Interval Musings and Tiny Gardening Techniques

Our feedback's been pretty consistent.

Generally the following are complimented:
Production values - Script - Acting

And if anything's questioned it's the following:
Length - Ending

So here's my musing but since the script was up to something like the ninth or tenth draft, it's a structural, not a writing, issue.

We went for a longer piece to see if we could sustain interest. Even people questioning the length and the ending, say they stay interested. This makes the piece a success for me, though not a triumph. I guess it also emphasises any weakness in the ending itself and aside from the difficulties the ending posed right from the start, I've developed a greater dramatic insight through this.

The scenario is situational, suited to a shorter film. The film length actually needs character driven plot development. As it is, the characters are drawn with enough depth to drive the situations but not quite enough to drive a plot with a satisfying arc. Hence the feeling sometimes that they are written as caricatures, and that the end doesn't quite deliver.

So, by being a long short rather than a short long, we've risked falling into the cracks between (I see us balancing and hopping on the edges, swooped vigorously to safety by all the positive elements). Better to write longer - with full dramatic development - and then prune, prune, prune to a perfect bonsai plot.

Seven Months On

Alan's cast and crew screening was in March, and its premiere in France was in May. So, though winter feels like the film's anniversary and this is the end of 2010, there's another four or five months before its had 12 months out in the big bad world.

And as if to make that very point, two more screenings are scheduled. One in Berlin in January and the next in London in February, at the Phoenix, which is definitely a 'proper' venue. (I just about have time to squeeze that in before the Amsterdam premiere of my first full documentary - I'm very excited!)

So this is by no means The End.

Two screenings in october

The number of places to show indie shorts is mind boggling. Alan's been selected for two more screenings: a regular shorts night (Rotoreliefs at the Roxy); and the annual art and design festival in Angel.

Clearly there's an audience for the huge - and increasing - number of shorts that get made. Not so clear is whether this audience demographic goes beyond the filmmakers themselves and the wider filmmaking community in general. It can feel stiflingly introspective, despite there being some outstandingly good films on offer.

I'm getting inspiration from seeing some great films and an evil sense of smug from some others which I know is wrong, wrong, wrong. End result aside though, everyone clearly works to the best of their abilities and shares the same pain. Getting something made and shown is an achievement in itself - but somewhere lurk questions about how valid this still is in the age of you-and-you-and-youtube.

Leave PR to the experts, I say.

And so I have. Joe's had Alan screened far and wide, and generally gone along to support it, whereas I've managed to miss pretty much every event so far - until last night.

Screened amongst a mixed filmic bag to a small but enthusiastic gathering. Five shorts in a very intimate venue. One stood head, shoulders and costume-drama-bellybuttons above the rest but ours a respectable second.

Good to see it again. The good bits: still good. The other bits haven't changed. Lesson learned: trust all those feelings in pre and post production. (Production, of course, offers no feelings. Aside from sheer gruelling pain.)

This was a (good) dry run that shows we can pull it together. Next one that cometh, we need to nail from the very first 'FADE UP'.

Portobello Festival

The Portobello Film Festival (who were also responsible for the Roundhouse and the Westway screenings) kicked off for a whopping 17 days in September, showing Alan on the 7th. My dreadful attendance record continues - I was out of London again that week. Still, I suppose I know where to find him.

Alan gets around the most interesting places.

In the exotic location that is London's Westway, Alan's whereabouts explored again tonight as part of the Portobello scene.

Q&A screening with Joe

Battersea showing went ahead last night, I believe, with Joe holding the fort as writer and co-prod. I was finishing up my first 3D shoot for a pop promo in Brighton.

Now I see everything with a kind of squinty-eyed shadow round the edges.

Those Scots even take their films high-calorie!

Who else would have a 'deep-fried' film festival? Alan should be showing round about now, some time between July and August. Enjoy - with cholesterol.

This Looks Very Official...

...our own catalogue page (can we have a nice shiny printed one on heavyweight archival please?) though I must admit I'm not sure what it means for us. In my youth I thought the British Council peddled visions of the Empire to the outlying regions. I guess Alan might represent a more liberal Empire than was?

London screening anyone?

Joe's pulled another one out of the screening hat, and has us playing at 8.30pm at the Camden Roundhouse, on Saturday 29th May as part of the London Film Makers Convention.

Interesting to see we get a 15 certificate. After giving copies to friends with subteenagers I did wonder...

Another outing

Head to Cork on May 28 for Fastnet short film festival, to see find Alan in the adult programme.

Apparently they don't have a cinema there, but they do have a dream. So - so far, that's one from the back of a van, and one via telepathic projection.

http://www.fastnetshortfilmfestival.com/

Premiere

Well, it made its way to Cannes... in the back of a van!

Now showing in a Transit near you - if you're on the French Riviera.
Proudly claims to be the world's smallest film festival (though I'm not sure that actually means it has a very elite shortlist).

(http://www.cannesinavan.com/)

Screening

Thanks to all of you who came along, it was great to see everyone, and sorry to those who couldn't make that date. Your response was hugely heartening, we'll see what the rest of the world thinks now!

I made it, I broke it, I made it, I ... ?

... think it should mostly work now - the (first) temporary website was slapped together faster than an essex outfit. Well, actually, that's probably not fast at all. But then, I'm not very fast with web yet really. So yes, probably as fast as that.

