Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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.

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