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.

Rough Cut 14

Fine cut (aka Rough Cut 14) progressing nicely. Tidying up the audio mix - will need to go and record some random sounds (rain, car boot slam, anyone?) and plugging those flash frame gaps in the picture. In other hotbeds of creative endeavour (sweatshops) someone somewhere is Making Music and someone else is soon to be Generating Graphics.

God, imagine if it had been feature length?!

Back from break

Hi all. Some changes made and rough cut compiled for audio/music input. That will take a little while. I've been away on a job and a break (thank goodness) and will now look at Joe's suggestions for the rough cut next week. Some will be painfree, others a little tougher.

First Rough Cut Viewing

Went well. Need to shave another 2 mins off at least, and try some alternatives in key scenes. Won't be on it till next week since (thankfully) paid work is interfering.

Scene 9 will wait

But 10 is done. (I think I can leave the rest to your imagination.)

The end of Scene 8

Won't start 9 till Monday probably. It's rough. The audio is more of a suggestion, really, and I've been finding the limit of my poor little laptop's processors. As long as it doesn't burn out before we've faded away. That is all.

Been a long time...

Sat down again today to work on the rough cut. A bit of distance is a great idea. It won't be quick, but it's back underway. So while the world and its dogs are off on holiday I'll be trimming this down to a work of art.

Meanwhile to prove I've been sweating away, if you want to see what I've been up to instead, I've been putting this together:

www.aquilinefeatures.net

The update that isn't an update

Right, it's about time I posted an update. The update is - there is no update. Hence nothing posted. I can avoid it no more, time to fess up. Sorry folks, must do better...

Another weekly update

Exciting news is that we're close to confirming a brilliant editor on board. My own cut has paused while I pursue this (and do some very overdue work of my own) but I'll get this going again before getting into the edit proper.

Very little change

Right, I can do this in one sentence. Well, two. That's three... - sod it.
The cut progresses.
Bye.

Bare Feet

Didn't really matter in the end, we went with naked flesh. Luckily the sun was out - as were several of us the night before...

Now that is officially a wrap!

Next hurdle: actively seeking a photoshop/ after effects wizard (or someone who will actually let us smash up the boot of their black car), anyone have any ideas?

Alan's Shoes

I can officially confirm that Alan's shoes do NOT so far appear in this film. Except in really really dark shadows. Until tomorrow's pickups that is - so Alan, you can even wear your polka dotted pumps! (but no heels, please.)

Goodbye to Jenny

Went away for a few days for K's birthday - you know, the one who woke up at stupid o'clock to drive half the crew to a carpark so we could finish the film. Thought it best since I'd barely spoken to him for weeks, because of the film.

Today was lost in file format issues for last week's client for whom I shot an interview and whose company appears staffed with barelyoutofnappiesmediagraduates who wouldn't know a codec if one bit them on the arse.

This afternoon said goodbye to Jenny - our exotic art department. Who'd have thought twenty years ago over our drawing boards in Perth two of us would end up on a bisty short film in London? So glad we did.

Am just trying to sort out a day for our last scene with Alan. It may even be as soon as this weekend.

In other news... Amy and Matt may or may not have ended up in Abu Dhabi on a now-you
-see-it-now-you-don't documentary. Ed will have finished his drama and returned to normal. Jonny D got another high profile portrait commissioned, James C is in a darkly interesting sounding play till April, Jamie V is blitzing it with stuff all month, Joe's finding shaping his new post interesting, Lucy astonishingly ran really really far for charity, and is in a stage production doing loads of things, Harry got another production under his belt and learned we were a really nice bunch after all, Graham's waiting to hear on a sound project, Greg Smith's been snapped up left right and centre, Will and Sam are just about now getting end of term submissions in I guess, Greg A is moving house, Josie's sewing her little fingers off, Carli - well, I don't know - Carli's always just super busy doing stuff... - promise I'll keep you all in the loop as I hear. If you want.

And finally - I see I have another 'follower' to this blog. Brilliant! It feels rather less pointless I must admit. Not a great believer in vanity-blog-publishing. Might as well construct a short film instead...

...And Relax

Today I have mostly been sleeping in. Bliss! Somewhere under the pile of kit is my flat. Wet things strewn across most of the furniture gently reminding me of lost hours in a carpark. The weekend is a blur. Anyone know what we got up to? Think it involved a car and some gales, and a bunch of dedicated nutters standing round in the cold on a Sunday. Thanks to all.

Shoot on 8th March

So, we've got the place and the people. Now, EVERYONE pray for rain. Oh - and bring a very large water bottle with you...

Getting Back On The Case

The good news is, we've got a film! The rough cut works and I've got a clear picture of what we need from the pickups. This week pre-production kicks off again for 8th March so things will get pretty busy again. Oh - and if anyone has a garden hose/large water containers/ big garden sprayers, we'll be needing them.

Rough Cut

Nothing like a project and a deadline to force you to learn new software. Final Cutmywrists Pro. Why can't it just behave like an Avid? Somehow there's a rough cut developing, though quite a lot of imagination still required.