autofocus

Four stars

2010-03-03T21:24:00.002Z

I'm currently in Newcastle shooting a new film, flutter, with Joe Anderson (and a host of others including Laura Fraser and Billy Zane - get me) but on Sunday I have a day off and am travelling to Leeds to do a Q and A at a screening of 1234. Much as I'm enjoying the flutter shoot it'll be great to get back to 1234 business.

After that it's back to work until the 9th march when I'm going to the London screening, then more work until the Oxford screening on the 22nd. Wish I could go to more but thankfully the cast are doing Q and A's at the others.

But best news of all has been a four star review in Empire magazine which was jolly nice of them and has put everyone in a good mood. So good in fact that I may dress like the director in the photo for the Q and A. Or I may pretend to be French, I haven't decided. Anything to deflect from the horror of having to stand on a stage talking.

UK Release for 1234 announced!

2010-02-24T09:37:00.003Z

Drum roll please... 1234 will be in cinemas from tomorrow!

Appropriately enough for a film about a band, 1234 is going to touring around the UK from Wednesday 24th February. It is part of new project New British Cinema Quarterly, which takes the most original and distinctive British films from the festival circuit and brings them to the UK's flagship independent cinemas.

As a special bonus for audiences, each screening will be accompanied by a Q&A from either the cast or the filmmakers.

Kicking off as part of Glasgow Film Festival tomorrow night, the tour is already booked into venues around the country. Here are the full dates:

Glasgow Film Theatre - Wednesday 24th February
Edinburgh Filmhouse - Thursday 25th February
Leeds Hyde Park - Sunday 7th March
Renoir London - Tuesday 9th March
Nottingham Broadway - Wednesday 10th March
Derby QUAD - Wednesday 10th March (yep, two in one night!)
Sheffield Showroom - Thursday 11th March
Bristol Watershed - Sunday 14th March
Chapter Cardiff - Monday 15th March
Norwich Cinema City - Tuesday 16th March
Oxford Phoenix - Monday 22nd March
Cambridge Arts Picturehouse - Tuesday 23rd March
Newcastle Tyneside - Monday 29th March

The clock is ticking

2010-01-24T23:58:00.002Z

Yes I know we keep saying this, but it really is true, we have excellent news to post up here, it's just we're waiting on a few dates so we can post it with the maximum impact, so apologies for it all taking so long but it really will be worth it.

And with bands like the Vivian girls marking a comeback for that whole nineties indie sound the timing really couldn't be better unless someone like the Yummy Fur were to reform.

Oh, hang on, they have. You see, the timing really couldn't be any better.

It's been a while

2009-08-02T15:58:00.007Z

... but these things happen. There's not been a huge amount to report because the world of film distribution is the slowest moving world I have ever come across.

We have a few companies who have expressed an interest in releasing 1234. Some just want to do a theatrical, some just DVD and some want to do both. This is good, but it takes an age to get any answers out of them. I suppose they have to be careful as they can only afford to buy a few films a year so need to make sure they're happy with what they get, but it's still amazing that it can take weeks just to get the simplest of email replies. One foreign distributor, who actually requested a screener, still hadn't watched it six months later. I can't help feeling that the inevitable online releasing of films in the future will give distributors a much needed kick up the arse. If I can include money for promotion in my budget and then just release the film online I can get it out there right away. I've got a lot of respect for some distributors (and luckily that includes the ones interested in us), the ones who take real care with promotion and placement, but it does seem to be a business that's still operating as if it's 1960.

Hopefully we'll have something to report soon, if only because it would help stem all the 'when's your film coming out then?' emails we get. The fact we get loads from people we don't know only underlines what we've always known, that there's an audience for this film. There's a lot of people out there who love the world of indie music and would be interested in seeing it on film. Obviously I hope they like the film, but at the very least they're interested in it, more so I think than any distributors we've spoken to realise. And, as a distributor, what better way to be proved wrong than to find your film more successful than you thought.

In the meantime other things are being lined up. Carson Films ltd, the company Simon and I set up, are busy putting together our slate of projects. We've got 4 features and one documentary on our slate, the first of which, albion, all about a group of archaeologists running a summer camp to build an Iron Age roundhouse (hence the photo) is just being lined up to send in to the UKFC for development funding. I think it's going to be great (but then I would, wouldn't I), possibly the most dramatic thing we've ever done, but still funny and touching. I've been working on the story with Eithne Farry, who is the books ed at Marie Claire but is of course best known as the person who made all of Lyndsey's outfits in 1234. As soon as she's finished her new book she can start work on all Iron Age costumes that the archaeologists are going to wear.

And at the exact opposite end of the spectrum, we just shot a video for the new Tender Trap single, which I'll try and put up here soon (if I can remember how you do that). They had no money so we shot the whole thing on a still camera running at 3 shots a second, then blended all the shots together. It looks very odd, but in a good way I think. Total budget? One lunch for editor.

Yes, ANOTHER screening

2009-04-16T10:23:00.002Z

We had the cast and crew screening on Tuesday which was great fun, though slightly odd as right after the film finished we had to run over the road and watch the Chelsea / Liverpool game, which was so painful I couldn't bring myself to watch much of. But that aside it was great to see everyone again. It seems really odd that it was exactly one year after we started, in one way it felt longer, but in another way it only seems like last month.

And now we're getting ready for another screening. We're showing in Sheffield as part of the Sensoria festival on Monday 27th at 6pm, after which, oh joy, Simon and I have to do a Q & A. Watching the film with an audience is a uniquely painful experience (it just becomes a list of little things I'd do differently) but that's nothing compared to the horror at having to stand on stage and talk about it. Last week there was an interview I did running on Shorts TV, and having seen that I now know what the Q & A will look like as well as sound like, and I don't like. But there's no getting out of it, so I may as well just get drunk and do it.

Meanwhile everything has pretty much been signed for our middle east release, and we're still waiting on news for the UK. We'll get there in the end, but my god it takes a long time. I never really believed people when they said making the film was only half the job, but now I do. In the meantime Simon and I are both signing up for new projects, but I'm not going to mention those until the ink has dried on the contracts as otherwise it's bad ju-ju and it will all fall apart.

So if you're near Sheffield a week on Monday, come on down to the screening, but probably best to leave before the Q & A starts, it'll just be two drunk men rambling on and no one wants to see that.

Finally

2009-03-18T15:29:00.002Z

after all this time, we have a CAST AND CREW screening. It's going to be on the 14th April at 6.15pm at the Soho hotel. It's taken for ever to arrange because quite simply we had no money left and screening rooms are expensive, but now it's finally going to happen. It'll be great to see everybody again, but the best thing about it happening on that date is that the 14th April is the day we started filming, so it will be exactly a year.

Now if one of the distributors could just hurry up and buy the film that would make everything just dandy, but it seems getting a quick decision from a distributor in this economic climate is a near impossibility, so we'll have to just sit and wait. We've got quite good at that.

Another screening

2009-02-28T00:59:00.004Z

1234 screened this afternoon as part of the London popfest, and it was a slightly less painful experience than the LFF screening. It was less painful in that this wasn't the first time I'd had to watch it with an audience, but painful none the less as all I did was look at every shot and think why didn't I do this or that (apart from the balcony scene which I'm happy with). This doesn't mean I'm not happy with what's on screen, I still am, but there's this weird feeling that a film is never finished and what's on screen is just a work in progress, and that if you just gave me some more time and money there's a few tweaks I'd like to make. I know that's never going to happen, and in fact i hope it never does as it would drive me insane.

Meanwhile we've got another screening, and it's up north this time. We've been asked to screen at the Sensoria festival in Sheffield, which is a festival of music and film, 24th - 30th April, and we happily said yes, so book your tickets now. Or whenever they go on sale.

Then this evening we went to the Buffalo bar for more London Popfest, including the always lovely Betty and the werewolves (though I was late and missed almost their entire set), the fantastic Zipper (I think) from Spain (I think again), and finally an amazing set from Rob and Amelia's (pictured in earlier days) new version of Tender Trap, who were amazing in a Motown / Phil Spector / stand up drumming type way. I wasn't sure what they'd be like as it's many years since I've seen them, but it was without doubt one of the best gigs I've seen by them in any of their many guises. If only they'd done this a year ago we could have had them in 1234, and all the better it would have been for it.

I guess I'll have to add an indie club scene to my new script. God knows how, but I'm sure we can find a way.

Yes I know it's been ages

2009-02-12T11:08:00.005Z

But that's because there hasn't been a lot to report. Our sales agent explained that a film either sells right away (a rarity) or it takes ages, and guess which basket we're in. There are a number of companies interested in UK distribution for 1234, but we're just going to have to sit by while their cogs slowly turn and a deal is signed.

In the meantime, though, we're again applying to festivals, and even better, have an upcoming screening of 1234. We're showing at part of the excellent London Popfest. Here's their press release:

As part of our four day London Popfest (Thursday 26th February to Sunday 1st March) we have an afternoon of indiepop related film programming lined up at The Roxy Bar & Screen in Borough. The screening is free and open to all, not just to London Popfest season ticket holders. We're very excited to have only the second ever showing of "Slamptumentary", a documentary on the Newcastle-based DIY and Riot Grrrl label Slampt, and, as our main feature, the hotly-tipped British indie feature film "1234" fresh from its success at last year's London Film Festival and featuring, in Comet Gain and Betty & The Werewolves, two of the bands playing the popfest.

It's the afternoon of Friday 27th of feb. The Roxy is just down the road from London bridge tube station so if you're about, come on down. With any luck we'll get a few more things like this sorted out for screenings round the UK (not too many or no one will buy the film, but just enough to show their is an audience for this kind of indie malarky). More info from http://londonpopfest.com/ . We're very pleased to be showing as popfest is exactly the kind of thing we made 1234 for.

Finally have to have a quick mention for Shrag, who I've been to see twice now, and who are absolutely fantastic. I went to see the always excellent Betty and the Werewolves and Shrag were on the same bill and I loved them, so if they're playing near you go and see them.

Indie ROCK

2008-12-18T00:53:00.003Z

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

2008-12-10T12:11:00.002Z

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.

The beginning of the end of the end

2008-11-27T18:50:00.003Z

Or something. A few people didn't understand the end of the film. It seemed horribly obvious to me, but the fact a handful didn't get it made us think about making the end a little more obvious.

**SPOILER**

It's a tricky thing to get right, underlining what's happening without hammering it home. So the other day we tried taking out a couple of shots so it's more obvious Stevie leaves the band. We still thought we could add an extra shot, maybe Stevie knocking at the door or something. We looked at how we could do this cheaply, but whatever it was we'd still have to find some money form somewhere. Then Simon had a good idea (at last) and looked in the rushes, and sure enough we shot a close up of Stevie's hand knocking on the door from the scene when he asks Emily out. I have no recollection of shooting this shot, but will obviously take full credit for my amazing foresight. The shot fits in fine, the ending still does what it did before but now it's a little more explicit. I watched it a good few times now, and canvassed opinion, and no one seems to think it's too much, so it looks like we'll go with that.

**END OF SPOILER**

In the meantime no news on a UK sale, though a number of companies are interested and the Sales Agent thinks we should get one wrapped up in the new year. They've also managed to sell to another territory, with another two close to closing, so at some point in 2009 the film will appear somewhere in the world.

I've also decided that after all these years of self sufficiency it's time to get an agent so I've signed with the lovely Yasmin at AP Watt. The fact that I know she sometimes reads this blog will in no way colour the nice things I have to say about AP Watt, oh no. Not at all. Ok, maybe a bit.

Plus we have three more scripts we're working on, A Girl and a Gun (road movie in the south of France), Tender buttons (it's all set in a restaurant) and Albion (about people making an iron age roundhouse). None of these would seem to be an obvious candidate for a huge science fiction spectacular with loads of CGI and a spaceship manned entirely by bears, but I'm working on. I'll get those bears in one of the scripts if it's the last thing I do. Which it probably will be.

No more festival

2008-10-31T12:45:00.002Z

Well that's it, the LFF is finally over, and my liver is rather glad about that. Last night was the party for Slumdog Millionaire, and also the final night party all rolled into one. It was held in some very posh bar in St James St and was absolutely rammed. In what has become my signature move I drank far too much and then embarrassingly introduced myself to somebody I really admire, this time Stephen Frears. I'd be very surprised if they ever let me into another party again.

Worst thing about the LFF ending is the fact that if I want to see a film now I'll have to pay. No more just turning up and waving a pass, no more press screenings, no more anything. Roll on the next festival.

Something is obviously in the air (or water) as in the last two days we've had a flurry of emails from agents and production companies who want to see the film. I've no idea how this happens as I'd imagine most people keep their cards fairly close to their chest, but it's been most odd, but really, really nice. Fingers crossed the next month will see some good news about getting the next film off the ground.

Meanwhile we sit back and wait for people to come in for distribution for 1234. By all accounts it's a long old process, especially in the current climate, but the sales agent are off to the American Film Market (AFM) next week, which is the biggest market in the US, so with any luck there will be some interest stateside, provided they haven't all got completely caught up in their elections.

Actually the next thing I really need to do is get some work in. These last two weeks I've pretty much lived off canapes, free beer and the chocolate bar they put in every goodie bag, but that's all over now and I'm hungry. One little plate of thai chicken and some tuna carpaccio would go down a treat right now.

Brave new world

2008-10-28T22:09:00.003Z

Well, it had to happen one day, but finally, after years of flatly refusing, I've set up a Myspace page for the film http://www.myspace.com/1234themovie . I know, I know, I'm so last year, it's all about twatter or twitter or somesuch but I don't care. I've made a myspace page and I think it looks lovely, so pop by and say hello, or whatever the term is.

Meanwhile we're busy having meetings with all and sundry, talking about next films with companies, and all the time waiting to find out what happens with distribution. By all accounts it's a slow moving process, but even more so as the worlds economy collapses. Still, one day we'll get there, one day...

London calling

2008-10-26T18:03:00.002Z

More parties and more screenings. Had our second screening at the Roxy in Brixton. I didn't go but was there at the end and there seemed to be positive mumblings as far as I could hear. Somewhere in the audience was a journalist from Screen International, so here's hoping general audience laughter will have had a positive effect on him. After that it was dinner with the family then off to a party for British directors, where I chatted to Nick Abrahams and Sallie Aprahamian which, as Mark Williams used to say, was nice.

Next day I got to see Vicky Christina Barcelona, which I was really unsure about seeing but loved, and then it was off to introduce our final screening at the NFT studio. It was a great place to have our final screening as almost a year ago (I'll have to go and check the diary, if I can be arsed) we screened Home in the NFT studio at a Shooting People evening, and now here we were showing the feature. Later we went to see Telstar (Mathew Baynton's in it) and while we were queueing up to go in a couple came over and told us how much they'd enjoyed the film. It's little things like this that make the whole festival exposure really worthwhile.

And finally, just when it appeared things couldn't get any better, we went to the Che party at Aisa di Cuba. Everyone there was trying to chat to Benicio del Toro, but I didn't care about meeting him because I got to shake hands with Paul Simonon of the Clash, who was also there. Meeting him may well have been the highlight so far. How can you not be impressed at meeting someone who smashed his bass on stage in such a brilliant way?

