Indie ROCK

Tonight I went to a fortuna pop night at the Lexington near Kings cross. I've never been there before, but I'll certainly go again. What an excellent gig venue it is, good sound, good views, great bands. If I'd found it before I'd have certainly used it in the film. And it's rather timely to be thinking about venues, as I got a text from Ben the location manager today to tell me that Manbucca, where we shot the majority of the gig scenes in the film, burnt down last night. Thankfully everyone got out in time, and it's a real shame to see it happen but I can't pretend I'm all that surprised. The electrics in there were shot, lights used to flick on and off, and the gaffer, the wonderful Mr Paul Murphy, insisted we get a generator in for the shoot. I'm sure they'll rebuild it and it'll be excellent again, just with better wiring this time.

Anyway, I went to the Fortuna Pop night to finally see My Sad Captains, the band whose song Great Expectations finishes the film. It's the first time I've ever seen them live and they were great, and when they played Great Expectations it was one of those weird moments when all I could imagine was the final shot of the film. I can't believe I've not managed to see them before, but am very glad I have now, and I'll certainly try and see them again, they're great. It was a proper indie night, as not only were they there, Sean (el presidente from Fortuna Pop) was there along with John Jervis from the marvellous Where it's at is where you are label (who asked me to DJ at one of his sunday afternoon sessions)along with Rob and Amy from Heavenly and Eithne and Mike from the film.

And just when I thought the night couldn't get any better the headline band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, came on and were just brilliant. They're from New York and were fantastic. they sound a bit shoe gazey on their myspace page, but were a bit rockier live, and I loved them. Absolutely have to get them on the soundtrack for the next film.

Which may well be called Tender Buttons and be about working in a restaurant. I'm ten pages away from finishing the first draft and it looks about the right size to do for a next film. A Girl and a Gun would be lovely to do, but I still worry it's a bit large, and maybe it would be a good thing to do third. But we'll see, right now I'm broke and will quite happily direct porn if it means I can pay the rent.

Meanwhile, saw Damon Wise from Empire (along with Jeremy Drysdale and Nev Pierce from Total Film) for beer yesterday, and Damon said he'd put 1234 down in his Guardian guide list of top films to see in 2009, which was very nice of him. Can't wait for a UK theatrical release, it'll be like the pain of the LFF screening only times a million. Brilliant. Belgium here I come.

I could have had a baby in that time

The other day my old company found themselves in a bit of a fix, two shoots that needed to be done, only one spare P/D and no budget, so being Christmas I decided to help them out and do one of the jobs for them for old times sake. This meant going back to my old office.

I only had to pop in, the shoot was only going to take two hours, but it was a very odd experience. I'd forgotten how quiet the office was, quite a few people I knew had left and the seating plan had radically changed. A lot of people came up and asked after the film and it was lovely to see them all again after all these years. Except that I suddenly realised I only left at the end of February, a mere nine months ago. In that time we did pre-production, a four week shoot, a two month edit and a film festival, and as a result it feels as if I left my old job about two years ago. With it's incredible ability to slow down time it would seem filmmaking could be the nearest we can get to eternal life, apart from the fact the stress will probably kill you by the time you're sixty (although that's 110 in normal years).

But aside from wittering on about rubbish, we still have the question of the extra shot in the film. The shot itself works, everyone likes it, but it gives us two extra problems. Firstly we have to scan the new shot off the negative and onto High Def, cut it in and then colour grade it (one company) then we have to re-do the audio edit as the film now runs longer (another company). The good news is that it appears that both companies can find some space for us to do this before Christmas, now all that needs to be done is negotiate cost. With any luck they'll do it as an equity investment, if not it may be time to start selling off any christmas presents.

And then the film will be finished. I think I've said that before. OK, finished apart from going in and doing a 5.1 stereo sound mix that we'll need for the north American and European markets. And the DVD extras. And some other stuff I've forgotten. I think making a film must be like having children, they just never, ever stop taking money off you.