Jon beat me to it!

Hey All!

Just figured I would give an update, but it looks like Jon beat me to it. Russ and I sat down to watch a VERY rough cut of J&T Monday night. The film is hysterical. There are still some items that need to be worked, as well as a couple of scenes that need to be reshot, but all in all the film has a real identity of it's own and will be a real good time for those who watch it.

Talk to you soon!

Jim

What's new?

Jon here...

Well a year ago we started shooting this flick. And on Tuesday morning Jim notified me that he and Russ just completed the first very rough cut of the film. And he says it's great. Sure, his opinion is biased, but I still believe him. And this makes me happy.
No, no one will be seeing this movie for a few more months, it's just a rough cut, we still have audio to dub, effects to add, a scene or two to re-shoot and music to add. But this is exciting to me. Another huge step taken. I haven't been in on the editing. It's not my thing. Russ is great at it and I don't play well with others when editing, so I take care of some of the shorts and Russ does all the big stuff. I'd be a fool and I thought I was better, hahaha.
So it's been a year since we started shooting. What a year! We started making a couple shorts and finishing scenes for Josh and Todd and then made a few more shorts, and Eric even got married!
A year ago I was amazed we got this started, amazed we got this awesome cast, amazed at how good everything looked when I watch the dailies. I'm simply amazed.
So to the cast and crew who worked their asses off and will have to come back and work a little bit more;
Thank you, love you.

JB (and Todd too!)

Congrats to Eric and Heather!

Getting married...

Today?!

Yup, Eric, our "Josh" is getting married. The wonderful woman who has decided to slum it with him is Heather... And we think she deserves better, but who are we to say, we play with puppets!

Here's to a happy, healthy, fruity future!

Eric and Heather 8/22/2009

Things are moving along...

Editing is moving along, an hour is about finished now. We are starting to run into the need for a few reshoots, but considering how much we shot and how little we knew whilst doing it, I am impressed that we need so little reshot. Shooting movies with puppets is tough; every frame shot with a puppet is a special effects shot. I am looking forward to getting this thing cut and cropped. Once thats done, Russ and I can sit back and begin fine tuning the film, working on timing, and determining what will need to be done in post.

The great thing about this project is that the film, which I spent months shooting, never gets old. It's still fresh, it's still funny, and it still works.

Jim

New Trailer for Josh &Todd!

Even though Editing is still in progress we've put together a quick trailer of what we have so far to keep ya droolin'!

Enjoy!

30 minute milestone!

Two posts in a week...word!

As of Monday night, Russ and I reached the 30 minute mark of editing. One half hour of Josh & Todd is cut and cropped...

Needless to say, we are excited!

More to come.

Jim

UPDATE!!!

Jim Here-
Ok, it's been awhile, but I figured I would let you all know what's currently up.

Recently, Russ moved from his apartment in Rockville, CT to an apartment in Bethel, CT. Now, for those of you not in the know, Rockville is in Northeastern CT, only a stone's throw away from MA. Bethel is in Southwestern CT, only the same stone's throw away from NY. Needless to say, it was an epic move, to be sure.

This move left us with a number of weeks where we were simply not able to edit. So, when the time came last monday night to get back in the saddle, we both had to wonder whether or not we would be able to work with the same enthusiasm and productivity as before...

In a simple reponse: No, we didn't work with that same enthusiasm and productivity. In fact, I would say that we exceeded our previous work ethic tenfold. I mean, really, we're kicking ass right now. We are beginning to really hit a stride with this thing, and I can't help but me extremely excited. I know Russ feels the same.

We are hoping to acheive the first real editing milestone soon: the rough cut. People are understandably excited by this prospect, but there is no way that they are as excited as me or Russ. It's a kind of magic, being able to piece all of these random moments and performances into a cohesive story, and have it not only make sense, but be entertaining as hell.

You see things that you didn't see whilst filming. You react differently to performances in editing than you did when you filmed it...

Very cool...more to come.

Meet The Cast - Johnnie Sojive

Johnnie Sojive makes a Special Guest Appearance as Himself

in Josh and Todd: The Story of a Man and His Puppet

.

Johnnie is a man of many talents, he has a talent for womanizing, a talent for drinking, a talent for poetry, and a talent for saying things that will make you look around the room and say "Huh?"

He's known as the two fisting madman and is also famous for announcing that he's "drinkin' and stinkin!" whenever he is drinking and stinking. And we're not even sure what stinking is.

When co-director Jim Williams found out that Jon wrote a special part in the film for his long time friend, Jim said: "Jon, are you serious? He's a loose cannon. Remember last time we worked with him? No, you don't. Know one does because you disappeared with him for five months on a bender. This makes me nervous man. Very nervous."

Then Jon found out Johnnie had gone missing...

