The Last Post

So, that's it then.  Time to start wrapping up the blog having rendered a final print of the movie last night, foley and ADR and all the special effects in place. It's looking a bit of alright! I'll probably jott down a few more ideas here after I've had some feedback on the film, you know me, I like to think in type so there will probably be much more to write about:  the release of a film is nothing like the end of a project.

I'm too close to it right now, I've recently spent a lot of hours hammering it out.  But it's inevitable that viewers will cast new light on it for me because there will be things I'm either not looking for or can't see any more and it takes an audience to spot something that you didn't think you meant.

I recently went to a screening for a film in which I acted.  It being over a year since I actually did the job, I could barely remember the story and so I enjoyed it immensely. I'm not one of those people who hates seeing himself on film, anyway. (Well, see below)  More importantly, there were things about the character I played that I didn't know about.  Things therefor that I couldn't have deliberately performed.  Seeing the character set against others revealed facts about him that I was oblivious to when I was working on him. Turns out he was a bit of a bastard, and I thought he was nice!

I brought that up with the director and he admitted he didn't want to tell me too much for fear of it influencing my performance.  That's the way in life too, isn't it? Because we only ever see the scenes that we live in, we are so often unaware of the way our actions and our emotions impact upon others it's a wonder we manage to conduct any kind of effective relationship.

I'm rambling a bit - emotionally knackered - this last month has been a tedious lot. I don't like sitting at a desk long, it makes me cranky.  The endless photoshopping and rotoscoping effects, compositing final images and reassembling the process shots  I mentioned in the previous post has taken it's toll.  Sixteen shots containing some kind of digital effect, would you believe?  This was supposed to be a very simple little film!

Now that I'm a little ahead of schedule as far as screening goes, I'm going to take a week or two off from looking at any of it to see if I can come back with a clear head and an open mind. That means I'm not showing it to anyone quite yet.  Who knows. There may still be a director's cut to do!

Of course I'm desperately looking forward to people's reaction, if only.to have them tell me what I might have missed.