In December 2003 we shot the additional pick-ups needed and as soon as I returned from Japan in February post-production kicked into high gear. Since our budget didn't permit a G5 with Final Cut Pro :-( editing was done on my Windows 2000 system in Adobe Premiere 6.5. Film was transferred to BetacamSP and then dubbed to MiniDV. The MiniDV footage was digitized via FireWire and then the 3:2 pulldown was removed in Adobe After Effects. Finally the footage, now back at 24fps, was imported into Premiere and the film was cut. Production sound was used for editing and then when picture was locked, a QuickTime movie was created to be used for the sound mix.

We used the ProTools studio at Film Arts Foundation and the skilled services of Patrick Bowsher to do the foley, ADR and mix. Thanks everyone for your patience with the ADR process. With your help it was completed and the sound track is finally coming together.

We are now ready to shoot titles, conform the negative and get an answer print.

The film festival submission process has been started and already DIEZ has been submitted to two festivals.

We are lucky to have the music of local artists, Rene Pena-Govea and Erick Recinos-Rosas (Santero), courtesy of Greg Landau, for the DIEZ sound track. These are great artists and I encourage everyone to catch a local show if you can.

As always, I am grateful for my crew, cast, friends and family. Be safe and stay tuned!

(Immanuel)

Dec. 3, 2003
DIEZ in Post-production

DIEZ is in the can and except for a few more days of pickups we are in post-production. Special thanks to the extremely dedicated and talented cast and crew. The footage looks beautiful on 35mm film!

I am cutting the film using Adobe Premiere on a PC. This has proven problematic and I spent about a week trouble shooting various PC compatibility problems. I even contemplated buying a Mac as I really hit a wall trying to figure out the problem. In the end swapping out firewire cards did the trick and the system is running fine. I have all of the footage logged and digitized and am assembling a roughcut.

I'm shooting for a final cut of the film by February so we can get the film submitted to some festivals.

I feel really fortunate to have had the chance to work with my cast and crew. Could not have done this without your dedication. Thanks everyone!

(Immanuel)

Oct. 19, 2003
Pre-production

Pre-production has been very busy but it looks like things are on track for our 10/31 – 11/3 shoot.

I am really excited to have David Doko onboard as our DP. David has shot many films and is a graduate of NYU. Most recently David was DP for the local feature film by Sung Kim, Book of Rules www.bookofrules.com.

On the casting side we are really lucky to have Ben Soriano, Juana Samayoa, Ali Allie and Sonja Starkovich onboard! I hope to add a page with a brief bio and picture of the cast soon. Welcome aboard!

The auditions of 10/4 were a huge success thanks to the very talented actors that showed up and the dedication of Priscilla Hazlewood, Christine Loué-Ozuna, Seema Arora and Carlos Ismael. Thanks everyone!

Angie Reza is production manager and has been a huge help! She sourced some great DIEZ props from a recent trip to Juarez, Mexico.

Carlos Ismael is a filmmaker from Mexico City and will be the 2nd AC. Carlos recently shot a film in Mexico City and used a helicopter to film much of the scenes. Wow!

We are waiting for results from a camera test we did on 10/18. We are using an Arriflex IIC 35mm camera which is a bit older but hopefully will do the trick. The camera’s owner, Rich Arp will be onboard as AC.

I have just purchased my 7th Eames chair in my quest to get the choreography down for the chairs transformation. If you have read the script you know the chair gets transformed in a dramatic way. These chairs are expensive and hopefully I don’t need to buy anymore!

Thank you Tomomi for your support and encouragement. See you in November!

Happy Birthday to my daughter Hiina-chan who be 6 on 10/24!!!

Well that’s it for now. Now I am off to work on the chair…

(Immanuel Martin)