This past weekend, we held a producers' screening of Ratline.  This was an effort to accumulate opinions about the edit before my window of opportunity slams shut and the movie is called done - never to be fine-tuned again.  I would be nerve-wracked about this - rapidly approaching the point of being forced to let it go - if I weren't so exhausted. 

All of the feedback I received from the screening was on minor issues, such as adjustments here and there in the sound mix and stuff like that.  No major issues were raised. 

Everyone seemed very excited about the movie and relieved that it turned out so well, considering the production was plagued with so many financial and location problems.  (My own list of fine-tuning tasks on the movie fills about four notebook pages.  Much work to do.)

My memory of Deadwood Park post-production was that my first full cut went through a comparatively major overhaul before I reached a final cut.  This time it seems there is less tweaking to do.  Maybe that's because I learned a lot from Deadwood Park and my writing, directing, and editing has improved substantially.

The highlight scenes in Ratline seemed to be the "boiler room massacre" sequence, the 1945 16mm military film sequence, and DJ Vivona's big scene in the movie, which ends with quite a violent jolt. 

Speaking of violence and massacres, I'm pretty sure Ratline is the goriest movie I've ever made.  I'm especially happy about this because Ratline is also a "thinking person's horror movie" - or at least that was what Jason Christ and I were aiming for when we wrote it.  Ratline's plot is more multi-layered, twisty-turny, and creatively risky than your average low-budget horror film, and Jason and I worked very hard to create textured, multi-dimensional characters - yet there is a lot of nudity, gore, and other controversial shenanigans in this movie.  I really like that combination.  Jason and I think we pulled this combo off well - but it is you, the horror fan, who will decide ultimately if Ratline functions properly or not.

Another aspect of the movie that seems to be a standout element is Gus Stevenson's music score.  Gus has a lot of experience making music, but not a lot of experience making scores for feature films.  If any of the other producers on the project were hesitant about Gus taking on Ratline's score, their fears were put to rest at the screening.  Gus got a lot of pats on the back for crafting a well-executed score that is as creatively risky as the rest of the movie.  It is an odd score - not typical horror movie music - and I love that.

I have only a few more days to tackle an overwhelming number of tasks - the tweaks to Ratline, preparing presentations to give to potential distributors, and a dozen other undertakings associated with either Ratline or general Wicked Pixel Cinema operations.  So, I think I'll wrap up this blog and get back to work!

Thanks for reading.

-Eric Stanze