More festivalness

2008-10-22T11:28:00.002Z

The weekend was quiet after the premiere, just what I needed. Monday, however, and it all started again. Had to go to the Hospital (swanky club not A&E) with Simon to do a panel discussion for aspiring film makers. It was quite odd, but fun, the questions all seemed good, it just seemed a little weird to be being held up as an example of how to do something. To celebrate afterwards we all went to a drinks reception, which then moved on to the buyers and sellers party at soho house. Not sure how I got home.

The next day and I'm determined to do tihngs a little quieter. I meet up with scriptwriter jeremy drysdale for a quick pint, then head over to the NFT to apologize to Nick Abrahams for missing the screening of his film. Have drinks with him, meet up with some other people and somehow find myself dragged off to the party for Vicky Christina Barcelona, the new woody allen film. At aprty I drink more but manage to meet Shane Meadows and Atom Egoyan, which is excellent. Drink even more and once again end up unsure of how I got home.

I'm staying in tonight.

The premiere

2008-10-18T15:13:00.002Z

Finally. I spent most of the day wandering round in a slightly terrified daze, trying to use up time. The festival sent a car to pick me up, which was very nice but meant I was there a good few hours before, so I wandered round the southbank trying to find anything to take my mind off the evening.

I don't know what I thought was going to go wrong, but I certain ly had the feeling that something could go wrong. Mass walk-outs, booing, who knows, this was going to be the first time a paying audience would see it and I had no idea how they would respond.

Thankfully they seemed to like it. People laughed, in the right places too, and then they clapped at the end. The Q and A session at the end wasn't as painful as I feared, though I did manage to get the wrong end of the stick on one question, but all the questions were good and thoughtful, even the ones we could only give short answers to, and nobody asked 'why'?

After that the festival put on a drinks reception for us and guests in the bar, which was excellent, and for the first time that day (or even week) I found I could properly relax. And beer is good. We just got another really nice review from incontention.com so fingers crossed that with some nice words and a good screening we might now get some distribution. Plus the Film Council people were there and enjoyed it, so with any luck that might make getting the next one off the ground a bit easier.

Eventually the bar shut but a hardcore fifteen or so of us (including all of Betty and the werewolves) then headed off to the Pit bar underneath the Old Vic. I eventually got home sometime after 2am, though I'm not exactly sure when. I had a bottle of champagne in the fridge and nearly opened that, but I'm very glad I didn't, so did the next best thing and sat down to drunkenly watch another episode of the Box of Delights on DVD.

It was great to see so many of the cast and crew at the screening, fingers crossed we can get a screening sorted quickly for the rest of them. Must have been an interesting watch for Mathew Baynton (Neil), as that was the first time he'd seen any cut of the film. He's a brave man going to his own premiere like that, but I'm glad to say he seemed happy enough at the end.

So the next hurdle is the industry screening on Monday morning when all the distributors sit down to watch it. I think I'll avoid that one, I don't think my heart could take it.

The party

2008-10-16T01:08:00.003Z

I've been to many parties. I've been to super posh ones, though always as someone elses plus one, and I've been to smaller ones in my own right and had a blast (yes Uppsala, Leuven and Brest, I'm looking at you) but this was the first big party I'd ever been to when i didn't have to lie to get in, and it was great.

I spent half the night spotting famous people, and the other half trying to remember their names. The great and the good of British film were there, as well, thankfully, as a lot of people we knew. Highlights included one very drunk distributor mouthing off about bad How To Lose Friends was just as Toby Young squeezed past, and, best of all a woman from another distribution company who asked to be introduced because she loved the film. It was an absolute joy to be able to talk to someone you'd never met about the film and have them bring scenes and situations up rather than you having to tell them about the film. She works for a label we all very much admire, and so it was doubley nice to hear she'd enjoyed the film.

The bar ran out of drink just after all the tubes stopped running, but the event made up for the fact by giving away excellent goodie bags, including a bag stuffed full of Armani bits and bobs. I can safely predict that the delegates centre tomorrow will smell of the Armani code, so I shall wear my Tom Ford aftershave instead as a way of marking my territory from everyone else. It's a great improvement on my other plan for marking my territory out in the delegates centre, something I think I shall save for week 2.

It's finally here

2008-10-15T16:40:00.004Z

Today marks the opening day of the 42nd London film festival and things are starting to get a bit mental. We've had lots of little mentions in things, and a lot of them say there's quite a buzz about 1234, all very nice, but I do hope it doesn't get too out of hand and lead people to think the film is something it's not. It's a nice, little film, and in someways I think it's better knowing very little and being surprised than by being told too much and not having your expectations fulfilled. In fact, that's always right, not just in some ways.

First up today was the Guardian Podcast alongside Lyndsey Marshal. This was done by Xan Brooks and Jason Solomons from the Observer / Guardian. It was very relaxed and quite good fun, though as usual I rambled on too much. Jason hadn't seen the film yet, but Xan had (he interviewed me about the LFF a couple of days before) and said he liked it. All in all, quite easy.

Then it was off to radio five live to be interviewed on the Simon Mayo show. Thankfully Michael Hayden from the LFF was there as well, which took some of the preassure off, but it's still really nerve-wracking thinking that something like half a million people are listening. Try as you might to forget it you're always aware of that fact and it makes everything very tricky. Simon Mayo was very nice, Michael was as complimentary as ever about the film, and then the man from the Film Council came on and said nice things about it as well. Overall, not nearly as easy as the podcast but OK.

Was dreading the next one, a live interview with SKY TV. Radio seems much less harrowing to do than TV full stop, but a live piece filled me with a degree of terror. And then, once again, Madonna gave the world of cinema a proverbial kicking by announcing her divorve thereby moving the LFF off the top spot and bouncing my proposed interview right off the schedule. Was hugely relieved.

Now just have to have a shower and change into my smart suit and it's off to the Hilton for the opening night party. No idea what it's going to be like, but I bet Madonna doesn't turn up.

Press day

2008-10-09T20:15:00.005Z

We got our first review today, and a lovely one it was too (here's a link). Reading the review it struck me that it's funny because you spend all this time making a film, and then when it's finished you kind of give it away and it belongs to anyone who sees it. It's something I guess we have to get used to (though if everyone hates it I'm taking it back). I never in a million years thought we'd get Four Weddings mentioned in review of 1234 - though with a quick bit of mental arithmatic I reckon that if we got 0.01% of their worldwide gross we'd go into profit - but it crops up in this one. I was dreading reading the first review, and so it's nice to have got that out the way with such a positive one.

Meanwhile, at the Southbank it was our press screening, and thankfully we needn't have worried about attendance as it was packed. I have this information second hand as I couldn't face turning up to see for myself. Apparently there was laughter, hopefully in the right places, and fingers crossed it went down well. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

The next level of dread is going to be the premiere in 8 days time, which will not only be hell having to watch the film with a full audience for the first time but will also then feature the Q&A session after. Roll on Saturday morning and we can all start relaxing, unless of course I end up saying something really out of order by accident and have to then go into hiding in Belgium.

Meanwhile, best film seen so far (though they've all been good) is documentary Beautiful Losers on the outsider art movement. It's excellent.

One film, handed over

2008-10-03T11:08:00.002Z

So that's that (for now). Film, with a full grade and stereo sound mix handed over to the people at the London film festival. Obviously that's not all the work done, we still need to get a 5.1 stereo mix down for release, and then there's the small matter of trying to get someone to buy the film for distribution, but for now, that's it.

Next up is our press screening on the 9th, so it's time to email every journalist we can think of and try to get them down to see it. There's supposed to be somehting about the film in the Times tomorrow, and the Observer requested a copy, so fingers crossed we could get a mention there as well. The odd thing is that this part is so important but is completely out of our hands. A couple of good reviews will make selling the film so much easier, but we've made the film, now there's nothing we can do but hope people like it.

All screenings are now sold out, and I'm somewhat dreading the premiere. Kearney and I have to do a Q and A session afterwards. I wasn't keen, but Michael Hayden (head programmer at the LFF) really wants to do one, and he's been so supportive of the film we really couldn't say no. I have visions of him asking the audience if anyone has any questions, only to be met with stoney silence before one person puts their hand up and just asks 'why?'.

So as a way of not thinking about things I'm going to lots of press screenings. this week so far I've seen Il Divo, which caused such a storm at Cannes and is excellent (modern Italian political history told in the style of Goodfellas) and Dean Spanley, which our friend Alan Harris produced, and which is wonderful. Peter O'Toole is amazing in it, and with the right marketing I think it could be a huge hit.

Le grade, c'est finis

2008-09-27T21:43:00.002Z

Mais oui. At last, the grade is done, and it looks wonderful. Scenes that never quite looked right, such as the dressing room scene, now look amazing, and scenes that always looked quite nice, such as the balcony, are now just stunning.

Now we're doing the sound mix. Great things have been done, dialogue cleaned up, spot effects added, all the little things that you only notice when they're absent. The odd thing was that I'd spent the last eight days looking at the picture getting better and better but with a ropey temporary soundtrack, and now I'm looking at a poor copy of the original offline but with an amazing soundtrack. Next week, when we marry the two together, should be something special, as well as providing a number of new headaches along the way (why is this bit at 24fps and this bit at 25fps? How did that happen?)

And even more exciting is the fact that the premiere in NFT1 is almost sold out with only six tickets left. I'm jaw droppingly amazed. The studio screening is sold out, but it only has about 40 seats, NFT1 has 450. I had visions of having to introduce the premiere to my mother and about a dozen people dotted around the cinema, but now it looks as if I will be introducing the film to my mother and a cinema packed full of people who didn't manage to get tickets to Quantum of Solace.

Threat of light at end of tunnel

2008-09-22T17:57:00.002Z

About halfway through the grade now. Just done the balcony scene and it looks amazing. It always looked good, but because it was shot at dusk and made up of a number of takes, the light levels always jumped about a bit, but now they all look the same and it looks wonderful. Likewise the gallery scene, which was always a little muddy, is now gleaming white, just like a gallery should be in fact.

Meanwhile, in a studio across town the sound is being finished off, and hopefully later in the week we can have a listen. What this means is that by the beginning of next week we should be in a position to marry the two and have a finished film (well, kind of).

Also have a new poster design, which is excellent, but don't tell Minter or he'll only get all big headed about it. Hopefully we'll be able to put up a version here one day, though I have no idea when that day might be.

And finally a big thanks to the Film PR who sent us an enormous email full of tips for promoting the film. It was excellent and very much appreciated. Time to start emailing journalists, I think.

This week

2008-09-14T23:32:00.003Z

is hopefully the week everything pretty much comes together. The extra audio effects are being recorded while the sound mixer goes through the dialogue one last time to make sure we know all the bits that need re-recording. Once we've got that list we start doing the ADR, hopefully towards the end of the week.

We also need to finalise the end roller. We have to go through this time after time because we really, really don't want to miss anyone's name off. It's surprising how easy it is to do. I went through it on Friday, then again on Saturday and already noticed one missing name. We should also get something close to the finished opening credits, the rough ones look great and I can't wait to see the finished version. After that we need to think about some kind of opening company logo. When we've finally decided on what on earth that is going to be we can send them all over to lipsync who can start to put them in the finished, scanned master copy.

Then there's some new music from Remy to try fitting in and seeing how it all sits, all the while avoiding the urge to make any changes to the edit (because WE CAN'T). Then on Wednesday we start the grade. I love doing the grade, but have to be quite strict as it's all too easy to get carried away and to keep trying different things, because they all look so cool, but we have neither the time or the money, especially not the time. Or money.

Minter has also taken his crayons out and come up with a very nice poster. It's being bounced backwards and forwards while everyone who needs to has their input, but I'm a little worried we might be trying to cram too much in and simplicity might be the best way forward, but we'll see. If you want to know what the process is it's a bit like this http://tinyurl.com/5zxqvh (which is of course the new version of the excellent original http://tinyurl.com/5kn8lt ).

So by the end of this week everything should be falling into place. At least that's the theory. But more importantly, I've been given a ticket to go and see Metallica tonight. I only know their first album, and this new one is their eleventieth, but it will, if nothing else, be a laugh. If it's really good I may overdub all the music in our film with metal.

DIY

2008-09-13T12:39:00.002Z

Most films will hire a film PR to get out there and put the word about. Obviously we can't afford to do that, so we're doing it ourselves. There's nothing like trying to learn a new skill. As a result every person I know who has even so much as bumped into a film journalist is being roped in to send emails about 1234.

Right now we're just trying to get on peoples radar, let them know the film exists. There's something like 200 films in the festival, and no one can see them all, so we've got to make sure at least a few journalists choose ours when deciding what to see.

Everyone has been very helpful (special thanks go out to eithne and Jeremy here), and Moviehouse have played their part, getting a piece in Screen and talking to various other, so now we just need to get the press screening dates so we can send those out and, fingers crossed, get some coverage.

To help with this I was forced (and I mean forced) to go to a photoshoot for the Times, who are doing a special booklet on the festival for the 11th October. There are few things I hate more than having my photo taken, but it's all for a good cause, and it's not like it was heavy lifting or anything. It was just me and two other directors, Pat Holden and Richard Jobson. Pat and I didn't look too comfortable, but Richard Jobson is an old hand at this sort of thing so it was a lot easier with someone like him about.

I think next time I may hire a male model to be my public face. They can go and do all the photoshoots and I can stay in the pub.

We love London

2008-09-10T16:50:00.003Z

Or more specifically, we love the London Film Festival, because that's where 1234 is going to have it's world permiere. The press launch was today, and so were we. I was sat with Richard Jobson on one side and Terrence Davies on the other (both of whom were very nice and introduced themselves, like I didn't know who they were). The cinema was packed with press, and 1234 was also included in the clip reel they showed the journalists today. After that it was upstairs to do interviews with sky movies and, best of all, London TV, where I used to work.

It was great to also finally put a face to all the LFF employees we've been in email contact with over the last few weeks. Michael Hayden, who programmed the festival, has given us a fantastic write up in the programme, so nice we may have to nick some of it for our synopsis, he does a better job of summing up the film than we ever did. His review is online here http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/1_2_3_4.

Best of all though were the screening dates we've been given. Most films get a couple of screenings, but we've got three, two at the NFT on the southbank and one in the Ritzy in Brixton, but even better our first screening, our world premiere, is in the huge NFT1 at 9pm on friday 17th October. I really don't think we could have asked for a better slot or location.

All we've got to do is finish the stupid film in time now.

The grade

2008-09-05T10:42:00.002Z

Went to LipSync with Mike Eley yesterday to talk to Stuart who will be doing the grade for the film. They've already scanned some of the film in so we were able to get that projected up on the screen and have a look at some options. It's amazing what they can do now in a grading suite, isolating small areas and pulling those up while darkening everywhere else, changing the skin tones on one character while leaving another untouched, it really is remarkable and I can't wait to start on the full grade. We went today because Mike is going to be in the US grading the film of Grey Gardens that he shot, a grade that has been supposed to be happening for the last six months but is now finally underway. Sadly it means he won't be at our grade until right at the end (hence the meeting) but we may be able to send him pictures over via the wonder of the internet to get his input. In theory.

