The Pearl of Greatest Price

I know I’m late… But October 31st still qualifies, doesn’t it?

The Pearl has been a blessing and a struggle this last month; a struggle, because I can’t ever find the time to sit down and edit - or when I do have time, I don’t have the drive; a blessing, because we have finished with shooting all the main characters, with a possible exception… (could I really ever say we’re through?)

But in reality, I have resigned myself to making the best movie possible with the footage available. That’s not a negative thing: What we have is, for the most part, great. What I’m talking about is the final conclusion of shooting the movie, the part I’ve enjoyed the most. It was definitely bitter-sweet to say, “You’re done.”

One by one, the actors finished their job, and I had the pleasure of telling them they were “wrapped” - that they could separate themselves from their character… to cut hair, change looks, and otherwise be free from the way things started, a year ago. Yes, it’s been almost a year since shooting began.

Despite my statements claiming the status before, the movie is now irrevocably into post-production. It is definitely another step closer to finishing. Please, keep up your support… in your Facebook posts, in your coffee conversations, and in your prayers! There are so many more hurdles to jump through: Music is a big thing, which must be started on NOW. I have asked for permission to use 2 songs (and still haven’t heard back), but we need more. Pray that God sends the right musicians to cover it.

Well, until next month, thanks for supporting the project!

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Well, this update is going to be somewhat negative. That’s because times are tough! But don’t let this update get you down… Things are still progressing, despite trials and tribulations.

September has been… well, what can I say. Tough. There are a number of reasons that finishing this movie is proving to be the hardest thing about it. Let me tell you about a few of them.

The biggest news is, all the work that was done on the rough cut is gone. What happened you say? Did we lose everything? Is that the end of the movie? Let me answer those questions one at a time, is reverse: No, the movie continues. None of the footage was lost. What happened, was, I decided to update the backup copy of the footage with the reshoots and all. A very smart thing to do, right? So, I hook up the external drive that holds the backup to the computer, and proceed to back all the footage up. But what I don’t realize is that I mistakingly tell the backup to go to one of the internal drives instead. When I realize my mistake, I think “well, having 3 copies of the footage is good”, I think - so I let it continue.

Two hours later, I find out that the new program I was using (and unfamiliar with) went ahead and removed all the files on that internal drive… including every bit of work done on the movie to date.

Needless to say, I have to start over, technically from scratch. But truthfully, I am familiar with the footage and it shouldn’t take long to get back to where I was.

…that is to say, if I have time. Another element affecting the movie is that I am extremely busy at work. As a matter of fact, This has been one of the busiest I can remember. Once school starts, it has traditionally been a time of “catching my breath” before the Christmas season starts. Well, not this year. Things are really jumping. Is that bad? No. I love where God has put me. I think He’s doing things and growing a church, and I’m very happy to be a part of it. But because this movie is done on off-time, well… the time I have to give to it gets chiseled at over and over again. I made a decision that when I got through with filming, I would give more time to my family. The movie has moved further down the priorities list, and I’m finding it hard to find time to work on it.

Not everything is negative, though. We’re working on music, we’ve done some great reshoots, and the movie looks OK at the rough. But the prayer is, that I can keep a focus and find the time to edit. Maybe, find a process to spread the editing out to other people, too. I’m really open to anything. So please, pray. A lot has to happen in the next 2 months. Pray that the obstacles are removed, that I can prioritize correctly, and pray for a lot of time.

As always, if you want to get weekly(ish) updates, become a friend on Facebook. Search for “The Pearl of Greatest Price”. If you want daily(ish) updates, we’re on Twitter: “pearlproject”

Until next month…

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