So I'm walking down the street, all innocent-like -- probably whistling a show tune, you know me -- and who should I spot on the side of a bank but Frank Deal, Andy the villain from Body/Antibody! He's gracing an HSBC poster, playing the suit-jacketed schlub by the watercooler, gazing balefully at some guy who's disco dancing in the middle of the office. And I'm standing there, kind of amused, but at the same time I'm thinking, Frank Deal, office schlub?? Frank Deal is a bad ass!

I guess because just yesterday I was watching him -- over and over and over again -- shoving my hero's head in a toilet. To me he'll always be Andy the psychopath, but I guess to an ad exec, put him in a suit and he's office dude. Whatever. The guy's versatile. God bless.

We had to cut one of his scenes, though. The movie was running long, and it was one of the few bits we could pull without watching the story collapse like a house of cards. I have no idea how this happened, by the way ... I wrote an 85-page script and had fantasies about an 85-minute movie. And the first cut? An hour and 45 minutes. WTF??! That meant painful cuts. I hate that. The actors work really hard on a scene, you spend hours or days and burn lots of cash, and then, ultimately: triage. The scene has to die for the good of the movie. We've made at least 2 big painful cuts like that (and then of course a few bits that we were just as happy to see go). But we've got the flick down to about a tight 98 minutes, and it's pretty rock and roll. Paced like a freaking nuclear panther careening through a butter-slick train tunnel and exploding moistly out the other end.

We're near picture lock. Our editor, the brilliant Evan Gatica, rolled off after the first cut (we were out of money, and he was out of time), so I'm stuck here with my measly MacBook and 8-year-old 23-inch TV trying to bring in the next cut on my own. Ah, relearning Final Cut Pro after 4 years. The joy of it. But there's fun stuff, too: we're in the process of hiring composers, looking for post production sound services ... it's all terribly exciting. And I gotta say, my completely unbiased opinion: I think the movie's looking pretty good. We had a few "problem" areas in the first cut. Per our test audience, there were a couple of draggy spots, and things that were a tad confusing. But this next cut ... man, it's gonna be sweet. Definitely the type of picture I'd enjoy. Hopefully the audience will agree.

And then soon will begin the strange and humbling process of submitting to film festivals. Our last film, Ultrachrist! got turned down by every major festival and most of the minor ones (we're so proud). But that had a lot of disadvantages: one, it was shot on video and looked cheap as hell. Two, it was blasphemous. Three, it wasn't all that good. Body/Antibody is shot on film, is only mildly offensive, and is, I think a fine motion picture. So what will our festival experience be like? I know the good ones are very competitive ... will we still get roundly snubbed by the big boys? Or will we, this time, find ourselves at a few real festivals, in real cities, with a chance of scaring up real audiences? Only time will tell ... and these pages will reveal. 'Twill be an interesting thing to learn.

So what else is going on? Oh, we have a guy working on the poster. That'll take some time, though. It'll all take some time, I reckon. The part where I personally have to work on it every day is nearly over, though ... soon it will be in the hands of capable sound designers and other good folks, and I'll be able to sit on my ass and watch the occasional DVD again.

Anyway, that's all for now. Sorry there's no pictures or anything. The wrap party didn't generate any pictures that I wouldn't get sued for, and while someone, once, took a picture of us at the editing console, I never got that pic in my possession. So for now it's just dry dry prose. Hopefully a post down the road will have photos of us negortiating the red carpet at Cannes, or maybe doing shots at Gary, Indiana IndieFest 2007. Wherever there's audience, so shall we be.