Meanwhile the director of the Sundance festival is going to be in London in 2 weeks time so we need to get as near to a finished version for him to watch while he's here. Fingers crossed that's possible, but I have a feeling it will be a very last minute thing (like everything else).

Meanwhile Minter, not content with making the proposal document and appearing in the film with sunnyvale, is now designing some poster ideas. It's always easy to look at other peoples posters and see what was wrong with them but I'm finding it's a lot harder to come up with one yourself. They say find that image that sums your film up perfectly, well I've looked and I can't think what it is, so we may go with something a bit more abstract. Anyway, I don't care today because in a few hours I'm off to the NFT to watch a new print of Badlands on the big screen and I can't wait.

Locked

2008-08-30T15:02:00.005Z

After one last viewing on Friday we locked the picture, which is to say that's it, no more changes to the cut. We made a couple of quick changes, placing the final montage scene back where it always used to be (and no one can quite work out why it moved), so that the final chapter now gives Stevie his two choices in life followed by the montage to represent him making his mind up before the final rehearsal. Makes complete sense and makes you wonder what we were thinking of having it any other way. Also put back a quick shot of Stevie walking down the street just before the letter scene, which is nice to have back in as it was the very first shot we did.

So this weekend the edit list is being prepared (well done Scott, I'm sure it's much more fun than being outside in the sunshine) so that can be sent over to Lip Sync and they can start scanning every frame we need from the original negative, and putting it on to lovely High Def tape. While they're doing that we can get sound mixing.

Happily all the music looks to be cleared now, just waiting for a yes from the US for one of the tracks. Then we can start collecting all the spot FX we need, the soound of amps being switched on, things being plugged in, all that kind of stage noise rubbish. Also it's time to do the ADR, getting the cast back in to re-record lines where we've had to change something or where a plane or somesuch has made their line inaudible. This will be fun as it means we can also finally add audio to the beginning of the woodland scene which will be great to see (or hear, even).

Bits and pieces of press are starting to come through as well, including having to do a quick interview for the Times next week. Simon (Kearney, I think he's one of the producers, though all he seems to do is go to lunch and moan) and I sat round thinking of things we shouldn't say, which now means they're the only things I can think of saying, so this will probably never see the light of day.

Ian Bonar and Lyndsey Marshal came in to see the film the other day. It was great to see them both again, and I hope they liked what they saw. It must be very weird seeing yourself on screen, especially in something you shot three months ago. Hopefully we can get the cast some copies soon so they can watch it a few times and let it sink in. I've now seen the film a ridiculous number of times, probably somewhere in the region of a couple of hundred, almost as many times as I've seen Zoolander.

More pressingly is the need to name the last chapter. The film is broken into chapters, each named after a song that has some kind of relevance to the chapter, but one which also makes up a cracking mix tape. There were 12 chapters, but now there's thirteen, and the final chapter doesn't have a song yet. I've been wracking my brain but can't think of anything as yet. My suggestion of '99 problems' didn't go down too well, which is understandable.

Almost there

2008-08-26T21:49:00.004Z

Another day of editing done. The ever floating Job Centre scene floated off once again, from it's recent home of near the beginning of the film off to somewhere at the beginning of act II, and it works very nicely there. A couple more little tweaks were done, including moving the strontium scene into the final chapter, and everything looks just grand. Added some incidental music, and that appears to be working well too, though I can never tell with music until about six months later, but everyone else seems to love it so I'll go with them.

The result is we now have a cut. Possibly the final cut. I'll know after I've watched it again tomorrow (and Simon has watched it. I also have to mention him as apparently his mother has complained he's not being mentioned enough here, which is probably fair enough).

If, as I suspect, this is the final cut, then the first thing that will happen is that the EDL (the edit list) will go over to Lip Sync and they'll begin the very long and laborious process of scanning the film at 4K resolution onto HD. This will then be graded, and will be our master copy, to be shown at any film festivals and transferred to 35mm for release.

While that's going on we'll be doing the sound mix. I'm happy to say it appears that almost all music problems have been sorted out and by the end of the week we should have signed off music for the film, which is excellent, as I really didn't want to change any of the tracks we have as they all fit in the film so well.

This means that, fingers crossed, by the beginning of October we'll have a fully finished screening copy that we can show on the big screen to distributors with a view to at least getting a UK release (for now). How we'll feed ourselves till then is anyones guess, but I'm sure something will turn up. Either that or we'll have to survive on popcorn.

Back on set

2008-08-21T20:19:00.003Z

Finally it's been time to do the pick up shots, and it's been great to back on set and actually shooting something. Some of the old crew were free to return, and it was great to see them, and the new crew were all excellent as well. Ian was on set for the first day for a quick shot of him reading a magazine at a bus stop. This meant that we had to keep stopping as the bus turned up and bemused passengers got off, but I'm happy to report that the people of Hackney are still stupidly polite when you're filming. Not one complaint, lots of nice comments, and generally very friendly and helpful people. It's not like this in south London.

Everything was going Ok until we had to do the balcony cut aways at dusk, when it decided to piss down. Obviously shooting in August you should be prepared for bad weather, but luckily it blew over so )I hope) we managed to get everything. The plus side was that when we went to shoot the pub exterior (the Bricklayers in Hoxton for Richards bar) it looked as if we'd paid for a wet down, all gleaming neon reflected in the roads. Day two was more of the same, and by five o'clock we were all done. It's a terrible feeling because you don't want to pack everything up and then think of a shot you're missing, but after much wracking of brains we decided we had enough.

This was followed by the good news that we're now working with Lip Sync, a post production house in soho, to get everything ready up to the HD master. We still need to find a little more money, but not nearly as much as we did before. So Friday we're back in the edit suite to drop the cutaway shots in, try adding some of the excellent incidental music Remy the composer has been writing, make maybe one or two final tweaks before officially locking the cut down so we can start scanning the film ready for the final print. Maybe then I can go and get some more work and stop living off dried bread. Until we realise we need to go and get some more pick up shots.

Reasons why filming in England is rubbish

2008-08-15T08:44:00.002Z

When we shot in April we were quite lucky with the weather. There were a few rain delays, and some days it looked sunny but was freezing, but for the most part it was OK. But now we're in August, the height of the summer and guess what, we're having to move the pick up shots because of the weather. I've never seen so much rain. So it's pick up shots mid next week then into edit to drop them in, and also to try dropping in some of the incidental music Remy our composer had come up with.

I'm not a big fan of incidental music, and there's so much music in the film anyway it might be too much, but he's composed some really excellent stuff that hopefully will fit right in without making it all sound too Hollywood. It's going to be really interesting to try, and I predict a bit of a nightmare to decide if it's right or not. Still, at least it can't rain in an edit suite (yet).

There's always trouble

2008-08-13T09:57:00.003Z

Just as everything was fitting into place comes news that one of the featured songs, for which we were promised we could have full rights to use, may now not have been the bands to give away. It appears they'd sold the international rights to another company, maybe even two other companies, who now of course all want money. There was obviously some kind of mix up when we asked for a track they had the rights to, someone didn't get the message, but it now leaves us in a tricky situation.

The choices appear to be pay too much (not really an option) cut the song (a real pain) or hope we can re-negotiate with these other labels. Fingers crossed they'll see sense and charge less as I really don't want to cut this song.

In other news we're just gearing up to do the pick up shots, maybe some on saturday with the rest early next week. Some of the old crew will be there and some new, it'll be very odd. Six simple scenes, then it's off to finally lock the edit. In theory.

Pick ups

2008-08-08T12:34:00.002Z

Everything is coming together now. Next week we're getting the locations for the six or so pick up shots needed, then we'll shoot those the week after. We've done a little more tweaking to the cut (don't worry Kev it's still your cut), taking out a couple of things that had started to bother me, and best of all finding a couple of really nice cut aways in the balcony scene. Then we drop in the pick ups and that picture is locked. Then it's fun fun fun as we start on the sound mixes and the ADR work, and that's when you know you're nearly finished.

The financial plan for the post work is almost in place, a few options still to be finalised, but it looks pretty much OK, and not a minute too soon. We're planning to end on a 35mm print, but first stop will be getting the HD master made that we're going to strike the print off. Once that's done we've got something we can show distributors so can take our time getting the print down.

On the subject of distributors, someone is obvioulsy saying nice things about the film as we've started to get phone calls from distributors and other sales agents saying they'd heard good reports and what stage were we at. All very nice to hear, but who is it that's saying these things? Whoever it is I'd like them to carry on doing it. Best call of all was from a sales outfit that are also a financing house. They knew we already had a sales agent, but they'd seen our last short film Home as well (how?) and wanted to have a look at our next project. So I'm off to the post office to send them a script right now. Oh wouldn't development money be nice.

Awooo

2008-07-30T23:32:00.002Z

Went to see the ever excellent Betty and the Werewolves. They feature as the band who Stevie and Neil go and see at the beginnig of the film when they first come acorss Billy Nixon. In the film the band play a song called Euston station, and tonight was the single release party for that track. Got there just in time to catch the end of the band before them (who were also excellent) and then it was werewolf frenzy. This was the second time I've seen them and they were once again brilliant and I'm so glad they're in the film, they're just the sort of band we want. It's been a long time since I've seen a band having so much fun on stage. The single is available on itunes to download, or, if you're just so hip it hurts, you can get it on 7".

And they were giving away cake tonight. How rock is that?

Finally

2008-07-27T18:55:00.002Z

The trailer is up on the site here . It's pretty much the same as the one down there, but bigger, better aspect ratio, better sound (you can now actually hear what they're saying) and just all round a much nicer thing. Fingers crossed this is just the beginning of loads more things going up on the site, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Waiting

2008-07-25T10:04:00.002Z

There's nothing else to do and it's driving us mad. One public body and three companies are looking at the film and considering if they wamt to get involved, and until one of them says yes (or all four say no) there is absolutely nothing we can do. We don't need to do much more to the film, but it would be good to just get on with it, but there are so many different ways (and costs) to complete the film we have to just wait until we know which is the best option. And I'm not very good at waiting.

On the plus side a better quality version of the trailer should be going up on the main website this weekend, at least that's the theory, followed, we hope, by cast biogs and more general info. I'm spending some of today trying to come up with some more things to do for the marketing of the film. I thought doing all the general paraphenalia you get with a band would be good, button badges, tour T shirts, that kind of thing. It's probably way too early to think about these things, but at least it stops me checking my email every 15 seconds to see if anyone has got back to us.

Also we have a composer working on some ideas for incidental music. As I normally hate incidental music I'm really looking forward to hearing what he's come up with. Now I have to try and not smash my computer up in frustration before he sends something over.

Next week I'm meeting up with a guy called Jon who is making a documentary on the Oxford music scene and I'm really looking forward to seeing how his cut is going. Having been involved in that music scene for years it will be very interesting to see what everyone has to say about it. Then, the day after that, I'm meeting up with a guy who's doing a documentary on Iggy Pop, who wants me to look at some early cuts. The most important thing here is to talk this viewing into the oportunity to ocme along and film some stuff with him. After all, we're using a Stooges song in the film so it's only right and proper that I get to fulfill one of my dreams and meet Iggy Pop. Well, that's the angle I'm taking.

Final hurdle

2008-07-17T19:12:00.002Z

We're putting the budget(s) together for the last part of the film. We know we have to do some pick up shots, a sound mix, some ADR work, a grade, titles and music clearance, but after that we have three choices.

Choice number one is the bargain choice, and is to go to a digibeta copy from the DVCAM masters we've been cutting off. This is very cheap. Choice two is to end up on an HD master with a full stereo 5.1 mix. This would show perfectly in any cinema that can show HD. That would cost about 50K.

Choice three is to end up on a full 35mm print. This is the choice we'd most like to make, however this will cost about another 70K on top of the HD master, so about 120K all in.

The good news is that we've had some good news which should (hopefully) make finding the extra money easier. We've applied to UKFC as well as a number of other avenues for the money and now just have to wait. Worst of all we can't say what the good news is until it's cleared at the beginning of September, but it is proper good news.

Everyone said that making the film was the easy and fun part, finishing it was the difficult bit. I laughed in their faces when they told me this, I couldn't see how anything could be much harder than making the film. But, of course, they were right and I was wrong. This is the real uphill struggle, but thankfully we're used to that by now. Sort of.

And happily John from National Park got in touch. I'd emailed him ages ago as I really wanted to use one of their excellent tracks in the film (specifically No More Rides), but never heard anything back form him. Turns out his websites spam filter was set too high and he wasn't getting any mail, but luckily looked into this and found my email, and even better he's happy to let us use the song. We're very pleased about this as once you start using a song and it really works, it's very hard to change it for something else. It never sounds as good (unless I wrote it, obviously. Actually, not even then. Actually especially not then). So hurrah, the sound track is nearly complete.

It's a small, small world

2008-07-13T00:05:00.002Z

I went to see my friends Rob and Amelia tonight. They've both spent their lives in indie bands (Tallulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap), and have provided a huge amount of support for the film through script readings and advice. What I wasn't expecting was that one of their other guests tonight was Claudia Gonson from the Magnetic Fields. Rob and Amy had told her all about the film and she was really interested to hear more. they'd also told her about the line about her band being cut. She was very gracious about the whole thing, but I now have to try doubley hard to see if it will work in the film again.

I have a terrible feeling it won't, the scene reads so well now without that pause, but it was still great to have to make my apologies to someone whose music I really love about not name checking them in the final cut. And then it hit me, one of the title cards is still named after a Magnetic Fields song, so at least they're in there somewhere.

Odd that in the beginning of the film Stevie name checks Comet Gain (who later appear in the film), The Nation Of Ulyssess (who bass player later appears in the film) and Huggy Bear (whose guitarist later appears in the film), none of whom I knew were appearing when I wronte the lines, and now a Magnetic Fields track is mentioned and then I meet Claudia (loads of other bands are mentioned, but I knew them before I wrote the thing). I'm starting to think this film may be some magical device, like some kind of filmic monkey's paw. I'm going to try and put in a reference to Winona Ryder and see if she turns up on my doorstep tomorrow. The court order will obviously make that tricky, but I can but try.

If you don't cry

2008-07-09T23:10:00.003Z

Is of course the title of a song by the Magnetic Fields. It's also a line we in the film, a reference that Stevie spots and mentions. But it was one of those lines that worked well on paper but not so well read out loud, so it got cut. But tonight I went to see the Magnetic Fields in concert, and I feel guilty for cutting it. So I'm marking it down in the book of things to try next time we're in the edit suite (this book is starting to fill up now).

Of more pressing concern is a meeting with the sales agent next week when they want to discuss a timetable for showing the films to distributors. My answer of 'when it's finished' was deemed not precise enough. They also said they would take us out to lunch (though I'm sure they'll charge this back to us at some point, I would). They are, however, the fourth people to say they're going to take us out for lunch in the last few weeks, and as yet no lunch has been forthcoming. So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed they're first, I'm starving.

Teaser trailer

2008-07-06T15:07:00.004Z

I have no idea if this will work or not, but while we're uploading the trailer to the website I'm going to try and load a copy up here. It's a little low res, but I it seems to hold up OK. If it does work then please let us know what you think of it.

