Yar Har, Fiddle De Dee

It feels weirdly soon to be saying this, but we’ve reached the end of the first stage of post-production. Barbara went back to London today (she’s got other work on, which we always knew about), so we had yesterday and this morning to get everything done.

We worked really hard yesterday tightening up the parts of the film that needed work and trying to really build up the atmosphere. We had another screening with Paul Welsh, which I wasn’t really looking forward to, but which turned out to be all right in the end. He had some specific notes about the cut, mainly hinging around lengthening or changing specific shots, but it seemed to help being in the edit suite to have the discussion – with the film there in front of us – rather than in the cinema where we were the other day. I think the history we’ve had over this project – and probably (and slightly unfairly on him) the history we’ve had with Em-media over this project – means that every time we go into a disussion there’s an edge, but I do really want to feel like we’re working together rather than being at odds. For one thing, it’s just fucking knackering using up energy arguing when you’re tired enough from working on the film.

I’m pretty happy with how the edit stands. It feels like the pace of it is working and it’s building up the requisite horror. The healing scenes – which were the hardest part to get to work – feel like they’ve got some power now, and the music – at the moment just a basic set of tracks that Steve Blackman, the composer, let us have – really adds to the mood. Integrating the diy cock/vagina shot was quite tricky, but I think we’ve found a way to make it work. There’s a bit of a worry that it overbalances the film (and it’ll be interesting to see how it works really big on a cinema screen…) but I think thematically and texturally it kind of fits.

Today we played out a couple of DVD viewing copies, one for Paul to have a look at and another one for our other exec, Becky Mark-Lawson from the Film Council (who – approprately incestuously enough – used to have Paul’s job and was the person in charge when ‘Deliver Me’ was first commissioned a year ago…). Now we just have to wait to get feedback and see what – and how much – we might be asked to change.

I’m going to get back on with working on ‘Mum and Dad’ tomorrow, with the aim of trying to get the second draft done by the end of next week. I’ve also got to write up some notes on some other feature ideas for a meeting I’ve got with Caroline Cooper-Charles from Warp X next week. I’ve got one full-on horror film, one more sci-fi based horror and one ill-defined genre piece (let’s face it, it’s most likely going to be horror), each of which are at varying stages of story development, so I’m going to try to find a day or so from somewhere to get that done. Or maybe I’ll just have to wing it a bit – I’m not sure I’ve really got the space in my head at the moment to juggle another bunch of ideas, (not without dumping something else out first, like maybe the bit that knows all the words to the Lazytown pirate song...)

It seems mad when I’m so busy to be thinking about developing new ideas, but I suppose I’m a bit paranoid about having something to move onto after ‘Mum and Dad’ (presuming, of course, that all goes to plan…) – I hate the idea of finishing a project and then having to start from scratch, especially when, as with World Of Pain, development can easily eat up years of your life.

I’ve already got another project to another stage of development – my script ‘Damaged’ has been selected for the workshop stage of Cinema Extreme. Given my past experience with the scheme, I’m taking absolutely nothing for granted, but, at the very least it gives me reassurance that, along with ‘Deliver Me’ and ‘Mum and Dad’ I’m maybe getting a bit better at pitching ideas. (Or maybe it’s just the constant drip, drip, drip of applying eventually wears people down like water torture.)

That’s not for weeks yet, though, and ‘Deliver Me’ isn’t really near finished yet – we’ve got additional sound and music to add, the dub and grade to do – so I really have to try and keep at least some reasonably substantial portion of my mind concentrated on it. But at least for the next few days I can kind of relax – if you think documenting the horrific misadventues of a family of brutal perverts is relaxing. Which I have to admit, I suppose I do…