We have officially reached the home stretch in the marathon that is the movie-making process. These days are all about dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s. Getting signed releases from bands who have offered their music, polishing the graphics and sound mixing, prettying up the packaging, etc.

Now we have the exciting task of deciding which film festivals we will approach. Sadly, both Cannes and the SIFF in Seattle are already happening this week. A day late and a dollar short…well…a few thousand Euros short in the case of Cannes. But lucky for TLP, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of FilmFests these days.

On another note, we are researching the prospect of shooting more footage with our young camera prodigy, Philippe, in Asia this summer in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. Be honest, had you heard of that country before today? Could you spell it correctly for the grand prize on “Are you smarter than a 5th grader”? And, no, this is NOT the country (Kazakhstan) the makers of “Borat” took advantage of with their politically incorrect mock-umentary.

And if this isn’t enough to think about, we have another cameraperson available in South America come August. My friend, Sloan, who I met 5 years ago in the now earthquake-ravaged town of Chengdu, Sichuan, China, will be willing and able to work on TLP not long after we would be wrapping up Kyrgyzstan. Sloan & I are infamous for our hitch-hiking journey through western Tibet where we dodged Chinese authorities day after day. We were rewarded with tremendous views of Mount Kailash, Lake Manasarovar & intimate encounters with locals that could not be found when on a Communist-sanctioned tour like 99% of visitors to this region lemmingly follow.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh.”  That’s the relieved sigh a guy makes when the project he has been working 10+ hour days on for a year(s) makes it into his partner’s hands. Yup, the movie is now in Herb’s care in LA. It was delivered by a frequent poster on this blog and dear friend of TLP, Jenny K, on her business trip to UCLA last night. Sure, there are still copies here in Sacto, but the final editing will happen in the City of Angels.

First order of business- Sound mixing. And how about that? We have an Emmy-Award-winning sound engineer who has agree to come on board. Patrick Grandclaudon won an Emmy a while back for his work on a Barbara Streisand special and now he’s polishing up “The Laughing Planet”! Go Pat! (more…)

More exciting news on the music front! Another awesome band from The Emerald City has come on board. Dan Beloit, Jim Laws & Taku Mineshita are The Valley, a trio that makes a lot more noise than you think 3 guys can make. They join The Long Winters and Kiss Her for the Kid as our soundtrack continues to take on a Pacific NW flavor.  Their self-released, self-titled EP  is well worth the price of admission. Pick it up! The track that got me hooked is the rockin “Come Down” , but “Boom Theory” rocks so hard that it might work out as the driving guitar rock jam that we need to start off the movie.  I guess nowadays people expect 3 guys from Seattle to rock hard since the early 90s produced another little trio some of you may know. These guys could get as big some of the many huge Seattle bands in my opinion. In the meantime, lucky for TLP, they will be a featured rock band on The Laughing Planet soundtrack. Maybe the flic will help propel them to superstardom…

And let’s not forget the thousands of jobs that would be lost. And the increased carbon emissions. And….and….

Let’s make pander bears an endangered species.

Bringing up the rear on our nearly 100% completed (see: Oxymorons, below) movie, is the trailer. This lovely 140 second tease will differ greatly from the oft-watched “teaser” & not just because it will be a full minute shorter. The trailer will contain solely clips which are actually in the movie unlike plenty of the teaser imagery that has turned up on the deleted scenes reel. We will also be allowed to feature some of the lovely music to which we have garnered rights hence not fearing reprisal of any kind, however unlikely that may be in the YouTube era.

From my perspective, it means I can finally devote myself full-time to marketing and, even more importantly, losing the “editing belly” I amassed over the 5 months of hugely sedentary time it took to make the full-length docu-comedy for which the trailer seeks to drum up interest. Can you TLP fans wait for a week?