Almost there

2008-07-03T20:03:00.003Z

The trailer is finished now. Hopefully it gives a feel for the film without giving too much away. I don't know. It's just for us this one, distributors will do their own. I just want to make sure it has one foot in the comedy and one foot in the arthouse.

Anyway, it should be up tomorrow or the day after (or Monday as it's usually known).

Trailer

2008-07-03T10:01:00.002Z

Just cutting a rough version of the trailer at the moment, just for the website. It's a much harder job than I thought it would be, trying to balance out giving a flavour of the film without giving the whole film away. However, hard as that is it's nothing compared with making sure the film doesn't try and appear something else. You suddenly realise how accurate all those spoof trailers from a few years ago were, it would be easy to cut the scenes from our film to make out it was almost any genre of film (with the possible exception of sci fi).

Met up for drinks with Alan Harris yesterday, along with a large chunk of his crew from Dean Spanley. I can't wait to see the finished film. He showed me a trailer and it looks beautiful, and Peter O'Toole looks wonderful. I have a feeling it will do really well.

Meanwhile we have a couple of possible avenues for our completion money, but it's early days and I'm not holding out too much hope for these ones. Maybe when they see the trailer on the website. Especially the horror version. Amazing what adding the Psycho soundtrack will do to a shot.

Smoke on the water

2008-07-01T01:38:00.003Z

I gave up smoking when the ban came into effect in the UK last June. All was fine, but I knew that when we started filming there was a chance I might have the odd cigarette. And so, at about 10.30 on the first days filming, I turned to david, the 3rd AD,, and said, 'give me a cigarette'.

So I smoked for the shoot, but then came the edit. I smoked for some of that, mainly becuase the editor smoked, but for about half of it I didn't, letting him go for a fag break while I hunted for pornography, or played word battle, on the internet. I never smoked at home, so it was only a couple a day, but still too much.

But now the edit's done (-ish) I've stopped again. Until tonight. Today I had to go and meet my friend Tessa rockchick who was over from Hong Kong. We met at the hospital (the club not the NHS building), where she was witha group of other people who I didn't know. One was a PR, one was a booker for models 1, one is making a film on the Stooges (I've already offered to do some camera on his next shoot) and one was a mystery. The mystery one suddenly announced that he was going for a cigarette, and did anyone want to join him. Being ill at ease with a large group of strangers (I'm as crap as everyone else) I said I would, so the two of us went onto the balcony for a cigarette.

Making small talk I asked him what he did. He said he was a film financier. Hah, what are the chances. I explained our project. It's not what he normally does, but he loved the idea. He may not be able to help, but he's going to make some calls.

So it all may (and probably will) turn out to be nothing, but the fact is that if I hadn't gone out for a cigarette I would never have had the converstation and so would never have found what may be the final piece of money we need. So smoking is thereofr officially useful.

Of course had I been strong and not smoked he would have come back in at some point and we would have had much the same conversation, but I'm ignoring that fact. And anyway, I've given up smoking again now. But this time I mean it. Unless you're a film financier who wants a chat.

I love London

2008-06-25T21:16:00.002Z

Well, I might. It depends. Had a great meeting with Moviehouse, the sales agents for the film, today. They're really enthusiastic about the new cut, so westarted talking about a schedule for festivals to enter.

They've always favoured starting with sundance, our worry has always been if we apply and don't get in it's a long wait, so we wanted to go for London, and after watching the new cut I'm pleased to say they agree. The film has a strong London feel, though it's not the normal touristy London (the day tourists go to Hackney is when you know everything really has gone mental), and so with any luck the London film festival will look favourably on it.

But who can tell. Film festivals are funny things. Maybe they already have a low budget gentle rom com about an indie band and don't need another. When we made Home, a film that ran backwards, we found out there was another backwards film applying to most of the same festivals as we were, and I don't believe any film festival wants two backwards films. So it's fingers crossed for London.

I've also had a load of emails form people who've been following this struggle to make the film after I expressed my horror anyone else was reading this. I should have chosen my words more carefully, it's not horror it's amazement. I never set this up with that in mind, and until we linked to it from the main site I only told about three people it existed, but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who got in touch about the film. You're all very welcome here. (though it would be nice if you could make sure every single memeber of your family goes to see the film at least twice).

Tomorrow we continue to cut the trailer. It's much harder than I thought it would be, not knowing if we should give that away or put that joke in. I would like to get that VO man with the really deep voice to give it a proper hollywood trailer VO, one of those ones that starts with 'In a land before time...', but it may not fit.

Oh, and we went to see radiohead last night and gave Ed a copy of the film. I hope he likes it and doesn't ring up demanding his money back. It's a bit late now.

I don't know a cheap song title pun about sales agents

2008-06-24T10:02:00.003Z

But the good news is that they love the film. And they love the music in it too. So far the tracks included are:

statement of vindication by Bikini Kill
I wanna be your dog by the Stooges
My wandering days are over by Belle and Sebastian
Techno self harm by Sunnyvale
Love without lies by Comet Gain
Great Expectations by My sad captains
something I don't know the title of by the very excellent Betty and the werewolves
All the great songs from our band

We still need to finalise rights for Bikini Kill. the Stooges and Belle and Sebastian, and also Kill Rock Stars are looking at a copy of the film to see if they can think of any more bands, but either way it's going to be a great soundtrack.

Also still thinking of getting bands ot cover all the tracks on the title cards for an album. This would be great fun but may also be lots of work. Pah, like I'm that busy.

Finally, someone put a tracking something on this website so I could see if anyone was reading it, and to my horror quite a lot of people appear to be visiting it. I only started doing this as my memory is terrible and I wanted a way of looking back and remembering when that happened, and I only did it on the interspazz as a way of not losing it. Well, that'll learn me.

Don't stop till you get enough

2008-06-24T08:55:00.002Z

One of the things we had to do to get this film off the ground was to pay ourselves (Simon and I) just under fuck all with the rest deferred. I had no problem doing this (in theory at least, in practice it's been less easy) as I'd rather get the film made and be poor than hold out for a proper wage and not shoot anything. Obviously.

But one result of this is that we both now need money, so even though we're still finishing off the edit I'm putting together the proposal for the next film, A girl and a gun. We're going for the development fund at the film council. In theory this should be the logical thing to do as we've shown we can put together and complete (almost) a feature so now we'd like to do it again, and isn't that what the FC is there for. But in reality it's never that straight forward. I'm not a big fan of soft money anyway, I'd rather see it go to projects that will never be able to get funding, for people like Jarman (when he was alive) or Andrew Kotting, proper 100% arthouse pieces that can only be made with the intervention of public money. But if those in power consider that the remit should be wider, then I certainly won't hold back from applying on principle.

So we're talking to Minter, who did the excellent proposal for 1234, and getting one made for a girl and a gun. My idea is to style it like a French comic book, as it's all set in the south of France and has a slightly comic book feel to it (this link may be a little tenuous).

It's also a way of filling up my day not wondering how we're going to finish 1234. I'm not worried about it, it's all very straightforward, it's just that it takes time and I want to get on with it now.

It would certainly go quicker if I had Peter Carlton of Film Four's email address. Oh Peter, why must you be so mysterious?

Picture this

2008-06-22T23:26:00.003Z

The website is up. There's a couple of photos on there, as well as a link at the bottom of the page to Susan Smart's website. She was the photographer, and if you go there and click on film stills there a whole host more photos from the shoot.

And soo there will be a trailer up there. Well that's what they tell me because I have no idea how we do that. I believe some kind of monkeys paw is involved.

The in sound from out there

2008-06-22T22:54:00.006Z

So , here we are, after a four week shoot and a six week edit, we have a cut. It has holes in it (or to be more precise it has black title cards saying what the shot will be) about eight times for the pick up shots we need, but they're all nice and easy. Seven are just objects, and the only one that involves a member of the cast is still up for debate about whether we need it or not (I think it would be nice).

The temporary soundtrack is in and working well. I'd really like to get it out to a composer just to see where they felt any extra music would go. Personally I like scenes that play without background music, but it would still be fun to get someone else's thoughts.

As for what I like, I'm glad to say that pretty much every scene I wanted to play out in a single shot, does so. Obvioulsy there are times in the edit you realise this isn't as good an idea as cutting it up, and so in those cases that's what we've done, but I'm pleased to say there are no cuts for the sake of it. I'm so bored of that TV style where people keep cutting just to keep the audience awake. We've got long shots and we like them.

Things have moved all over the place, scenes that were near the end are now in the beginning, but it all works. Watching it again yesterday my only thoughts were to put a reverse in the final hall scene so we can lose Stevie's final line (the acting in the scene is so good I want to use that take, but I never liked the last line so I want to cut it with a reverse), and I also want to try moving the final montage scene back to just before the hall, see how that plays. Well, I suspect.

But now we have to take a step back. We need to raise a bit more money to go into the final stage, but I don't think that will be a problem. The film looks great and I'm sure anyone who sees it will want to be a part of it, so now we just have to get in touch with all the potential people (film council, etc) and get the final completion money.

Tuesday and we're off to see Radiohead at Victoria park. One of the band is an investor in the film and invited us down to the gig (life could be worse, you know) so we've got to do him a copy of the cut so far, then do some copies for the other investors, then the hardest part I think is going to be keeping the momentum going. Oh, and the big argument about which festival to first target. Simon and I favour the London film festival, the sales agent wants to wait for sundance. Given that there's no guarantee of getting in either my vote goes for London (it's a london film after all), while the sales agent says that our best bet is to offer sundance a world premiere. God knows, think we'll have a long chat with them about this tomorrow.

Meanwhile, time to get the proposal done for the next film, A girl and a gun. This one is set in the south of France. Someohow we'll probably still end up filming it in Hackney though.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-06-11T20:24:00.002Z

Well we lived with the first cut for a while, then we made some changes and the second cut looked great. then after a while we weren't so sure about that we made a third version. And then we decided that while bits were working, other bits weren't and maybe we needed to try mixing things up a bit. So that's what we did. A lot.

We moved scenes all over the place. Gigs that took place near the end now happen early. Shots from act three now appear at the start of act two. but the main thing we did was rearrange things thematically. that is, rather than have a standard linear narrative, we used the fact the content was broken into chapters to make each chapter about a certain character. So while most of the story belongs to Stevie, there are now a couple of chapters that just belong to Billy or Emily. Obviously they all appear in each others chapters, but the difference is that we now see everything through each of these characters eyes independently.

And I don't want to get too certain, but it appears to work. Plus it adds extra information. So now that Billy goes to the job centre early it informs everything that he does after. Likewise Emily and Richard. It's also seen a return to Bikini Kill as the title music, which makes everyone happy (until we ask them and they say no).

Meanwhile Kieran Bew (Billy) came down to have a look and thankfully he loved it, or atleast did a very good impression of loving it. Pleased to say he laughed in all the right places, and looked upset in all the sad bits. If we can always have audiences like Kieran then I think everything's going to be alright.

Next up, time to find a deal for the completion money, then it's off to shoot the pick up shots we need, audio mix, grade, then collapse. I'm quite looking forward to collapse.

Cuts, cuts and more cuts

2008-06-04T20:49:00.002Z

Cut two was a great improvement on cut one, and cut three a further improvement. The sales agent came round and saw this cut and liked it, but obvioulsy had points to make, so now we started to get more brutal, cutting a couple of scenes all together and shifting some to other parts of the film.

One of the main problems has been the opening credits. The look, and music, I always imagined work really well, the only toruble is that they work really well for a different film. The tempo is just to high for what follows. So we tried different bands, slower bands, more slacker bands, heavier bands, even at one point trying northern soul (which worked quite well) but still none of them were perfect.

And then Rob Pursey gave us the idea of moving the credits, having the opening scenes of walking and setting up first, then the credits (with the original up tempo music) and then we're straight into the office scene, which although it's a shift of atmosphere, works because it's supposed to be grim.

The next two days are being left open so the editor can try any ridiculous things he wants free from Simon or I wondering what he's doing. With the schedule as it is it's probably the last chance for wholesale changes, so now's the time to be brave and move the whole rehearsal scene to the end or whatever. Bold moves can really improve things and I don't want to be six months down the road and suddenly think what if. Of course, bold moves can also come up with a load of old shit and ruin everything, so we'll see where we are on Monday.

First cut completed

2008-05-24T13:53:00.002Z

On Friday at about six we ran off three copies of the first cut. We used the assemble as our template and went through the whole film re-cutting each scene as we wanted it, then added rough music and did a quick sound mix. We also did an opening credit sequence which is exactly how I imagined it would be a year and a half ago when I came up with the idea, which, as they say, is nice.

The main problem is going to be music. The film works great with statement of vindication by bikini kill as the opening music, but who knows if we can get the rights to this (even though they're on kill rock stars). Plus we've used a load of incidental music from the belle and sebastian storytelling album, which they wrote for the storytelling film but most of which didn't get used. It fits perfectly, but again who knows. It may just be me and a kazzoo. Now there's a sentance I never thought I'd type.

First cut

2008-05-20T23:31:00.002Z

Because the editor has been ham-fistedly putting scenes together while we shoot it doesn't take us long to get to a first proper cut. There were a number of scenes that we thought would be difficult, but by and large they've all been ironed out. There's a couple of places we know we need pick up shots (balcony, gig audience), but nothing we hadn't anticipated.

So with a very rough audio we sit down and watch the first cut, and, somewhat surprisingly, it seems OK. Straight away there's a few things I'd trim, and a couple of extra shots I'd add. Simon, the producer, finally gets round to adding something of worth by requesting a few more close ups of Stevie in the recording session. I didn't even know he was watching, but it's a reasonable idea so we'll add them.

Next up we're going to do a rough audio mix, put in some spot FX and atmos tracks, then finally add incidental music. At the moment we're using Belle and Sebastian's excellent soundtrack to Storytelling, but we have to make sure we don't get too attached to it as we can't have it. I can't work out beginning or end music either, which is most unlike me, so I'm going to try some tracks for size tomorrow. Then we'll do a very rough grade and that's when the fun begins and we can start showing a select few people and get their opinions. Then we can ignore their opinions and get on with the next version.

End of week one

2008-05-16T21:03:00.002Z

Did more editing. At first six weeks seemed a ridiculous amount of time but now it just seems sensible.

Wrap

2008-05-15T09:53:00.003Z

Tonight is the wrap party and I learn a number of things. First up I learn that I am quite happy sitting in the edit suite rather than going to the party, which is a good sign. I then learn that I can't drink as much as I used to (this is at the party, not in the edit suite). And finally I learn that quite a few people have been checking this blog to see how their work on the film went. How they will feel when they check out the IMDB page to see I've taken credit for every single job on the film (my performance as Emily was one of the highlights) is anyones guess, but as they don't know where I live I'm OK.

Edited the balcony scene, and bar a quick jump cut, it works very well all in the close reverse. We'll need a few cutaways to cover the jump cut and smooth it all out, but they should be fairly easy to get. Fingers crossed it doesn't destroy the feel of the scene, which is at times quite magical.

I really want to go back to the beginning and watch the film through again, but know that if we do that we'll just continue tweaking, so it's best to just plough on and get to the end before we look back. Fingers crossed it's all going well so far, although today I am hungover so god knows what it'll look like.

