#daniel shar

Of the 2.5 years that I’ve been working on this thing, the last year has been the hardest. I've never been a particularly patient person, and this entire experience has been a grueling reminder of that, but this most recent stretch has been especially tough, since it often felt like I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and getting very close to exiting that tunnel, only to learn that the tunnel had been extended by a perpetually indeterminable amount of miles.

So, suffice it to say I am thrilled to report that things have picked up considerably in the last few weeks, and we have finally made some huge strides towards actually finishing SCRAPS!

On January 21, we finalized color correction on our trailer, thanks to the generosity of a wonderfully talented post-production renaissance man named Cristian Barreto, who I lucked out and found on Craigslist. This dude did a wonderful job of matching the look our lead colorist had created and applied to the movie itself, and he was super easy to talk to and work with, so I would highly recommend him to anyone who needs a colorist (or an editor, or a dancer -- for real, click his name to see for yourself).

On January 23, I flew from LA to Chicago, partly to see old friends, but mostly to have studio sessions with our new sound editing duo, BriElle Achterhof and Kyara Bolaños, who I had previously only interacted with via email.

They first came on board to take over the sound edit and mix in early September, but before they could really dive in, they needed to finish some other projects. They were also juggling their jobs and lives as full-time students at Columbia College Chicago, so things understandably took a while.

Before our first meeting, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but our 4-hour session on Wednesday January 24 made me happier than I’ve been in a long time.

These two (and their friend Christian Starr, who helped them out) were so kind and thorough and enthusiastic about the project, and I can’t possibly recommend them highly enough to anyone with any sound needs. In addition to being very knowledgeable and skilled, they were truly delightful to be around, and I’m now on a mission to get them hired as frequently as possible. On January 25, I met with our absolute saint of an editor Matt Kitchen, who has been so clutch throughout the entire post-production process and who also has my eternal endorsement. After several months of us having all but one batch of scenes color corrected, Matt took the reigns and was able to find the right look for those, thus enabling us to finally declare color correction totally finished.

On January 27, I had another 5-hour studio session with BriElle and Kyara. It went well, but we weren’t able to get through the whole movie before time ran out. I was originally scheduled to fly back on the 29th, but the space we were using was going to be closed on the 28th. Luckily, an airline voucher had made my round-trip ticket 100% free, so I decided it would be worth it to just buy a later return flight and stick around for another meeting.

I still wanted to try to find somewhere else to work on the 28th though, so I woke up early Sunday, made 22 phone calls, sent 7 emails, and texted or had someone else text a few other people on our behalf. Some people/companies provided momentary glimpses of hope, but they all either didn’t have the 5.1 surround sound setup we needed for mixing purposes, or they were too costly.

So, by the early afternoon, I confirmed another session for 1/30, then went ahead and booked a new return flight for 1/31 (exactly two years from the day we wrapped production).

When the 30th rolled around, we met in a fancier studio in a different building down the street from the one where we had been meeting. Here is a hastily taken photograph of that, which features a version of the movie that had not yet been properly color corrected, so please don’t judge what you see -- I promise our movie never looks this blown out/grainy/etc.

While I was excited to see the physical sound board and larger projection screen, we ended up battling some technical difficulties for an hour before calling an audible and relocating to our original space. By the time we got there and sorted out a new set of computer glitches, another hour had passed.

We still had enough time to make it all the way through the end of the movie, but there were a handful of issues left unresolved. Thankfully, the ever-amazing Nicole Bishop was there to work her producer magic, and she calmly formulated a plan for getting everything finished up (for both the movie and the trailer) in the weeks ahead, despite me being back in LA.

So, beyond waiting for those final tweaks to be made, what’s next?

Well, I’ve been exploring/considering an overwhelming number of distribution/release options since late 2016, and there are a variety of ways this could all play out, so I don’t want to speculate too specifically on what our next moves will be.

Here’s what I will say, though: I’m determined to make sure that - one way or another - people in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City get a chance to see this movie in a communal setting of some sort this spring/summer. 

Beyond that, we are also determined to find a way to make the movie available to people everywhere on some sort of streaming platform/the internet.

If you live in any other city and feel strongly about wanting to see SCRAPS in a communal setting, please get in touch with me and let’s figure something out.

Either way, if you would like to be among the first to see the trailer and movie when they become available, please email [email protected]. We promise not to bother you until we have significant news to share.