Whereas the next temporary website was slapped together - well, actually about the same speed. All of which goes to show, the tortoise and the hare can never be friends (or something).

If it doesn't work please let me know. I doubt I'll be able to fix it but it seems all grownup and geeky to ask people to test it.

www.wheresalanthefilm.co.uk

Right, Who Wants One?

Come along and collect it at the screening. Joe's sending out details.

And if you REALLY can't make it, I'll have one borne to you on a palanquin with trumpets and dancing girls.

Or Royal Mail.

Which is almost as good.

Onlining

Dropped off a box with 200 blank DVDs, a 150GB file and a drive with my life on it into Soho. I'll pick up the remains next week.

Then I had wine.

First Online Session Booked

Next week. An afternoon.

To see it played on a broadcast monitor with proper scopes and audio. To check how bad any artefacts might be, especially in the darker shots, and test what compression will do in different formats.

Then I'll know what's required to render and compress and get the five video layers and 24 audio tracks out of my laptop and onto and HD master.

Whoever thought the world would go tapeless?

Bda bda bda bda That's All Folks

That's all I can do.

I have to find a person place or thing who can now play it out.

We have a film.

That is all.

:)

The bottles

Let's see who's actually taking note, now:

music*
2shot+
crush§
thump**
lucy
green++
orange 2shot***
garbage matte+++
still frame****
car lockoff++++


*the music bottle included a family of reverb
+the 2shot made me go back and regrade the scene
**included a collection of foley that made its home here
***after all this time Jon's permatan is faded. Pembroke, not Dredge, Not that Dredge has a permatan. Or Pembroke, for that matter - ok, I give up.
++must remember to put the green in the end of the brown shot
+++can't really see what it does anymore but it's still in there. Think it was the edge of a lamp
****somehow this got really complicated - like having Yeltsin and Putin in the same set of dolls. Because of the key. ++++The hardest shot in the lot to grade? Very probably. Or almost.

§!! with the crush goes that last bottle. Tweaking the 'look' for the drugs scene. All crushed up. Done.

There you go. That's the tenth green bottle knocked off the wall.
Now I just have to figure out how to get it out of here!

Out by end of Jan...

Was promised (to myself, mostly) so out by the end of Jan it shall be.
Or, ready to be out by end of Jan. Quite how I get it out of this little magic box and onto a bright shiny thing remains to be seen.

So, I thought I'd just finished and watched it through - here's the list I made in my head.

music
2shot
crush
thump
lucy
green
other 2shot
garbage
still
car

The easiest of these to fix is Lucy. I turned her audio off by accident.
So I believe it's nine last green bottles standing on the wall!

(Of course these green bottles have a disturbing habit of being more like Russian dolls. Get inside one to fix it and find a whole family having a Party).

That blithering list

I swore I wasn't going to do it but in the end I did. The CGI has been (ish) rotoscoped.

That was today's bit of the list-that-wouldn't-die.
And the other bit was re-thumping the boot. I SO don't want that to go on the list again.

The List

If anyone doubts the supernatural, take a look at the List. How can things be steadily ticked off yet it keeps relentlessly growing? Like a zombie army arising, a vampire flurry, er... vamping.

But at last the List is tamed, broken, diminishing, a shadow of its former self (so I guess no vampires involved after all). Soon - soon, the List will be no more.... mwahahahahaaa!

Graphics

Right, that's another thing ticked off the list!

Da da da daaaaa

We have the first layback of music. There's a bit more work to do on the audio before it goes into grading.

If anyone cares.

Happy New Year. Anyone want to make a short? ;)

Happy Christmas and New Year

I'll be in touch in January. Have a lovely relaxing time and a happy - and busy - 2010 to everyone.

MmmmmMusic

Most of the music is completed and we should get the rest at the end of next week.

Just so you know.

Music

Thank God for Mr Butt. That is all.

Dents

Happily Jonny's been worked off his feet lately - sadly that meant he wouldn't be able to fit this in before next year.

So, the hair and nails had to wait I'm afraid (picture Howard Hughes) but I have DENTS! You have no idea how excited I am by this, nor how close to escaping to Kamchatka, where Alan very definitely isn't, just to get away from that bloody boot.

Ah, Fabuolous...

What a fantastic feeling, sitting back, waiting for the work of others to come pouring in. Filing my nails, getting my hair done, dressing up in women's clothing - no, wait...

Got two scenes back from the composer this week. Don't think I've ever laughed at music before (in a good way, Chris). Great to be surprised by what someone else brings to it. That's what I love about working with other people. Bollocks to those indie auteur egos out there, they just don't know what they're missing out on.

Joe's beavering away as well, gearing up for the next big push - getting the thing actually seen. So, a little more work on the final audio mix, and a small matter of some effects for the ending (Jonny...) and then it all lands more or less like a great squelchy sandwich of love in the lap of Mr PR himself.

Brilliant.

That's it, I'm DONE

Cut no 21 went up on the etherwaves today, picture locked, audio mixed and now there's NOTHING more for me to do.

Until I get the music back, and the graphics, that is.

In the meantime - hooray!!! Now I'm going to rest my eyeballs and my eardrums. And try to stop reciting the script in my sleep.