It took a while for us to track him down to get him in the movie, apparently he felt his days hosting "Poetry Corner" were over, and he was in Guam fighting in the War On Sobriety to stop the prohibition (for the record there is no prohibition in Guam) but Jon got him back, gave him some hooch and some "ladies"and he's ready to rock your socks off.

Johnnie with Josh in between shots (not of film, but rum)

For more Johnnie madness click here!

More Second Unit Photography

As promised here are some more shots from recent shooting...

Eric as Josh

Liz as Dawn

Associate Producer Jaime Williams

Ronnie and some mook


Mark as the Brain
(and yes he IS actually reading Twilight and offering his review at the same time!)

Two tapes down, 8 minutes finished...

Editing is moving along at a pace that only those who have edited movies can truly understand. Couple that with the fact that Russ and I have full time jobs, live 40 minutes away from each other, and have a bunch of life that gets in the way, and it brings the editing process to a grinding halt except for once a week.

We will be spending some weekends editing very soon. I think that even with the time complications and such, we should be able to get the rough cut of this thing edited by the end of June. I still think that is reasonable.

We have already determined that we will need at least a day, if not more, of overdubbing for some scenes. We are awaiting some soundtrack stuff, and will also need to Foley some effects. Most of this requires that at least the bulk of the editing be done...

It is indeed quite a process, and I seriously think that next time I direct a big film like this, that I am going to edit as I shoot. Will it make the initial process that much more arduous? Probably, but it will cut down on a lot of the post-production woes.

All stress and griping aside, I love it. I wish someone would give me a job doing it...
Jim

It has begun!

Jim Here,

Russ and I started Editing last night. I am proud to say that 5 minutes of Josh and Todd is cut and cropped! I know this doesnt sound like much, but to anyone whose made a film, they would know that this is indeed a time consuming process. It was indeed satisfying to do and nice to see some product up on the screen in more than just clips.

I will post more later.

JW

Friday - The Nitemare Shoot

So Friday night we shot the opening scene of Josh & Todd. In it Josh is having a nightmare. The completion of this shoot marked two big milestones in Josh & Todd:

1. It was the true conclusion of Principle Photography.

2. We reshot the scene that got me into Elmwood Productions all of those years ago.

Allow me a moment to explain...

However many years ago it was, 6 or 7 at this point, Jon, Russ, and I were employees at Borders Books & Music is Farmington, CT. We were all friends, but I hadn't really started hanging out with them outside of work too much yet. After a bunch of talk, Jon invited me over the his house to help in some filming for a goofy script that he had written, Josh & Todd: the Story of a Man & his Puppet. I liked the script and liked Jon and Russ, so I headed over after work.

Getting lost in Plainville (insert irony here: I live there now). I showed up at Jon's place around 10:30 pm on what I remember was a very hot summer evening. Jon and Russ were trying to get our Josh at the time, a gangly, funny kid we worked with named Josh Leder, to run down the alley on the side of Jon's house in a frightened fashion. Much to Jon's chagrin and Russ's continued frustration, it just wasn't coming together.

They wrapped for the evening, we all hung out a bit longer, and called it a night. A Couple of weeks later, they showed me a trailer for the film featuring the footage that they had shot throughout the day, including some from evening debacle that I witnessed.

I really enjoyed the trailer. The part that had struck and chord, and continues to today, was the opening scene of the trailer. Todd is walking down the streets of Plainville after being kicked out, and stops at a newspaper machine. His sticks his finger into the change return, hoping to find some, but to no avail. With a small shrug, he continues on his way. Something about that scene entertained me to no end and has stuck with me for all these years later.

That humid summer evening was my first night with Elmwood, although I didn't even know it yet...

- Jim

Hey, Jim is actually posting!!!

Hey there all!

So, photography on J&T is finally nearing the end. We hope to have the last two scenes filmed this month. Russ has already loaded up the first set of shots and is patiently awaiting me to set up some time with him. It is still really my goal to see this sumbitch cut, cropped, and cleaned up by the end of June.

I kinda miss working on this film. It was such a huge undertaking and, while horribly stressful and at times completely disorganized, it was a ton of fun and extremely satisfying. Russ & Jon remind me that we have a lot of work left ahead of us on this, and that I will probably be sick of it by the time we're done (at least that's the conversation we had last time we really talked about it...) They're probably right, but for right now, it's still fresh in my mind as a delightfully stressful time in our lives.

So, that's it for now. I hope t be able to post something more substantial soon.

Till then,

Don't Dream it, Be it!

Jim

Second Unit Photography

OK, technically these aren't "Second Unit" shots. Principal photography on the movie wrapped at the end of 2008 and we just had a few location shots to finish. These were taken during the "office scene" the first weekend in February. Enjoy some "Behind the Scenes" with Josh and Todd.

Jim Williams - directing the shots

Kelly Osborne as Hannah Goldschmidt

Jon Bristol, waiting for his puppet's entrance

Part 2 coming soon...

Teaser Trailer

Josh And Todd

The Story of A Man and His Puppet