Sean t. Hanley

As you can see, there was a lot of editing, and reviewing that was done.

music: balabaristas by tristeza

As of the beginning of Feburary, Hindsight has been picture locked.  This means that I’m finished working on the visual elements of the film.  I’ve designed my titles with the help of my roommate Greyory, and those will be shot next week.

Other than that,  I just wanted to let everyone know about the new stages of production.  Once I’m done working on the sound design, the music will be recorded at the University of Hartford by my good friend Ian Bates.  I’m going to be cutting my own negatives in March and then getting the film transferred to video.  Getting my prints made will be the last step and will take place in April.

If anyone has any questions about the process of finishing the film, please let me know via email or leave a comment below!

On January 9th, I shot what I hope will be the beginning and end of HINDSIGHT.  It’s been a long road.  A full 12 months of shooting.  I’m thoroughly exhausted.

Music: Colonial Homes by Jason Anderson

First let me say Happy New Year and all that Jazz. This is my first post in 2010, and it means that Hindsight has been in production for a full year now. Here is an old video update that I never posted in 2009.

I found this file on the flipcam that I borrowed from work. It’s a quick update from my last shoot in November of 2009. I had to sit in my car for hours in the cold while I did timelapses around town.

Since then I’ve processed the 16mm and yes, it came out wonderfully!

I shot more on January 9th, and I’m in the process of making a behind the scenes video for that.  I thought this will tide everyone over until then.

You can say that again! But yes it’s true. I haven’t posted in over a month. Believe me, I’ve been terribly busy. (In advance, I’m going to apologize for the random nature of this post.)

Anyway, I’m back in Cambridge after the holidays. I just cleaned my entire apartment, and I thought I should also update this blog. I apologize to all my family who asked me today why I wasn’t posting updates about Hindsight.

Well let me tell you this. I’ve been hard at work editing the film. I can’t remember if I wrote about my last shoot in the November update, but I’ll do it again — I shot some extra pick-ups the weekend before Thanksgiving. I have that footage back now and I’ve edited into my rough cut, which is about 13 minutes at this point.

The direction of the film underwent some incredible changes over the past month. I’ve been screening it around Emerson and getting as much feedback as I can. As you may know, the film had two elements to it - the straight, objective look at my hometown, and also the subjective point of view that came through the use of my VHS home movies. I always felt that these two elements were battling each other. I assumed the poetics of the piece would come through the subtle melding of these two mediums. I’d say that some sequences worked well together, but overall the use of both didn’t agree with each other. Saying this, I’ll announce that I’m cutting the home movie parts of Hindsight. As it is now, it’s pure 16mm film and I’m happy to say it! The project is definitely coming together more elegantly. I’m proud of the cutting that I’ve done. It feels more like a professional piece.

That all being said, I’m on winter break now until the 18th of January and I plan on shooting a little bit more in Marlborough to fill in some gaps and smooth over some transitions.

I applied for the UFVA Carole Fielding Grant for my finishing funds before the end of this semester. I’ll find out about the results of that grant in March. That should help with the finishing costs as Emerson has told me that the BFA fund is frozen this year and I won’t receive any support from them. Though, I don’t know if I should be saying that.

What else? Hmm. I don’t know. I promise I’ll make some type of trailer or something once the cut is a touch more refined and has some music. Maybe I’ll do a behind-the-scenes editing update.

I’ll say farewell. Thank you to all my supporters! Happy New Year!

I really have to say that this semester has already flown by.  I can’t believe that next week is Thanksgiving and this will be my first update for the month of November.  But I’ve been busy getting rough cuts together of the different sections of Hindsight.  Often I’ll stay in the Avid editing suite late into the night and I’ll exit with itchy eyes and a headache.  The result of staring at a flat screen for hours.

But I’m making good progress though.  Right now I’m working with a 25 minute assembly.  I’m still searching through my old home movies to find bit of clips and audio to splice into the 16mm.  So far I’m liking the cuts but I’m nervous about the overall direction of the film.  I’m having trouble tying things up and making the message clear.   I’m sure I’ll be able to work things down and find what I’m looking for - it just takes time.

There have been some wonderful donations to the project in the past few weeks so I wanted to give some shout outs.  As always, a very special thanks to the following supporters!

Jerry & Lori Lyng, Sam Molleur, Mike Ulloa,

Beth Petroni, and Cindy Wise

October 23-25th I headed down to Connecticut once again to film autumn scenes for Hindsight. Music: The New Science by Ola Podrida

Here is a twitpic of Pumpkintown, at Paul’s and Sandy’s Too in East Hampton, CT. I didn’t get any video of my time there because the sun was setting fast and I had to get the shots quick!

Currently in Windham, CT for my 8th shooting weekend.  As usual I’m staying with my teachers from high school.  It rained most of the day today but I managed to film the RHAM varsity football game.  It was actually the first time that I’ve ever seen them play because the field wasn’t ready when I was in high school.  I arrived after the second half and they were winning, but they ended up losing near the end.  I toted the Aaton around covered in my yellow rain coat and tried to get as many angles as possible.  For my last shot, I brought the camera up to the parking lot above the field and captured a nice wide of a play in action.  48 frames per second of course.  Tomorrow should provide some classic New England scenes because the weather is going to be nice.

Anyway,  I spent 10 hours on Thursday capturing the rest of the VHS home movies into Avid and also got a rough assembly done of the first 4 minutes of the film.  I look forward to more marathon editing sessions in the upcoming months.  Here are some pics of that past session.

It’s been a while since my last update.  I’ve been busy working on another Emerson thesis film.  My October has been incredibly busy, but also incredibly rewarding.  I’ve had a good time.  Here are some press clippings from the beginning of the month.

While I was hanging around RHAM high school this summer, I ran into Meg Duffy, a friend of my sister’s.  Meg writes for a variety of blogs, but the majority of her thoughts are funneled into Illicit Exhibitions, a blog about street art.  I recommend that you check it out.  She also writes for a new online magazine called Connecticut Creative and she approached me to do a profile on HINDSIGHT.  The article follows.

While at the Hebron Harvest Fair in September, I met a reporter from the Reminder News and she did a story about the project as well.  As always, please click to enlarge.

Here is a look at my weekend in Marlborough from September 10-12th.  Our goal was to  get pick-ups for things that I missed over the summer, while also filming events at the Hebron Harvest Fair.

However, we ran into problems with the rain and lots of our plans had to change.  My friend ended upJackson coming down with me last minute and we shared a bed at my spanish teacher’s house again.