A Year On

Mon, 04 May 2009 11:21:14 > General

A year ago yesterday we had our first day of principle photography.  It was like all first days on long shoots - fraught with awkwardness, shifting schedules and lots of shots that'll never see the light of day.  Just your basic teething pains that you need to go through to get a flow going.  I'm sure there were a few people thinking "what the hell have I agreed to?"  Well, from Dave, Penny and I, thanks to all of you for not running a mile because it has paid off.

I have viewed the first very rough cut and the pace of the film is good.  There's still a lot of work to go, so we have got a number of things underway in the past couple of weeks so that certain work-streams can now run concurrently (sorry about the absence of blog entries . . . it's been a very busy time!).  Dave's working on the initial sound mix and he, Penny and I are deciding to how to make the final cuts on the film which currently runs at 101 minutes.  That's a relief as I was aiming for a picture locked cut of between 90 and 95 minutes and so for the first cut to be 101 . . . it's definitely acheivable.

We are choosing which sound designer and composer to bring on board.  Out of over fifty who applied we are down to our final two and will be making a decision in the early part of this week.  This means the composer will start working on the score immediately and there will be initial talks with the sound designer so that when we have a final cut of the film he can get onto it immediately.  In the meantime he can start sourcing effects and ambience.

Rough timescales?  Well, as always, this is what we're aiming for and there are always a lot of factors that can affect these, but here we go anyway.  By the end of June I want to have a cut that we can show to test audiences - a lot of the people who read this (if there are a lot of people who read this, which is doubtful) will be amongst those who'll see the film at this stage.  This means all filming finished (yes, we still have one day of principle photography left and a day or so of second unit stuff). Editing finished to a locked cut for test screenings.  Score and all incidental music 90%complete.  Sound design complete for a test cut.

Yep, it's a lot to do, but we're moving ahead at full speed with July and August as polishing months and creating the right files, trailers, promotional materials, etc. to approach distributors.  So that means we hit the selling phase of the film in September.  (Stop laughing, it's going to happen)

There you have it. That's all from me.  (Stop cheering)

- Si