"Dear J" and the Digibeta Caper

As screenwriters, we're always trying to create conflict for our characters; after all, conflict helps make a good story, right?

A good story, perhaps. Movies definitely need conflict. It's why we watch films... to see the hero overcome all sorts of obstacles. But we'd rather keep the problems out of real life.

Well, sometimes life imitates art. Have we tell ever told the story of the "Digibeta Caper"?

While maybe it's not worthy of its own film, but it certainly was a time full obstacles that we have to overcome... all to get our film Dear J transferred onto a digibeta tape.

And it all began so nicely. We had sent off what we thought was a good tape, only to get an email saying it was "a bad dub"; that the video was jumping up and down.

Okay, now to get a good dub.

Thursday. After re-doing the master, we drive it down to the production house for the transfer. We are told that the guy who does the transfers would pick it up that night. Because we don't want another "bad dub", we attach a note saying something like: "Phone us is there is a problem... even if it's late at night. We need this asap."

Friday. Saturday. Sunday. We hear nothing, so we assume that all is well and that the transfer has been made.

Monday. We call to see how things are going. The answer is not encouraging. The guy went on vacation over the weekend!

Tuesday evening. We get a call. Yes, there is a problem and the dub can't be made.

(It took them how long to tell us this?! Let's see, Thursday to Tuesday...)

We talk to a few different people on the phone, trying to figure out how to fix the problem so the transfer can be made. What comes of those conversations is having to re-render the movie one more time; this time in a different format...

Wednesday. Rendering usually takes several hours. But this rendering takes something like 12 hours... Yes, we start to render the movie around 11:00 am. Although we arranged to bring it in to the production house at around 2:00 pm, we can't. It just keeps rendering. Finally finishing around midnight!

Thursday morning. We jump into the van and head off to the production house. We hand the new rendered version over. This time, the transfer guy is on the ball.

Friday. We get the call that all is well and we can pick up our digibeta.

Friday afternoon. We post the thing in the mail. The stress lifts from our shoulders. Our digibeta caper is over...

Fade Out. The End. Roll the credits.