Trouble in the edit

2008-05-13T19:20:00.002Z

First big problem rears its head today, the editor we hired for the film just isn't up to the job. Actually, that's a lie, he's fine, but I know he starts his day reading this blog so I thought I'd shit him up for a laugh.

We continued with the first cut today, and it all appears to be working. I thought the first club scene, where Neil and Stevie go to see Betty and the Werewolves, might be a bit tricky, but by just sticking with long shots, especially ones that make you feel you're on stage, the scene cuts really well. Think we get a good version of the woodland scene as well, and by the end of the day we're about ready to start on the recording studio. If the rest of the edit goes this well I'll be very happy.

Trying not to look back at cuts too much as I don't want to keep fine tuning a scene only to find out that in the big scheme of things, ie when running as a feature, the scene needs more air. We're still being a little generous, so when we watch this cut back it may well be that it sags in areas or seems overlong, but hopefully that will then be a case of cutting blocks of dialogue out rather than recutting the whole scene from scratch.

I say hopefully but in reality I have no idea if this will work or not.

Assembly

2008-05-12T22:39:00.002Z

The worst part of any film is the initial assembly edit. It's all the scenes, cut long, bolted together, and it's aways hugely disappointing because it looks and sounds like shit. No matter how much you tell yourself this it still comes as a shock. And today was viewing the assemble.

On the plus side, I could see what things I wanted to change, and the film seemed to make sense, and didn't drag, but it's still a shock watching it this way. To make up for it Kevin the editor and I started work on the first proper cut right away, taking the assemble and cutting it how we wanted. At first the six weeks of edit seems a lot, but after today I think it should be about right. Progress is slow, because rather than just taking whatever is the point for the best edit, we have to cut where the best dramatic point is, and so sometimes that requires a bit of creative thinking in the edit.

Starting at the top we cut the opening walking scene quicker, which works, then put jump cuts in the first hall scene, which seems to work just fine. After that we added the first title card, which not only had the desired effect, it also allowed us to slow down the office scene for more drama, which in turn lead to the first exterior scene working better. By this time it was six o'clock so we finished for the day, very happy with what we've achieved. Tomorrow we'll start on the first gig scene, and we'll see just how happy and cocky we are after that. Less so, I imagine. And that's why we've got six weeks.

The final day

2008-05-10T13:08:00.002Z

We've not got much to shoot today, but we still have scenes to do, so even though there's a air of last day of school about everything we still have to crack on.

Arclite studios are very small indeed, even smaller when you've put some lights and flags up, then added a camera and a cast, but somehow we get through the scenes without breaking anything.

Then, at about six, we've shot everything in the schedule. I look around for anything else we could shoot, but in all honesty there isn't anything, it's all covered, so we go outside and Jorge calls the film a wrap, and we get stuck into the champagne. Then we go over the road and get stuck into the lager.

I can't quite believe we've got through it all, I don't think it'll sink in for a few days. It's certainly going to be strange not seeing the crew every day. What am I talking about, I'm going to see them all again on Tuesday for the wrap party.

Day twenty

2008-05-08T23:25:00.003Z

How did this happen? This is the penultimate day. When I first started this day seemed almost so far away it seemed risiculous, and yet here we are. We're in Alan's arclite studio in Latmier road (west london again, it feels so good). A late start and everyone is in a good mood again after the trials of the previous night. We rattle though scenes, and everything feels good. James, one of the investors comes down, so I sit him in my seat to watch a couple of takes. He seems happy with what he sees, I think he's enjoying wathcing other people get stressed working for a change. It's great to have him down as I really want him to see that his money is being well, and responsibly, spent.

We get a huge chunk done, then head over the road for a quick beer. There's an end of term feel, everyone knows tomorrow is the last day even though the call sheets still list saturday as being a work day. It's going to be very odd finishing. Firstly I never imagined getting here, there was always so much work I only ever imagined what the last week would feel like not the last day, and also it's going to be strange not seeing all the crew. Everyone has been great, from the runners to the heads of departments, I really couldn't ask for a better group, and having spent a (long) four weeks with them all I can't really get my head round the idea of not seeing them all the day after tomorrow.

The solution of course is to get the money for the next film double quick and hire them all again. The script is ready. Think I may have to have a lie down first though beofre undertaking this again. And finish editing this one. And find a way to pay my rent.

Very much looking forward to drinks after we wrap tomorrow. Think I may get drunk.

Day nineteen

2008-05-08T23:17:00.002Z

It's the one we've all been dreading, the late shoot. First up we need to re-do the final shot of the film. We got a version on the steadicam day but it just wasn't good enough, so we're going to have another go on tracks. Luckily the weather is on our side and it's glorious sunshine. The first few takes are OK, but there's disaster on the first really good one when the wheel on the trolley Stvie carries his amp on shatters and flies across the road. Art department set to work and we try again. Finally, and with a second trolley, we get a great take.

Next up we do the opening shots of the film, which are surprisingly easy. Once again the general public are astounding accomadating, crossing the road to keep out of our way. After this there's a break of three hours, during which time most of the crew play football. I whince everytime one of them tackles Ian, the lead actor. A broken leg now will be had to write into the remaining scenes.

Thankfully he comes through unscathed, and as the sun goes down we're set to do the romantic scene on top of a local tower block. We manage four takes with amazing city lights in the background before it's too dark, at which point we turn round for singles. It takes an age to get all the lights right with the aid of our huge generator truck, and then it proves tricky for the actors to recreate the energy of the earlier scenes. Luckily I plan to do this scene all on the rverse, and it's tricky spending so long on shots I'm sure we won't use, but it's better to get them now just in case rather than have to come back. There's a few short tempers, but that's to be expected as we wrap at midnight. Long, long day.

Eighteen down.

2008-05-06T22:14:00.003Z

We're outside all of today and are blessed with the best weather since we started. There's not a cloud in the sky and a lot of suncream on the crew. We get a whole host of POV shots for scene 105, including a very nice track past a pavement covered in kids grafitti, made all the more pleasing by the fact it's shot by Mike sitting in a wheelchair we found in Jo's garden, all very lo-fi.

It's a late finish as Lyndsey turns up for her one and only scene today outside the tower block and we have to wait for the light to be just right. Highlight for me though was while waiting for the right conditions a woman came past to go into her flat next door, and gave us a bit of a hard time about leaving equipment in the parking space. We of course were very polite and moved everything. About five minutes later she came back out again, but this time to apologise for being so grumpy and said she was just in a bad mood and hoped we didn't mind and would forgive her. I'm constantly amazed how polite everyone is, from this to people checking whether they can walk in front of the camera or not. The woman from next door had no reason to come out and apologise, but she still did, so just for her I won't be rude about east London any more. This may not last.

Day seventeen. I think.

2008-05-05T09:50:00.002Z

I have no idea what I shot yesterday. Really no idea. It comes to the point when I have to stop and look at yesterdays call sheet to remember. So that's why I've been writing all this down.

In the hall again today, and once again we fire through a huge chunk of the script, so much so that we can wrap all the hall scenes today, a day early. We get the track up and glide through the hall while the band play the first song. The actors seem to be relishing being able to do pages of dialogue, it must be so much easier than bitty paragraphs, and so we fly through the scenes. They all know their characters so well now I find myself having to say less and less to them.

Even better is the fact that we now have tomorrow as a day off so I shall be going to the pub tonight. Four days left, so still plenty of time for things to go very wrong indeed.

Fifteen and sixteen

2008-05-03T21:15:00.002Z

And we're in the hall filming rehearsal scenes, the last big event (before the next two big events). First day and the sun is out, of sorts, so we grab as many of the exterior shots as we can, turning up at the hall, meeting Tony outside and the spliff smoking scene out the back. All goes well.

Day two and we start the rehearsal scenes inside. We're ready with playback, but first up we see if the band can actually play the songs. To my amazement they can, and well. Most galling is the fact that Lyndsey can play all the bass lines in time after two lessons, better than my guitar parts on the demo.

As a result we burn through almost seven pages of script, a huge amount. It's great, but exhausting. After that we have to go on a recce to the new location that will stand in for the tower block scene. The location is great, and safe from weather (and children) so very good. The only downside is that means we finish very late, so I get home with only a pack of polish noodles of indeterminate flavour to my name. They turn out to be disgusting flavour, so instead I just go to bed. Early start tomorrow. Oh good.

Day fourteen

2008-05-01T16:28:00.002Z

On paper it's an easy day, we're in the Elevator gallery with one small office scene and a big tracking scene to do. But of course nothing is ever easy, and today gets off to a bad start when I discover that the gallery isn't the empty space I had been expecting, but instead has an exhibition on. After what seems an age we manage to persuade the (very nice) owner to let us move one of the pieces, so at least we can do our office scene. He eventually agrees to let us move a second piece so we can get our tracking shot, but the largest piece in the centre of the room can't be moved.

There's no other option but to rewrite the scene, as we now can't fit both our artworks and the original piece here, so our Sarah Lucas rip off goes in the bin. Thankfully the rewrite works and the scene look great, but the whole day could have been so much easier.

The really good news though is that evening Chelsea beat Liverpool in the champions league semi final, and I've got a day off tomorrow. Then we're off to the hall on Friday. It's funny to look at the list and see that all we have left is the hall, studio, tower block and opening / closing shots (plus pick ups, of course). Not sure how we've got this far, but somehow we have.

Day thirteen, unlucky for some

2008-04-29T20:44:00.002Z

Unlucky for those filming outside as it's pissing down. Luckily we filmed outside yesterday and today we were back inside Melange, home of the Comet Gain gig. Today we're doing the scenes with Emily and Richard, and both run smoothly. A quick rewrite makes the second scene work, while the first I hope to play using just the single shot on Emily. Hopefully.

After that we shot some cut aways of people being the audience for the gig, all very moody and new york, exactly what I was after. Then, best of all, we wrapped two hours early. This wasn't just because the rain made choosing other shots to do difficult (which it was but not impossible), it was because it's been a hard two weeks and a lot of the crew were flagging, none more so than the runners who have a lot to do, and who hopefully will go home and get a decent nights sleep and so be back on full fitness tomorrow.

Or they'll go to the pub and get hammered. Who knows.

Ten, eleven and twelve

2008-04-28T20:44:00.002Z

Two days in sunny vauxhall. Horrible place, but home to ETV, a previous employer and company who were nice enough not only to give us a pre-production office space for free, but also kind enough to let us use their office as a location. They're getting a big thanks in the credits.

It also saw the return of Matthew Sim, an actor I have made two short films with, and whose work I love. I was determined to get him in the film, and luckily he was fre to play Mark the office manager, which of course he did with his usual style, turning a two scene predictable character into something all his own.

Tried to do the exterior scenes in a local park, but the mix of planes, shouting kids and the scene just not working proved fatal, so we cut it and did some running scenes instead. Re-wrote the scenes that night, so on Sunday we managed to fit them in on the roof instead.

More office on Sunday, went pretty much without a hitch. Bernado, the 1st AD was unsure about the scene, it played a little slow for him, but that was exactly how I wanted it. Fingers crossed it still works in the edit, because if not I'll look a right twat. Excellent group of hard working extras on both days, who put up with many repeated angles, and, on Sunday, a long scene involving a very painful training session.

Monday and we're in the woods for the role playing scene. Ian looked hilarious with his lord of the rings helmet on, whereas Kieran seemed to enjoy it all a bit too much. Aided by Ben, the Friar, the three of them made for a hilarious adventuring party. Dodged rain all day, had a little trouble with one scene, nothing that a quick re-write couldn't fix, and a good days work was done. I ache all over from all the walking, but got to carry a stick about all day, and you can't ask for much more than that.

The only downside to all this is that you work so hard each day, making sure everything is perfect, it kills you a little bit when you think that you've got to do it all again tomorrow. But I've found an easy way to get round this, I just think of my last job and everything seems just fine.

Day seven, eight and nine

2008-04-24T20:08:00.002Z

Three very long days. First up and we're in Nambucca on the Holloway road. Mike's still not feeling all that great after his day off and we're now worrying that he's going to have to go and have a check up. Shoot the late scenes of the film, including the scene where Stevie stands at the side of the stage and is then plunged into darkness as the band on stage finish. This is a very complicated set up, made more bearable by the fact that the band on stage are Sunnyvale (minus me). I even get them a line in another scene. We have a ton of extras, and finish just in time for me to run over the road and watch the second half of the Chelsea game.

Next day and the leaking roof means we have to watch out for water everywhere. The plus is that today we have the band for one of the opening scenes, and we've lined up a band called Betty and the werewolves to perform. They're great fun and very patient, and remarkably enough have seen the Trophy Girlfriend video I made for Heavenly and love it. Youtube has a lot to answer for. Finish off with a late exterior where Stevie tries to get Billy to join the band. It's a complicated shot and takes an age, but at least it's not raining. Get home at midnight and go straight to bed.

Then up early and off to a new bar, Melange on Kingsland road, for the middle pub gig. Todays guest band are Comet Gain, which would be exciting enough in it's own right, but on bass they've also got James Canty from the Make up and NoU on bass. It's indie legends in full efeect. Even better is the fact Mike is finally on the mend and actually looking vaguely human. The day is a light one, we even wrap a little ahead of schedule. Better still is the fact tomorrow is a day off (well, into the edit suite), then the weekend will be office interiors in vauxhall.

If we can just have good weather for the last five or so exterior scenes we have then it can piss down all summer for all I care. Over a third of the way through (I think) and it's more fun now than it was at first. The cast all mess about together, the crew are great and people ask me less questions now. Not sure if that's because they now know the answer to some of them or they thinnk I'm a fuckwit. Either way I'm good with it.

Day six

2008-04-21T17:48:00.002Z

And it's a long one. The two largest scenes and a couple of small ones, only possible because we're filming in the dressing room at the Luminaire which is about ten foot square so we don't have that many options.

It's quite an emotional scene for Lyndsey so we start off with her close up so we can get the reaction as fresh as possible, then into wides and two shots. Even so we take a late lunch without finishing the first scene. Pick up the pace after lunch and somehow manage to finish all that days scenes, but in the process we've really broken Mike. He's been struggling with flu all week and nearly didn't make it in today, so while we filmed the production office was busy moving the schedule ro9und to give us a day off tomorrow to enable Mike to rest.

Fingers crossed one day does him enough, having to claim on insurance for another day will start to get complicated. On the plus side we have a band lined up to appear in the scene on wednesday, the excellently named Betty and the werewolves. Can't wait.

Day five

2008-04-19T20:00:00.002Z

And we have our last exterior shot for a while, which is just as well as it appears global warming has resulted in a sub arctic temperature becoming the norm in Hackney. Shot is good, with Lyndsey again reprising her role as 'character handing out flyers'.

Then it's back to Shrubland road for the interior kitchen scenes. Today is the first day we've had Kieran, our Billy, in, and it really changes the dynamic. He's great, and Ian plays off him really well. This is especially apparent in the kicthen scenes, which are some of the best things he's done so far.

