Last night I got the bad news that the director, Chadwick, is not going to be able to stay onboard. Here’s his email:

Lee,

I got some nasty news. Due to a number of projects I have going on
and the unexpectedly shortened shooting schedule of my video project
in minneapolis, I don’t think I’m going to be able to give your
project the attention it needs. My friend andrew and i received
funding for a video project last august and we need to knock it out
over the summer. originally this was not the case but due to changes
in his life and mine, it has to be this way. but, I know how
important this project is to you so I don’t want to leave you hanging
and I will still to what I can to help but I think you’d be much
happier with someone who could devote more time and energy to the
project. I wont leave you hanging if you really need me and we can
talk about this more but if you had someone else in mind, they would
probably serve you better.

sorry about this, my life is just getting far too complicated right
now and I’m barely able to juggle the things I have.

i hope your solitude is productive in LA. I never made it down like
I thought I would.

You can see why I work with the people I do. They are the most amazingly stand up bunch of folks ever.

I read this last night after spending 8 hours stuck at the SF airport.
This morning I’m re-org’ing. As it stands now, I think Skye will be stepping into the director’s role. I spoke with him and Elise today, and they both feel like that is a logical move. He’ll give the project a very different flavor, but given that, like Chadwick, I’ve seen a good deal of Skye’s work, and loved every bit of it, I’m very confident that Skye will craft a brilliant and engaging film.
Elise will probably be the sole editor. Skye and others will assist her, but there won’t be the tag team editing earlier envisioned.

I always knew these sorts of changes were going to be constantly taking place. And at this point, with such a large crew, I am hoping to move people around as folks drop out, rather than bringing in new people. I think I need to use this as an opportunity to start getting Disembody more in sync with the budget we have. I am confident we will find more investors, but at this stage I am beginning the process of bringing budget and project in line. And then I will regrow aspects of the film as we find new investors.

Anyway, that’s this morning’s big news. I have a 2pm meeting with Erin, the project designer, to look at the website and logos and other promotional materials.

Today I met with Elise, our current editor, her boyfriend Ben, and our friend Skye. Skye is a frickin’ amazing. He’s a faboo artist and incredibly skilled editor. He’s also a whiz with special fx in aftereffects. We’ve collaborated a bit and it is always a joy.

Skye has agreed to come onboard Disembody as co-editor. The more I think about it, the more I’ve been thinking that I would need more than one editor. Elise will need to sleep sooner or later. And because the nature of this project is to be generating footage, from two cameras, almost non-stop, the editor is going to be swamped day and night. Add in the confessional booth and Elise was going to be broken on the rack of my vision by Day 3 or 4.

Bringing Skye onboard, and safely assuming that Chadwick will be heavily involved in the editing suggests that maybe we can actually get footage rendered, edited, soundtracked, etc in the time we have.

So, today we moved another step closer to pulling this whole thing together and making a Hollywood flick.

In the never-ending search for an architect, I have sent out an email to the CCA MArch program in hopes that I can find a student with the skills (all of them) and time (none of them) necessary to get the drawings and 3D work done so that we can fundraise in December and January.
Airason, as you know, doesn’t have time.
And my LA contact didn’t pan out.
A random email two years ago provided me with Ted, that was about as faboo a working relationship and skilled find as one could ever desire. So, maybe I’ll get lucky again.

In less frustrating news, Chadwick knows an art film distribution company in Minneapolis that may be interested in Disembody. So that’s another potential distribution/investment source. I can’t believe that raising money and finding a distributor is ending up to be the easiest part of this projetc. And finding someone to do frickin’ basic renderings is what’s killing me.

Sheesh.