Never again shall I make jokes about the good people of the West Country. The Brief Encounters festival in Bristol say on their website that if you haven't heard from them by today then your film hasn't been accepted. By three O'clock I've given up, then suddenly an email appears. I open it up and it's worded just like a rejection, but with a link to a pdf of the accepted films. I click on this without much hope, but much to my surprise there we are. Even more of a surprise is the fact that there are two other films called home. If all three of the films turn out to be backwards films about homeless people then that really will be something.

So that makes it one acceptance and one rejection for the film, and all of a sudden everything is rosy again. No cats shall be kicked on the way home, old women will be helped across the road and I may even be polite to people in the office. Well, maybe I'll wait for another couple of festival acceptances before going that far.

Hey, it's only a short film, right, it's not a feature or anything stupid. Should have it finished in a couple of weeks. Wrong.

So here we are nearing the end of August and we still don't have a finished version. The cut is pretty much locked in place now (as much as it can be), the music has been done - it's great - and the sound mix is underway apparently. Why so long? Well that just seems to be the way when you've got no money. Every week I ring up Craig who owns the edit suite and ask when we can come in. He'll have one, or maybe two if we're lucky, evenings free. Then we'll find out the editor can't make either of those. So that's another week gone. Next week everyone can make the Friday, then Craig's grandfather is taken ill so he has to pull out. Another week gone.

But it's all academic anyway. As yet we're not in any festivals so there doesn't feel like too much pressure, but I can't help feeling Spielberg shot and released War of the worlds in less time (then again I bet he didn't have to cut the film only after work), but hopefully , all things going well, Craig's grandfather staying in good health, Kearney remembering to bring the right tapes and no terrorists being arrested in the next street, we might finish the beta online tonight. That just leaves us the HD online, marrying the sound mix, scanning and printing.

And a festival wanting to show it. So far only venice have said no, which wasn't much of a surprise, but now I'm worried how other festivals will look on it, being a work in progress. Can they see past the flaws and see it the way we do, as a finished film? Who knows, but I think it's fair and reasonable to say that if they don't I will hunt them down like dogs, each and every one of them. It's not like all this has made me bitter or anything.

STOP PRESS There you go, just about to hit publish and Craig rings up asking if we can move the edit to tomorrow. We can, but I am haunted by the ghost of little orphan Annie. And that's not a pretty sight.