Spent most of this week retooling "The First Christmas." This was first released a year ago. We had only a limited amount of time (we shot it in September) for post-production. While I still love that movie, it had some technical things that have always kind of bugged us. For example, the night sky around Gabriel and the Heavenly Host Gospel Choir was the same curved walls that we used to shape King Noah's court. As King Noah's court, the seams connecting each section of wall were covered by pillars. As a night sky, however, the pillar option wasn't available to us. Darin has spent a chunk of the week going through those shots and create masks to help make those less discernible.
Another fix was the lead shepherd's voice in "He's Born." Michael DuBois has an incredible voice, but at the time when we were recording him, he was in another show at his school (Utah State), so by the time he got to our studio to record, there wasn't a lot left. We did what we could in post, but it was still not great. Always a good sport, Michael came in again this week to re-record and sounded more like the real Michael "Sam I Am" DuBois.
We also re-did the audio commentary. It was full of references that people who are unfamiliar with the LDS venacular would not get. In addition, it was recorded early in the morning after an all-nighter with just Aaron and me in the booth. We were not as fresh as we perhaps could have been. This time around, we invited a couple of stars from the show: Jessica Huffaker (Mary) and Dan Beck (Gabriel). Jessica was concerned she wouldn't be able to do it, because she's been battling a cough. I was glad she was able to get through it with just fine.
We're also redoing the graphic, which looks amazing, thanks to Brandon Scott and his team. I'll upload it.
Next up, we're going to do a similar tune-up of "Esther and the King."