Final scene is also the first for Richard, Emily's boyfriend, played by a young actor called Giles (thankfully not me). The chemistry and tone here have to be just right, and I'm very relieved to see they are. It is also fast becoming obvious that lyndsey has one of those movie star faces that really light up the screen, and with Mike's lighting she looks great as well as being an amazing actor. Today was the best work by so many of the cast it would be unfair to pick one, so I'll just thnak Blackburn for taking two points off Man U instead.

but best of all tomorrow we film at the Luminaire in Kilburn, five minutes from my house, so finally I get a lie in. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Day four

2008-04-18T10:37:00.002Z

I get up and check the forecast. Every paper and TV station has a bright sun for tdays weather, which is great news as today is 100% exterior, one day only steadicam work.

I open my front door and it's hailing.

By the time I get on set it's stopped hailing but there's still plenty of cloud and what little sun does come through is weak. Still, at least it's not hailing. What it is, though, is cold. Really cold. There's a bitter wind that is freezing everyone to the bone and slowing everything down. We get a few shots done but it's all taking an age.

On to the first big scene of the day, Stevie and Emily bumping in to each other on the street. The sun comes out, the sun goes in. The sun comes out again we get shadows from the boom. We do take after take, then have to break for lunch. Back for more takes and nothing gets much better after lunch, but luckily I liked take two anyway. My decision to shoot much of the film in long, uniterrupted takes will look great but takes an age. I'll have to just go with what I feel is right, and sometimes compromise on other things otherwise we'll end up shooting more stock than Titanic did.

The net result is that we have to drop a whole scene, and a couple of reverses from another, to give us any hope of getting the other big dialogue scene under the bridge. Amazingly no trains ruin the audio and we get the shot. The downside is that no matter how hard the actors worked at trying to appear as if they were chatting on a balmy summers evening, it looked cold. It's suppoed to piss down on friday, but as I type this there's no sign of rain. I hate weather forecasts.

Day off today, and more tired than I have ever been. I had no idea answering loads of questions and carrying a large folder round could take it out of you so. Still, the catering is great, so who's complaining.

Day three

2008-04-16T21:43:00.003Z

... and the most disturbing thing is the fact I had to stop and think before I typed 'day three'. Nothing as cliched as not knowing what day it is, more the fact that I can't believe that is ONLY day three. I feel like we've been at this for at least a month (and some of the people I know who've emailed saying they're reading this will be commenting that it only feels like that because I'm so un-used to hard work).

Started slowly today as we had to have a move to a new location for the first scene, and that, plus a broken key in the camera dept truck, slowed us right down, and instead of getting our first shot at about half ten we didn't turn over until nearly twelve. Worse was to come when we ran the scene, it just wasn't working. This probably wasn't the right time to bring up my feelings about one of the scenes from the first day. Having watched the rushes the night before I just felt this scene was wrong. Partly it was framed wrong, he was looking in the wrong direction to match with the other shots, but the main reason was the performance, and that was my fault. I'd given the actor a note to act on and he'd taken it, and now thinking about cutting it with the other actors scene I realised it was the wrong note. So I wanted to do it again (better now than in a months time I thought).

So while I broke that news to the first AD, I tried to get todays first scene working. Take after take just didn't gel until suddenly, from apparently nowhere, it did. I have no idea what the actors got, or how they found direction from the garbbled mass of things I kept saying to them, but somehow they did and the scene worked a treat. Quick shoot reverses, get told off for too many takes and we're back on track.

Afternoon of good takes, plus the re-take from the first day I wanted, and we were on to our final scene, Stevie coming round and asking Emily out for a drink. It may have been about minus three but the two of them managed to pull of a great scene that actually looked like summer. Best of all was as Stevie ran towards her door, a train crossed over on the bridge above. That would cost a fortune to arrange, but Silverlink gave us that one for free. And a very nice woman named Heather gave us her front door for free for the scene too. She even let me use her bathroom. Maybe people in East London aren't so bad after all.

Tomorrow is down as being sun all day, but so far the weather report has never got it right. Fingers crossed as today is our one scheduled day of steadicam, something I don't think we could afford to repeat as it's too expensive. So if it pisses down we will either a) have romantic scenes in the cold and rain or b) not have any steadicam shots in the film. Who knows.

Kev has cut some scenes together and likes what he's seen. Can't wait until Friday and our day off to see them. Or I may get the eurostar, we'll see.

Day two

2008-04-15T23:03:00.002Z

and Ian is joined on set by Matthew and Lindsey, which he looks very grateful for. I'm happy too as it's good for the actors to be able to hang out with each other, and hopefully leads towards that bond the band should have.

First scenes are Matthew on the drums, which he seems to love, followed by a scene with the two of them together. Something about this scene just isn't working. I give my notes, but they don't help. I'm beginning to be at a loss, unsure of how to unstick the jam, when we decide to try a take without worrying about overpalling dialogue. Immediately the scene is free and works fine. All three of us seem much happier now we understand what the probelm was, and we know we'll have to work at clean ones for the edit, but we'll always be able to get it right with overlapping. The dynamic between Ian and Matthew is great, too, with Ian being a little more dour and Matthew being a bit more upbeat. What amazes me the most is how much Matthew is like Loz from Ride, and how much Ian is like Steve Queralt. Unintended, but funny.

Lyndsey comes on for her scene and is prefessionalism personified. She has some notes about her next big scene, all of which make complete sense and are happily taken on board.

The down side of the day - the camera crew have been struck down with an illness. Mike is suffering the worst, and gets and hours sleep instead of lunch. It's like something form a zombie film, and will, I'm sure, work its way through the entire crew.

Get both Fortuna Pop CDs and Damaged Goods posters in shots today which is good, if someone is going to get product placements it should be for things I like.

Finally end up at nine at night shooting an interior shot through the window. Looks wonderful. Downside is that it's pissing with rain outside. After the fourth take the camera crew start to loose their sense of humour, but luckily I keep mine, a fact I'm sure they're all grateful for. Weather is a bit of a worry over the next few days. Forecast says showers tomorrow, which hopefully we can work round, with thursday being clear. This is good, as thursday is steadicam day. It can snow on friday for all I care as we've got a day off.

Day one...

2008-04-14T22:48:00.003Z

... began with wonderful sunshine so we made the most of it and shot some unscheduled exterior shots. It was good to get these, a relief and it provided a nice and gentle introduction for all concerned.

After that it was inside for shots in Stevie's bedroom. Ian Bonar (Stevie) soon got into the role, difficult though it was being the only actor on set, on his first day, trying to have telephone conversations with other (non attending) actors. Glad to say he got it well, and although we couldn't make the final two day for night shots of the day, we're still ahead of schedule thanks to the sun.

Fingers crossed we can do the same tomorrow.

OK, here we go

2008-04-13T20:03:00.002Z

So after what seems like an age we finally start filming tomorrow. After much negoatiating we finally have our cast, Ian Bonar, Lyndsey Marshal, Kieran Bew and Mathew Baynton. The last two days have been a quick crash course rehearsal with them, and only time will tell if it's worked. They all seem happy enough, they're my first choice cast, all fantastic and experienced actors, so fingers crossed they'll get me out of any trouble.

Crew are all excellent. We've been innundated with people wanting work, which is great, but we've tried to give priority to people who worked for free on one of our shorts before, so we once again have Almut on make up, Kevin editing and Mike as DoP, though as an emmy nominated DoP Mike didn't really need the favour.

I'm much calmer than I thought I would be. Yesterday evening was a bit full of panic, but today I woke up and just reminded myself of what sort of film I wanted to make, and hope as long as I can keep that in mind I'll feel OK about things. God knows. I'll see how I feel on the 10th May when this is all over. It'll either have been brilliant or I'll be in hiding in Belgium.

T minus seven days and counting

2008-04-07T22:15:00.006Z

OK, no posts for a while as it's all been MENTAL. So here is where things stand.

We have 75% of our cast. Still waiting on one to confirm, which is fine as we're less than a week from shooting, so no real worries there. The three we have are all excellent and I couldn't be happier with them. The one we're waiting on is also excellent, and we think he wants to do it, it's just a question of agents and timings and things like that. I was torn between him and another actor, who we originally offered the part to due to his profile. As soon as we'd done it I began to regret not offering it to the one we're offering it to (let's call him A), bhut everyone else said the other one (or B) was a good bet. B is a good actor, but possibly an obvious option in casting. A is equally a great actor, but not what you would expect for the role, and therefore, in my eyes, what we should be going for. But it was too late, until B's agent started dicking us around asking for this and that, knowing full well time was against us, before finally pulling out. I suspect they had a better offer for something else and were using us as leverage, but we'll never know. Anyway, what people thought at first was a DISASTER I saw as brilliant as it meant we could offer the role to A, as I'd been secretly hoping for ages. Now let's just hope he says yes, the fucker.

We appear to have employed a crew of 35 people, which makes my mind boggle a bit. I've even had emails from people I didn't know I'd employed. Everyone's doing it hella cheap, which I hate. Fingers crossed we never have to do this sort of deal again. It's a tricky situation, I've spent years arguing that if you're paying stupid low money then it's a cheat and you should cut your cloth (or your crew) accordingly, but now we're here it's not so easy. I say do we really need a third AD and everyone working on the film says YES, even though by not getting one we'd have more money for them. Either they want to make sure all the work is covered no matter what or they're very bad at maths.

Songs for the band have been recorded by some old men, but one of them sounds brilliant so think I'll focus mainly on that one. Funniest bit is going to be friday when I have to record the vocals for the track. The horror

Most locations now in place. Which reminds me, God bless ETV, my previous employer, who have been amazing. They gave us a whole floor of their office for free to use as our production office, and are letting us film there free of charge. I'm amazed by how generous they've been, way above what they owe me for the three and a half years I worked for them. Think we best give them a very big thank you on the credits.

Coming up next is rehearsals with the actors, god only knows what that will be like. Normally a wonderful time to experiment and try things out, I somewhat hampered by the inability to get over the fact that it's my script they're reading out. It all feels frankly ridiculous, as if any minute now they're going to throw it in the bin and read something proper.

A week today and we'll have done our first days filming. Hopefully that will have forced me to take it all more seriously, but somehow I doubt it. I mean, it's just stuff I wrote, you weren't supposed to even read it all, let alone assume that we have to film everything I said.

I think I'm going to write on my hand "just don't fuck it up" in case I forget.

Actors

2008-03-18T10:42:00.003Z

Offers have gone out to the cast today. I won't mention any names as they are many reasons why they could turn it down, time, money, or they just don't want to do it anymore, and I wouldn't want to emabarrass them on here (not that anyone is reading this apart from me). I do hope the four we're asking say yes, as they will fit together perfectly as a band, but I get the horrible feeling that this is just the start of yet another round of horribly tense negotaiting.

In one way I can't wait for the first day of the shoot to come round, becuase by then it will all be sorted out. At least I hope so.

Going downhill

2008-03-16T12:26:00.003Z

It's been a long week of wrangling over money, thankfully not something I have had to do much with as it's the producers job, but finally all concerned have come to an agreement. Next up, the actors money, so I think there's another fun week coming up.

We all knew it would be tricky on this budget, and it's not just the money, it's the availability, as everyone, understandably, wants to commit but if some stupidly high paying job comes in in the meantime they need to be able to take that. It's the only fair thing to do, but it does make it tricky.

We seem to be constantly hiring people to the point where they talk about someone on the crew and I have no idea who that is. Not my job to worry, I suppose, another thing I'll leave to Simon. As far as casting goes we now have the dilemma of having two very strong candidates for the lead role and I'm finding it hard to decide between them. They will both take the film off in very slightly different ways, and so I have to decide which I want. My suggestion of hiring them both and shooting every scene twice didn't go down too well.

This week I'm off looking at locations with the locations manager and PM all Monday, working with the band on the songs on Tuesday, meeting another company who may come on board on Wednesday, then looking terrified on Thursday and Friday. I have two new excellent working with actors books, I just need to find time to read them. After that I need to sit down with Mike and work on how we're going to shoot this fucker. I want to get almsot every camera move worked out in advance, that way, I figure, we'll be in a much better position to adapt things if the actors come up with something different as we'll know what the bare minimum we are planning is. Well that's the theory. It also means if I'm run over or have a complete meltdown someone else can take my tactics book and direct the rest of the film.

The really odd thing is that after almost a year of pushing this film up a very steep hill we have now most definitely gone over the top. The trouble is that the film now feels like is rolling down the otherside and we're all running like mad to keep up with it. Well, it's my fault, it's what I always wanted to do.

We always knew it would be tricky

2008-03-07T17:49:00.002Z

The budget is small, we can't pay that much. We always knew that, but even so it's not nice when some people you really want to work on the film have to pass because it's been a quiet year so far and they just can't afford it. After so many years making short films and blagging things for free it seems a real shame to be doing that promised feature and still unable to pay people properly.

That said, they're all getting a reasonable wage, it's just not their freelance rate. Hope things are easier with the cast. Final casting sessions are this week, and it doesn't get any easier. the good news is that we have now seen someone who can play each of the main roles. They may not be THE role, but they're at the very least A version of the role. If casting ended now, and all other actors became unavailable then I know we have a cast that would work together well and look like a band. There's a couple I'm looking forward to seeing this week, but they may be terrible, in which case we go with this line up.

One actor who we really want is still unsure so I'm going to pen them a letter explainaing everything we're going to do in the film and why they have to do it. If that doesn't work then really nothing will.

In the meantime DoP Mike Eley got me to read 'I'll be in my trailer' by John Badham. It's a guide for directors in talking to actors, and my god, I wish someone had given me this ten years ago. It is, as they say, all killah and no fillah. I don't know who they are, but they're right.

As of Monday it's 5 weeks until the shoot. So, still plenty of time to do a Stephen Fry and fuck off to Belgium in terror.

Actors

2008-02-26T22:59:00.003Z

What a great photo of the mighty Huggy Bear live on stage. I gave a photo of another band, the Young Knives, to Sue, the casting director, today as a guide to what we were looking for.

This was good timing as we started casting today. We saw 18 different people for various roles, and with varied success. More tomorrow and a few call backs from today to try out for different roles. While the casting was it's usual fascinating process, we didn't turn up anyone who just 'was' the role. We did get that yesterday, however, with an actress we had to meet. She was absolutely perfect for the role, though I don't know if she'll take it or not. She has other possible commitments coming up, and I don't know how much we persuaded her. While it was a good, and fun, meeting, I'd run over from a studio record (it being my last day at work), so spent the first half hour being a little less than clear about everything as my head was still full of studio nonsense. Still, I have my fingers crossed. I thinkn finding some of the other cast may persuade her, but we'll see.

Start date is now April 14th. I'm hoping that's where it stays. It seems just long enough not to freak me out completely, and yet near enough that we have to get cracking.

Also, my leaving present from work was a copy of Filmaking for Dummies. I've already found three things in it that I hadn't really considered. I may have to re-cover it in something less damning and have it by me on set.

