOR comin' at ya Matt). They all did great work knocking out our final mix, and I'm extremely grateful!

COLOR CORRECTION
A few days later I took the brand spanking new DVD, and passed it off to Matthew Walker, a local Visual Effects Editor in the Phoenix area. You can check out Matt's excellent Demo Reel here:
http://vimeo.com/12223922

As we sat down to discuss the work needed, it was refreshing to hear Matt actually compliment the SOUND of the film, as that's something we never would've heard before with the rough mix. Matt is currently working on cleaning up the color on our green screen shots, then we're meeting to go through the rest of the film in its entirety to see where else he can make improvements. That should be done sometime near the end of July, at which point... PYRITE will be 100% complete!!! No seriously. I mean it this time. Really. Not kidding. No, I promise. Seriously!!

DVD EXTRAS
As for the extras... a couple of weeks ago I sent a 16gb flash drive out to our faithful Director of Photography, RJ Blazen back in Chicago. RJ had located all the external footage for the making of the BLAZEN PLATFORM, one of the DVD Extras that I'm putting together. After some fun with Microsoft Windows, we took care of the transfer, RJ sent the drive back to me, and the last of the video files needed for the DVD Extras are now thankfully in-house here in Phoenix!. The table is set, and I'll be plugging away here nonstop until they are all complete. More details on that in next month's update...

MUSIC
To cap off the good news fest here, I am happy to report that we reached an agreement with EMI/Capitol for the Master Use and Synch licenses for PROUD MARY! That song opens the film and is actually written into the script, as performed by Ike and Tina Turner -- so yeah, we kinda needed to snag that license. Everything went smoothly, and we are clear for both festival use and DVD distribution. I'll be dotting the “I”s and crossing the “T”s on those agreements, and hopefully the other two, by end of July. The other two songs are BIG CALM by Morcheeba, and LORD GIVE ME A SIGN by DMX, for which we are currently in negotiations. That reminds me... Allan Mesia is handling the rights for us, and I've got to say he's been doing a damn fine job! I can't thank him enough for all the work he's done, and as he gets his own firm up and running out in L.A. in the near future, I can't RECOMMEND Allan highly enough to others either. He's been great to work with every step of the way.

And finally... another reason why I saved MUSIC for the final topic this month...
Talk is heating up right now about releasing a PYRITE soundtrack in tandem with the DVD, which, after cataloging all of our songs recently, I must admit I'm starting to think is a good idea. In addition to some outstanding work by Phil Doyle on the score, there are also 3 rap songs produced by Robert Winston at Cabrini Green. Phil's moody saxophone riffs can carry a soundtrack on their own, and with the 3 songs from the heart of Cabrini in the mix as well, I think we might have a pretty tight urban soundtrack to share with everyone. To that extent, I'll be putting some samples of songs from the film up on our Facebook page here and there, starting tonight. Hope you enjoy them!

Okay, I'll wrap it up, sorry for getting a bit lengthy this time around, but it's been a few months!
Happy 4th of July to everyone here in the U.S., and thanks for taking the time to catch up with Hollywood 27. I'll talk to you again in late July as the PYRITE DVD release draws closer.

--Eric

Time for a rather uplifting March update here from Hollywood 27 Productions. It's been one helluva productive month, so let me get right into the details...

SOUND DESIGN
Not long after my last update back in February, we did indeed find a final Sound Designer for PYRITE. Klint Macro has stepped up to the plate, and as soon as he finishes wrapping up a project for Cinemax, he'll be knocking out the sound design on PYRITE (work is already underway as of this update). We are expecting to have DVD-ready sound in place by the end of May! Klint brings quite the extensive resume´ to the table, as you can see from his IMDB record, working on nearly 40 Film/TV projects in the last 2 years alone!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1054917/

In addition to Klint's expertise, he has brought in Alex Ullrich to do the Foley work. Alex also has an outstanding resume´, including perhaps the most impressive of his accolades -- Foley Artist for THE HURT LOCKER. Yes, that would be the Academy Award for Best Picture THE HURT LOCKER! In case you missed it, the film also won Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Sound! We are more than excited to have this team working on the final audio mix for PYRITE, and here's a link to Alex's IMDB page if you'd like to take a look at his credentials:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/awards

LOGO CONTEST
Making a good month even better, our Logo Contest brought in several talented graphic designers, and pretty much forced me to declare two winners instead of just one. I'll be using the two logos in different situations, and I'm stoked to have a more crisp and clean identity out there for Hollywood 27. Special thanks to our winners, Robert Kerr and Penny Christou! The Logo Contest not only gave us two great logos, it also nicely opened up our network for graphic design. With the DVD cover for PYRITE waiting in the wings here, I'm confident we'll have a stunning visual package when the DVD is released late this summer. For more details on the Logo Contest, here's a direct link:
http://www.hollywood27.com/logocontest.html

DVD EXTRAS
This part of the project is now well underway, and I'll be taping on location in a few different cities next month for THE MAKING OF PYRITE featurette, the first of several DVD extras that will be announced over the next couple of months. For more on the upcoming DVD EXTRAS and other exclusive news, make sure you take a few seconds to join the HOLLYWOOD 27 e-mail list, as email subscribers get the inside scoop! Simply click here to join:
http://www.hollywood27.com/maillistform.html

HOLLYWOOD 27 ALTERNATIVE RADIO
One final tidbit of good news, this little radio side project here has gradually grown into a Top 40 Alternative radio station on LIVE 365.com! We even cracked the Top 30 recently, although I'm not sure we can hold that kind of position considering we don't do any advertising, etc. Still, it's exciting to be reaching listeners around the world, kicking out the positive vibe. As the PYRITE DVD release date moves closer, we'll be featuring some exclusive PYRITE-related content, promotions, etc. on the station. Special thanks to our listeners in Canada and Latvia (yes, Latvia), who round out our top 3 listening locales behind the US. Thanks for listening!

I gotta say it, Hollywood 27 Productions just celebrated its 12th year of existence this month, and through all these years, I've never been more amped about the work we're doing. With the PYRITE DVD coming up, a few new festival submissions (and other surprises) for the polished version of the film, and the FTD Doc on the near horizon... 2010 should be a special year. I know everyone who worked on those projects will be re-invigorated as the year rolls on, and I hope we can share these films with a large audience as things progress.

Thanks for taking the time to read this month's update – I hope to be back in late April with some more good news.

PEACE!

--Eric

A quick February update from Hollywood27...

First off, I'm hoping to sign a new Sound Mixer to contract by the end of the month, and should have that info ready for next month's update. Looking forward to getting that finalized, underway, and then ready for the DVD!

Secondly, the HOLLYWOOD 27 LOGO CONTEST is officially underway. Here's a link to the contest page, which can also be found at the top of the main hollywood27.com page:
http://www.hollywood27.com/logocontest.html

The cash award for the winning logo is $100, plus credit of course, so please pass the info along to anyone you know who might be interested.

And last of all... we have our brand new company address here in Arizona – so brand new in fact that I haven't even published it to the main website yet! Now If you need to send anything our way, send it here:

Hollywood 27 Productions
5235 E. Southern Ave
D-106-127
Mesa, AZ 85206

That's all for now, nose is to the grindstone BIG TIME, and it's a nice partly sunny/partly cloudy and rainy day here in the AZ – perfect for finishing off some accounting work, right?

Peace out from Hollywood 27!

--Eric