Making the Grade

OK, pretty crap title for this post, but I haven't had a day off in weeks and am too tired to think of a better one. (What about Sir Michael? Sir Lew? Very Steep? Bottom?)

I watched a graded copy of the film last night, and can report that it's looking very good. A bit more wizardry needs to be applied to it - possibly making certain parts darker - but on the whole it really feels of a piece.

The pacing is also very good now - measured I think is the word I'm looking for. Some people might regard that as a polite way of saying slow, but then again these are probably people who are too stupid to watch Bela Tarr or Into Great Silence, and are not people I want watching my film. Let them have their sanitised Hollywood pap! Their tabloid newspapers! Their lives of quiet desperation and Tony Jacklin golf clubs! Off with their heads! Eugenics! Round them up!

Oh dear, I really must be tired. Better seek a darkened room, and go and lie down in it.

Grading Started Today

Er.... that's about it. Should be finished by the end of next week, fingers crossed.

Still on the trail of a bit more dosh to tie things up, but apart from that, this final bit of the film is coming along nicely.

If anyone is interested in investing, please email me. We have a guaranteed theatrical release in North America, so investors should get a return on whatever they put in. (We shall of course be avoiding banks and their delightful CEOs like the plague. All money will be in bulging manila envelopes:-))

Onlining, Grading & Finishing

On Friday we finished importing all the footage into the Avid online, which was a fairly painless process. It's actually also the first time I'd seen the film uncompressed, and can happily report that it looks very good, even without the grading. We also took a few things about - mainly cutaways that weren't working, but we also chopped out an entire scene and made some changes to the final scene. And a few things went back in: the cat (a superb feline performance), and two shots which have never been in any previous cut.

All that is left to do now is the grading, which will start next week, and then the mix. Hopefully we're still on course to get the film finished sometime in April, depending on how long the sound takes.

And, it probably goes without saying, I'm still looking for some final funding... And then, finally, it will be finished.