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.

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.