The pace of our mix sessions is starting to slow down a bit, and our earlier predictions of 30 hours total mix time were overly optimistic. The second pass through the film revealed a lot of problems that we want to fix, and the changes aren't all small ones. I think that we're just falling into the age-old trap of setting our standards higher and higher as we go along--I can see us futzing around forever if we don't draw a line somewhere. There's always some little thing to improve.
Most of the decisions that have to be made in the mix sessions are non-controversial issues of craft, but some of them are aesthetic judgment calls. I had a disagreement with Robin and Paul yesterday about the beginning of the yard sale scene (the old troublemaker) because I wanted to make a sound cut less smooth to bring out the pseudo-documentary aspect of that interlude. Eventually everyone had to humor me because I was the director. Maybe I've just got hold of the wrong end of it, but I still think that there's no point in trying to make that scene more palatable for the people who won't like it anyway.
We had cut back on our reservations for mix sessions, expecting to finish tonight. By the time we saw that we needed more time, the studio was booked for a week. So I have an unwanted vacation.
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