Dweezil Zappa

Hello Everyone,

I've been editing away here in Austin. I'm working at a studio called Tragicom which is located in my friend Charlie Boswell's house.

It's been a surreal trip so far. On the first day of editing a violent nerd flew his plane into the local IRS building about a half mile away. There was a nice toxic cloud hovering above the wreckage and some scrambled law enforcement types doing their best to control the area.

I saw the wreckage less than an hour or so after the incident. I was out getting some groceries from Whole Foods across the four lane highway from ground zero. It was a bizarre scene to witness. One can only ask why do people do these things?

Today it started snowing. Unusual... I went outside and took a photo for my girls. I played a Telecaster out in the yard. A little RDNZL in the snow...

Anyway, I came here not knowing a single thing about the editing software I was about to learn and dove head first into the deep end straight away. In 5 days of work I've edited over 40 minutes of the 3 hour concert.

In my life I enjoy learning new skills. Video editing will definitely be a useful skill for me to develop.

I have been making all of my own edits after the first few hours of messing around with the software. I am using Sony Vegas. I am really excited abouted the results of this project  so far. I am proud of the band's accomplishments and each musician's performances.

My father's music is obviously very important to me. I have spent a lot of time learning about all of the details within his music. We work hard to present those details to you in the audience whenever we play a show.

When it comes to filmed performances I am particulary interested in seeing what I'm hearing... all of the little details! That is why I like to edit the performances myself.

I have been disappointed far too often when watching music DVDs of artists that I like. Too many times the thing I want to see is not being featured on screen. Sometimes it may be due to lack of coverage but more often it's due to an "artistic" decision - i.e. focusing on a spontaneous dance move of a lead singer or some such thing instead of showing the best musical moment in the song.

Mind you there is a great moment of Scheila dancing and playing Greg Brady style tambourine during one of my guitar solos. It will likely make it into the edit somewhere because it represents her personality so well.

With Frank's music there are so many things going on and I want to make sure the viewing audience gets a chance to see where our band excels. Everyone has a major supporting role within the music. There are counterpoint elements that really tell the whole story of the composition. I want the audience to get a sense of what it's like for us to work together as a unit on stage and see where all the parts fit.

It's important to me that those little details are featured. The music is the focus at all times. Simply put, I want you to see what you're hearing.

I will do that to the best of my abilities with the coverage that I have. I'm really excited to finish this project and get it out there for all of you with Blue Ray players. It looks amazing in Hi Def. There are some deep blue color tones that are quite pleasing to the eye.

I'll keep you posted on the release schedule for 2010. We'll have some announcements very soon!

Regards, DZ