Slowy but surely

2008-02-18T11:02:00.002Z

Still having trouble getting a tied down shoot date. This is the problem with having an extremely talented crew, they just keep getting work. Our main problem is with the DoP, Mike Eley, who last year shot a project for HBO called Grey Gardens. It was a huge shoot, very expensive, and now there's talk of it getting a theatrical release. All good stuff, apart from the fact they have scheduled the grade for the 8th to 18th April. Mike isn't sure if he's going to berequired for the whole thing, but he'll definitely be needed for some of it, so we're now looking at two possible start dates, the 14th or 21st of April. 14th is nice in that it means we would finish at pretty much the start of Cannes, so we could have a trailer ready with everything we shot available, even possibly a rough cut. On the other hand, the 21st looks more realistic, and gives us another (precious) week of pre-production. We should know for certain this week.

There's also some cast problems, with mutterings from one members agent. Fingers crossed we can sort this out today, but I'm sure we're in for loads of this kind of thing. Hopefully our Locations Manager and Sound Recordist will also be sorted out today.

Meanwhile we've got more excellent bands coming on board for the soundtrack. I'm doing a new draft of the script over the next two weeks and hope to make the soundtrack finalised around then. Hopefully this version will introduce a little more jeopardy for the main characters, and also I want to turn the location itself into a character. Yes, sunny Kilburn, your time has come.

Have a meeting this week with another company who may come on baord, and Alan Harris is back from his shoot in NZ so will meet up with him to hear horror stories and tips, which should be invaluable.

But most importantly this is my penultimate Monday at work. This time next week will be my last day in the office, and then it's into 100% pre-production and time to get properly terrified. Still, everytime I wonder what on earth I'm doing I just look at the schedule here and remember I don't have to worry about any of the shoots coming up, and somehow that makes everything seem just dandy.

Crewing up

2008-02-06T15:44:00.000Z

We now have a very nice 1st AD on board, and by Friday we'll know if we have a very nice Line Producer on board. If we haven't then on Monday we phone the other very nice Line Producer.

Have a few issues over what payment was agreed with some members of crew, but am sure that will be sorted out this week as well, then it's time to start getting more casting sessions arranged as well as sorting out contracts for actors already signed up.

And finally, had an email out of the blue from an ex (very) high up in the music business person wanting to know what stage we're at and have we got all the money, so am now waiting for a meeting with them. The sooner we can tie off the rest of the cash the happier I'll be.

Film is due to be announced in Berlin this week by sales agent. This won't alter anything, apart from make me more nervous, so am really looking forward to that. Have taken to reminding myself it's a small film, and that seems to do the trick.

And finally, we've hammered the budget down so that we can now shoot for four weeks not three, as everyone (DoP excepted) said it would a) kill us and b) kill us. Much happier with four weeks, it means only 3.75 pages a day.

Am trying not to look at what 3.75 pages is in reality.

Finally...

2008-01-31T10:53:00.000Z

I handed in my notice yesterday. This means I will work out a month at this job then have exactly a month pre-production. To say it's terrifying wuold be a massive understatement.

The reason I chose yesterday was that one of our major investors agreed to underwrite us up to our shoot budget. While they want us to find the money elsewhere (which I'm confident we can), they will make up whatever shortfall if they have to. So effectively we're go. Even typing that frightens me.

Music rehearsals on tuesday, and a few songs coming together for the band to play. It looks like the Velvet's style is the way to go, but still need to right something that can be their single. I'm planning to make a CD with about half a dozen songs for all involved to make sure we all know what we're aiming for, then we can happily rip them off with impunity.

It really is very odd looking round the office thinking that in four weeks time I'll be gone (as will my very nice salary), but there's not a decent reason in the world not to do this. Have to factor in that my hangover may be a factor in all this as well, but then it usually is.

Ups and downs

2008-01-28T22:21:00.000Z

Had one hoped for investor have to pull out today due to his tax bill being higher than expected. It's a shame, and he was very keen to do it, but these things happen. This afternoon we had a meeting with another potential investor, another keen one, but still needs some persuading. Has promised to let us know by the end of the week.

So what this morning was 20K is now only a possible half that, but then, just when you start wondering where the rest of the money is ever going to come from, we get a double whammy. First up a mini studio who are dealing with our Sales Agent have expressed an interest, and secondly, a city contact through our composer, a man who we had heard was very interested in film but was proving elusive, has come through and is apparently very keen.

So more scripts and proposals have been sent off, I still haven't resigned from work, but whereas early evening it was half empty, now it's half full again.

Tomorrow I'm off to the studio with the two composers to see what we can come up. Expect to return deaf and hopefully humming our new hit.

Meetings with musicians

2008-01-22T12:15:00.000Z

Had dinner last night with the famous rock star who is putting some money into the film. Very nice evening, he said most complimentary things about the script and told us funny stories about being on tour. Glad to say he 'gets' the feel and mood of the script right away. He's also going to ask the rest of his band if they want to invest, which would be excellent. He also offered us the use of some of their songs for our soundtrack, which is a great offer, but I fear it will somewhat unbalance the soundtrack. If all the other songs are indie cover versions and we suddenly use a massive big famous song it defeats the object of using the small cover versions, so we politely declined his very kind offer. We may, of course, change our minds.

Also contacted my friend in Glasgow to get him to contact some of the bands there whose music we want to use. For some reason Glasgow is home to a certain brand of indie music that would fit perfectly with the mood of our film. Fingers crossed some of them say yes. Have also arranged to meet another potential investor next Monday afternoon, so fingers crossed we can talk him into saying yes. I think I need another 25K to be able to resign from work.

Finally, have arranged to meet Mike Eley and our possible 1st AD this Thursday to discuss formats. General feeling is moving back towards 16mm, purely on a practical level to make sure we get everything we need in the can. Think we may save 35mm for the next film, if any of us live that long.

16 vs 35

2008-01-21T10:31:00.000Z

Very early on we made the decision to shoot on film rather than HD. Although we'd had a very positive experience working with HD on the short, it was felt that film had several advantages. First, it just looks better, bleaching out in a different way. The differences may be minimal, but they're there. They just feel different to each other. Secondly, there's something about having film on set that makes everyone react differently. Knowing that each take is burning film and so costing more adds, I find, to a level of seriousness. Finally, we felt that to keep with the indie sensibility of the band, the film should be on film, it's what the characters would want (if that doesn't sound too wanky).

With our budget we thought we cuold afford, at a push, to shoot 16mm. Camera hire has come right down, and film stock is now very cheap indeed. And London to Brighton shot on 16mm. But the other day Mike Eley, the DoP, mentioned the possibility of shooting on 35mm. It wuold certainly look better (how can it not), but it will also have not only cost implications, but workflow ones. To put it simply, it will look better but we'll get less takes.

So that's the decision we have to make this week, and I really have no idea which way to go.

60%

2008-01-17T11:23:00.000Z

Good news form the world of high finance, we've secured some investment form the meeting we had last week. This puts us at about 60% raised, and with about another 30K still considering investing. Plus someone else has come forward with another possible source for a mojor chunk. With any luck with should be well over 75% soon, at which point we can properly move into pre production. This will mean I can leave work, and Sue can start casting proper.

Had a meeting with Location Manager extraordinairre Jethro, friend of Nick Burton (who is writing the music). I arrived with some scribbled notes about the locations, he arrived with a detailed breakdown and a collection of photos for suggestions and general moods, all of which were excellent. He's a big music fan, and it really shows as he right away got the look we need for all the locations. Very pleased to have him on board.

Well, will be pleased to have him on board in ten days time when he gets back from filming the African cup of nations, which he has somehow landed himself some work on, the jammy bastard.

Men with money

2008-01-14T14:24:00.000Z

Had a very good meeting on Friday with a hedge fund manager. Considering I have no real idea what a hedge fund is it all seemed to go smoothly. He was a very nice man, asked many good questions and seemed to understand where we were coming form. He also seems fairly sure he can raise 60% of our budget. Should this happen it will be a ownderful thing as it means a) we're nearly there and b) I can resign from full time work and start on pre prod.

Had drinks with Mike Eley on Saturday where he expressed a desire to shoot 35mm. This obvioulsy made Simon the producer very happy indeed as it means we have to re-do the entire budget to see if this is possible. Fincers crossed it is. Film is a shrinking market, but I'm pleased to say it's still a competitive one, so let's see what deal Fuji can do us.

Monday morning and it's another meeting with the Sales Agent. Very positive, they have a few script notes they'd like us to think about, their deal for us is also outlined and it's pretty much what we would expect. The one (pleasant) surprise is that while still aiming to launch a trailer at Cannes they also plan to announce the film at Berlin next month. All in all it's very exciting, and makes it even harder to get back to work and start talking about edits on yet another corporate job.

Still, got an email from Brendan O'Hare, ex-teenage fanclub now promoter at the 13th note. Turns out John Hogarty from National Park (whose music I very much want to use) was in an early incarnation of Telstar Ponies, a band Brendan was also in, so have asked him to put in a good word for us. I knew those nights getting absolutely hammered with Mr O'Hare would come in handy.

Scrabbling about in the dirt

2008-01-10T22:47:00.000Z

Through my father I had contact with a well known ex-producer. Sent him the proposal in the hope that he might be forthcoming with some investment (as much for a name as anything) but sadly received a 'no' from his PA today. It's understandable, but every (it's actually only the second) no seems like a mortal blow.

On the plus side I have a meeting with the man from the famous band a week Monday to tie up his investment, then a meeting with another private investor - provided by our composer - who seems keen and just needs closing (I hope).

The company who helped us out on our previous short have also put us in touch with a man who heads a group of investors. Fingers crossed they will step in and cover the short fall. We're desperate to stick to our mid march shoot dates so as to provide the sales agent with enough to launch at Cannes, but I have to keep reminding myself that even if we miss that the ball is rolling and we will get there eventually, it will just delay the final release. Right now everything about an early release is good, though, from the success of Once to the writers strike.

Meeting with sales agents is postponed until Monday at 11am as they have been struck down by this sickness that is getting everyone. It lasts 48 hours, so I know I'll get it at a weekend.

Bought a book on cinematography as it had excellent things to say on camera movement and lens choice. Found myself standing next to Paul Greengrass as I bought it. Wished I'd had the gumption to give him a proposal as well. Book is veh helpful, there's something about seeing film grammar written in fornt of you that makes you think more about it, and it's really helped with my notes on the shoot style. Most of all it's helped with me not shitting myself, which I do every so often when I think about directing a feature and leaving my job.

I'm planning to make all the office (work) shots lock offs, maybe with some tracking, but only small and very deliberate. To contrast this the rehearsal scenes will be hand held and fluid, allowing the camera to track and explore much more freely. However, as the rehearsals get more serious I'll hold the camera back more until at the end when it has stopped being fun and become just another job I'll shoot them all on a lock off just the same as the earlier office scenes.

Well, this is the intention. I await Mr Eley laughing it out of the production office and me having to think of something less obvious.

Oh and I forgot

2008-01-03T15:54:00.000Z

The business plans that we had done turned out to be way too serious for our needs, so under advice form Alan Harris at Atlantic films, we produced a new version, more of a proposal, that was a mixture of text, photos, doodles and bits of script, to give an idea of oursleves, the film, the world it's set in as well as the business plan. It was all done beautifully as if it was the mess on top of someones desk by simon minter nineteenpoint (http://www.nineteenpoint.com/), but he hasn't put it up on his website yet so he must think it looks terrible. It has, however, gone down very well indeed with all the investors.

Also, though she may have been drunk and forgotten she said yes, famous indie photographer Alison Wonderland (http://www.alisonwonderland.co.uk/) has agreed to do stills. We shook on it, Alison, there's no getting out of it now.

(smog by Alison Wonderland)

New year, new post

2008-01-03T15:35:00.001Z

I'm determined to try and post more often on this thing. Not just because I've discovered that there are a couple of people reading it, but because I want to make sure I can look back and find out exactly when everything happened. Everything is already becoming a bit of a blur, and it's only going to get worse.

So, update so far. Budget still at in limbo, still waiting for a line producer to sign it off. Hope they're quick as we've already got some of the investment (esp one bit which is coming from a very well known band, but would never divulge exactly who the investors are). Also have a casting agent, Sue Jones, who cast Nil by Mouth, which is a film I love, if that's the right word. Have ideas about some of the cast, and will be offering roles to actors in next couple of weeks.

Most importantly we now have a sales agent, Moviehouse entertainment. We approached them because of their experience selling rock and roll documentaires worldwide, and are very glad they've come on board. Got another meeting with them on tuesday, so fingers crossed will have more of an idea then. Their plan is to release a trailer of the film at Cannes, which wuold be great, but means we've got to stick to a march / april shoot date. That's possible if we get the rest of the investment soon. It's looking good, but to be honest Christmas came at just the wrong time, taking out some of the momentum, and making people sluggish in the new year. Hopefully everyone will be back at work from Monday and we can get quicker replies from people.

Best of all will be the ability to resign from my job soon. The budget will pay simon and I for three months, one month pre, one month production and one month post. By then I'll either be dead, terrified, unemployable or any combination of the three. But at least I won't be making corporates anymore. The thought of making the film terrifies me on a regular basis, but I have to keep reminding myself it's just like making lots of short films all in one big go.

I'm hoping the drink will calm everything down.

Get that budget down

2007-09-06T10:46:00.001Z

Still waiting for a line producer to be appointed. On the one hand they're excellent as they will think of things you may have missed in yuor budget, on the other hand they are sometimes less creative in corner cutting than you may be and so your budget looks too high, but at least we will have somehting a little firmer.

With that in mind we're now looking at a picture lock budget which will make us officially low budget. Peronsally I think we can get this down another 50K, but don't want to do anything until the LP has gone through it.

Meanwhile we've sent scripts and business plans out to a number of people, but now the real search for contacts comes in. All those people who mentioned in passing that they know high wealth individuals have to be contacted and their sources tracked down. Think there's going to be a lot of 'you don't know me but' emails going out in the near future.

Beginning of next week should also see cast lists from Sue Jones, and hopefully a script breakdown from Ellin Stein, both of which I can't wait to see. With that in mind I've got a copy of Final draft and am now laboriously re-typing the script into FD, partly to get a proper page count, but also because it gives me something to do. Trying not to change too much while I do it until I've spoken to Ellin isn't so easy though.

Everything will seem much brighter once we've got the first of our monies in. Fingers crossed that's soon.

It's been a while

2007-08-31T09:19:00.001Z

I'm going to post updates here again on the film. There's so much going on that I really want a diary of what happens, and this seems like the best place.

So, things that have happened in the last eight months.

The script, still called 1234, Gemma is now Emily and there's no more flashback scenes. Discovered that the form was dictating the narrative, and to the detriment of both story and characters. As soon as I returned to a linear narrative everything started working properly. The second change was realising that I was writing a standard love story. Stevie has to woo Billy to join his band, but in reality it's like any other love story, he falls for him and the band is the marriage. Then he falls in love with Emily, thus providing conflict and the need to make a choice. Once this was written it all seemed so obvious I couldn't understand how we'd had any other versions. Script has been seen and liked by all, and is now with script editor Ellen Stein, whose comments we will get in mid september.

Crew attached thus far include Mike Eley, who has agreed a fee, and casting director Sue Jones. Both like the script and so are doing us deals on wages which is wonderful because otherwise we couldn't afford either. Cast wise Sue is putting together suggestions, but before she came on board we already had one confirmed, the excellent Lyndsey Marshal as Emily. Lyndesy is an actress I've admired since I saw her in Festival (which would have been a huge hit if they'd put Todd Solondz name on the credits). She can do steely and comedic at the same time and is absolutely perfect for the role. Sue mentioned a couple of other actresses, but I'm going to stick with Lyndsey because I just have that gut feeling that she's exactly right, and every time I've had that feeling in a casting it's been right, so I'm sticking with her whatever anyone else says. The cast have got to be believable, and she fits the bill.

Business plans have been done, two budgets, one low-ish budget to do everything and about 100K less to get to picture lock which is what we're aiming for first. Alan Harris of Atlantic films (name from the past, he produced Laws of Motion) has been helping Simon get his head round how the plan works, and with any luck is going to spare us some time to go through the finished document. In the mean time the script and basic outline of business has been sent out to a few people with more on the list. To start with, ten of them at 10K each please, or 1 at 100K, I don't mind. but need money sooner rather than later as we need to start tying people to contracts, and also get our actors learning their instruments. They'll mime, but they need to look good! And Lyndsey can't stop working so we need to get her to sign something soon (we have a letter of intent from the agent, but in reality it means nothing till a contract is signed).

Music being done by Nick Burton, hopefully as we speak, and sound recording probably going to be Paddy Owen, which is great as I like working with him. Hopefully meeting with locations manager next week. Shhot date is january, though I have a bad feeling it will slip to February, though I've not voiced this with anyone.

And, er, that's it. But at least I have somewhere I can look back on now to see when it happened. This afternoon going to a screeing of Saxon, another low budget feature whose producer has been very helpful. She says come along and see hjow quickly sales agents walk out, so will be quite sobering. Have spoken with Mark at Moviehouse so if he's there will be good to put a name to a face. Am taking extra big stack of business cards.

Huevos rotos con jamon iberico

2006-12-08T17:21:00.000Z

Alcala de henares film festival on the outskirts of Madrid. For some reason I decided to take a sleeper train from Paris here. Twelve hours in a small airless compartment with two Spaniards and a Frenchman who looks like Obelisk and says nothing for the whole journey. That's absolutely NOTHING. Most odd. Get to the festival too late to see the screening of Home, but apparently it went well. When people ask which my film was I just say 'the backwards one', and they nod and go ahhhh, which I assume is good.

Meet up with three irish film makers, so much drinking naturally ensues, followed by a trip to the bar for the Huevos rotos, , which is basically a small wok in which chips are fried, into which a couple of eggs are mixed and some Spanish air cured ham. It's simple, brilliant, cheap and just what is required after drinking. Am woken early next morning by what I assume is drilling, but what turns out to be storks nesting in the next door church. Most bizarre. Off for more beer and Huevos rotos.

Saw some very good Spanish films, though a few were puzzling due to the lack of subtitles. Best was the story of a nine year old fat reserve goalkeeper who never gets a game becuase he's rubbish. In cliche central he finally gets a game for the cup final replacing the other keeper who is injured, and just in time to face a penalty. But instead of pulling off a save (and the cliche), as the kid runs up to take the penalty the fat kid gives the coach the finger and walks off, leaving the opponent to score into an empty net. Lovely film, well shot, great acting.

1234 is again out with Rob Pursey to look over this draft. I'm hoping he'll say it makes sense now, in which case I can start on a dialgue polish, which will then be followed by sending it out to talent. Have told Mike Eley I have a project he'd be perfect for, but haven't told him the budget yet. Will have to hope the script works for him as he is indeed ideal, with the script requiring hand held for the rehearsal scenes and beautifully framed lock offs for the flashbacks it needs someone with talent, but more importantly it needs someone who knows the indie scene (as Mike does) as we can't afford to be trying to make everything look and feel authentic only to find the DP is trying to shoot it like an advert. So if you're reading this Mike, that's why you have to do the film.

V12

2006-11-06T10:22:00.001Z

OK, some of the drafts have only had minor changes, but some have been quite severe, so draft 12 doesn't sound too unrealistic. Finally things seem to be getting into shape. A new speech outside the party from Stevie makes it more obvious why Billy would agree to join the band, ending the restaurant scene with Stevie asking Gemma out for a drink and getting knocked back make the scenes that follow seem more rational. Little things, small changes, but it's all becoming that much clearer.

Still need something bigger for them to row about in the third rehearsal scene, and want to have a scene early on where we see another more uncertain side to Gemma so that it gives another reason for Stevie to become attracted to her. Of course, when these scenes are added they will no doubt wack the script completely out of shape leading to yet more rewrites and it's eventual transformation into a ninja musical.

Budget meeting on Friday. Hack away at what we can afford to pay people (yes, sorry about that whoever ends up doing 1st AD on the film), and so manage to bring budget down. This includes our office overhead (which is also our contingency. Which is also paying me and Simon our pittance).

So with script getting closer and budget taking shape it's time to do two things. First, start thinking more clearly about cast and second start putting together our proposal for investors. and third, because there's always three and not two, make enquiries about getting someone big on the soundtrack. Ideally I'd like to get a Belle and Sebastian song. I know they're interested in film, they did a great soundtrack to Storytelling, which Todd Solondz hardly used. I have one of their songs in mind for the end credits, though it would be great to get another unreleased track as well. Now I need to persuade them that I really do want them and it's not jusbecausese they're a name band. So time to start calling in favours and getting people I know who know them to mention the film.

Anticipate reply from B&S saying they're only interested in working on Ninja musicals from now on.

All our money worries are over

2006-10-30T12:50:00.000Z

Received an email this morning from the wife of former Palestinian president Yasser Arrafat, telling me she needed my help in recovering his money from a swiss bank account. Not only would this be a nice thing to do, she is also prepared to pay me 20% of the amount, somewhere in the region of 5 million USD, for my help. Which is very nice of her. So that's this film and the next four all paid for then. I wonder how she got my email address.

While I ponder this I go to a talk by Christine Vachon, head of most wonderful Killer films. It's a good talk, even if the general atmosphere is a little sycophantic. Buyt copy of her new book. She opens up the first page and, pen in hand, stares up at me. I've no idea what she wants, I've paid for the book, so I just stare back. Finally she says "So who do you want me to make it out to", and I feel like an idiot. Mumble my name, when what I should have asked her to write was "Of course I'll produce your film".

I've made another copy of the script, well just the rehearsal scenes. It's good to read them as a continuous piece without the interruption of flashbacks. I'm just going to work on them like this for a bit so that everything that happens in the rehearsal feels real rather than as a reaction to something else. Glad to hear Christine Vachon say that Boys don't cry went through over twenty drafts. So that gives me nine more goes to get it right, or it's hangman.

10th time lucky

2006-10-19T09:55:00.001Z

Got some script notes back from Rob Pursey, and they all make sense. More than that, they point out things that I'd never considered before, such as the fact there are 2 love stories, one between Stevie and Gemma and one between Stevie and the band. This second one is something I've never thought of as a love story, but when he mentions it he's exactly right. This alone shows the benefit of getting someone who knows what he's talking about but doesn't know your script, to have a read.

First casualty of Rob's notes are the two secondary characters, Mikey and Naz. I hoped they would be some thing like the Kersal massive, and although I quite liked them Rob is right when he says that they're just muddying the story. So they're now DEAD.

Next up is some more foreshadowing of the plot and additional character stuff. This is draft 10 and I've just given Stevie an obsession with having a tapeworm. The idea is that this reflects his mental state, something gnawing away at him, but I'm not convinced (and I'm writing it), so we'll have to see.

Why is it that when I go to script-o-rama and read scripts there they all seem fresh and interesting and, above all, logical, but when I read back draft 9 of mine it seems cliched and overly planned. I mean, why is it apart from the fact I'm an idiot and they're all the product of talented and well paid writers, obviously. It's just impossible to divorce my reading of the script with the knowledge of all the previous drafts, so nothing ever seems fresh. Is this normal or is this just a shit script? Sadly, I think the only way to really find out is to raise the budget, make the film, and then see what people think. It sounds extreme and expensive, but it's the best way. Probably.

Tapas

2006-10-09T10:06:00.001Z

Screening of Home at Raindance went very well. Think we were the best live action film, but think the prize will go to one of the two animated films as they fit better into the "digital film" category. Richard Jobson is at the screening and says some very nice things about the films.

Get very nice call from very nice woman named Annete at Alcine, the festival at Alcalá de Henares, just outside Madrid asking to show Home (like I'm going to say no). It's the biggest shorts festival in Spain and this year they're having an international competition for the first time. They saw Home at Bristol and decided they wanted it, which is nice of them, so they can have it. Being terribly right on I intend to get the train to the festival rather than fly, but from the pictures of last years festival it looks great. Am looking forward to eating large amounts of Spanish food.

1-2-3-4 is now on version 8, and that's being read at the moment by Rob Pursey from Touchpaper TV. He used to be a script editor and he plays bass in Tender Trap, so he is officially the most ideal person to read the script. Very much looking forward to hearing what someone who a) very much knows what they're talking about and b) hasn't seen any previous drafts, thinks of it all. Am trying to think of other ideas for when he returns the script with a thick red line across every page.

And as predicted the animated film won the prize at Raindance. Wasn't a surprise as our seats (at the back) kind of gave it away. They tell you it's good just to be nominated, but in truth that's bollocks, because when people know you've been nominated they all ask if you won, and you have to say no. Think I'd rather just show at a festival than be in competition, or be in competition with loads of films. Being with only 4 others gives you the false belief that you may just win. Bastards.

Rough budget for feature currently coming in at the same (I think) as Scenes of a sexual nature (which we saw last night). Think we need to lose also do a budget for £100K so we can apply for Microwave scheme, though after being around film makers at a festival I'm loathe to apply for funding, it appears to be all everyone else is doing. Would much rather get private equity, but know this is going to be tough as I'm not 100% sure how to make people give me money. I'm hoping that a great script, a good looking cast, experienced crew and a half arsed business plan will suffice. We shall see.

Strange case of the missing post

2006-09-27T11:35:00.000Z

Two posts in two days doesn't really work if the previous post is missing, and refuses to publish. God knows why, who cares. Nothing new to add beyond the fact I'm doing draft 7 next week, scraping the idea Gemma and Stevie used to go out thereby making the relationship arc much easier. In theory. Still can't work out what happened to that other post. Anyway, here it is again.

Version six sent out to a few people to canvass more opinion, but no sooner has it gone out than I come up with an additional scene that seems to help out everything. Although I've made the central character more of a loser and so more tied to the idea of success in the band or romance, I realised I needed a scene where he falls back in love with his ex, so I wrote one of them sitting on a bench at night looking up at all the different colours in the tower block windows. It's romantic (hopefully without being sickly) and it seems to give the script a turning point it was lacking before. I really wish I'd done this before I sent it out. The main worry is that I'll get loads of feedback pointing out things that are terribly, terribly wrong with the script, and none of them will be about the fact there isn't a scene where they fall in love. Never has the phrase 'can't see the wood for the trees' been more apt than in script writing.But cheering everything up was the email I got the other day from Sam Mendes saying how much he enjoyed Home and what projects was I working on now. See, you have a bad week of wondering if your script makes any sense / will make any sense / is in any way worth the effort, and then you get a nice email from an Oscar winner and everything's OK again. It's THAT EASY.

Brilliant, I go to the trouble of reposting it and that second the original post appears. I believe the interspazz may in fact be evil.

Two posts in two days?

2006-09-21T15:54:00.000Z

A miracle. Head throbbing from too much partying last night, I open my email up to see that 'home' along with four other films, has been nominated for SAE best digital film at Raindance. So that gives us a 5-1 chance to win something. Still know we won't win, but nice to have been thought of.

Meetings in pub tonight to top up my alcohol content and take edge off hangover, and to discuss script with Kearney, if, that is, he gets off his fat arse and reads the fucking thing by then.

The never ending road

2006-09-20T11:19:00.000Z

Version six sent out to a few people to canvass more opinion, but no sooner has it gone out than I come up with an additional scene that seems to help out everything. Although I've made the central character more of a loser and so more tied to the idea of success in the band or romance, I realised I needed a scene where he falls back in love with his ex, so I wrote one of them sitting on a bench at night looking up at all the different colours in the tower block windows. It's romantic (hopefully without being sickly) and it seems to give the script a turning point it was lacking before. I really wish I'd done this before I sent it out. The main worry is that I'll get loads of feedback pointing out things that are terribly, terribly wrong with the script, and none of them will be about the fact there isn't a scene where they fall in love. Never has the phrase 'can't see the wood for the trees' been more apt than in script writing.

But cheering everything up was the email I got the other day from Sam Mendes saying how much he enjoyed Home and what projects was I working on now. See, you have a bad week of wondering if your script makes any sense / will make any sense / is in any way worth the effort, and then you get a nice email from an Oscar winner and everything's OK again. It's THAT EASY.

More drafts...

2006-08-31T11:10:00.000Z

Watched an astounding film last night, The consequences of love by Paolo Sorrentino. Full of very long, very slow shots it was one of the most beautiful films I've seen in years. Very, very slow indeed, long silences and philosophical narration. Oh yes, and it's a mob crime film as well. Most excellent.

But what it did was remind me it's about time to do that draft. you know the one, the draft where you get a big red pen out and go through the script crossing out lines of dialogue and replacing them with shots that say it instead. Show not tell. In the film yesterday there's a scene where a husband lets his wife down. the next shot, rather than a big shouty row, is just her bushing their bed apart into two singles. Perfect, said it all.

It's quite enjoyable doing this draft, thanking up images to tell story, but the depressing thing is usually that it cuts a lot of pages out and makes me worry I don't have enough story. Well, not this time as I'm already worrying I don't have enough story. Decided Stevie needs to be more abject about his condition. He should be something of a depressive, hence the fact he's desperate to escape this situation. So I can work on some scenes for that at the same time I cut scenes out to be replaced by shots of a woman pushing two beds apart.

Watch this feature turn into a short.

The rest of the world may be on the brink of war

2006-08-16T11:01:00.000Z

but the film world is going great, which obviously is all that matters. Draft 5 of 1234 is finished, and the plot actually makes sense now. The characters are well enough defined so that actions come from them and the whole thing comes to a logical conclusion. Well, at least that's how it seems today. Give it another couple of days and I'll be spotting plot holes all over the place I'm sure.

Want to do another couple of passes tightening up dialogue, and adding a couple of scenes to expand on some of the characters traits which get lost in the plot (such as Gemma's other life as a struggling artist). Kearney sent me a link to a New York film which is very indie, and also has a character being in a band, but luckily doesn't seem to be set in a rehearsal room. What it did have was a good look and feel to it, indie but not too self conciously so. Helped remind me that I really need to make sure the characters are grounded in their reality, and don't become too middle aged or middle class for the sake of a one liner.

The other good news came from the Raindance film festival, who have accepted Home to show in competition. Trebles all round, as they say. Next week it's showing in Sofia, though I can't afford to go, so showing at a festival in London is just what I wanted to hear. Have fingers crossed for Leuven too, as that's always a nice festival, though it's got a bnew director this year so not sure what sort of films they will be looking for.

Anyway, everything appears to be going in the right direction, so if the world could just avoid descending into all out war we might actually get something done.