Director's Weekly Post Production Blog WEEK 136

Saturday 3rd July

I have now recovered from Phuket. It took a while.

I started last week pursuing Rhys and JD. Rhys had apparently been waiting for JD’s call. By the weekend I had finally made sure that the sound was with JD. He then was away on holiday for the whole of this week, only returning today I presume. I hope that JD thus will sort out the sound over the next week or so. Last Saturday, Pete Stevenson called saying he was in town for a party and would “love to go and collect the hard drive from Rhys.” I couldn’t get hold of Rhys – he was in Glastonbury. Pete still wanted to collect it from Rhys’ house but I warned him off, saying that I wasn’t sure that everything had been transferred off it and that I didn’t want any more hiccups in the timescale.

It is only now that I can say I am on top of all the things that have happened since Cannes even. Watching England go out of an upset filled world cup was one distraction. Another was signing the final forms for the dissolution of the NPA. That was a sad event. I have not had time to follow up on the distributors and sales agents that were are awaiting answers from. I will focus back on that in the next few weeks.

On Wednesday I got a call from John Last who had been forwarded by someone in Phuket, a press release from the Phuket film festival. The press release said that the “audience choice awards” had been abandoned (after the fact) and that instead the prizes would be; Best Director Sony (our Vietnamese friend) and the Best film – “audience appreciation award” would be shared between DEP and Bitter/Sweet, a USA/Thai film that screened in the middle of the festival.

John was disappointed. If the rules had not been abandoned we would have won best film outright, as well as gaining some acting awards I imagine. He was probably remembering all the negatives we heard at the party after Bitter/Sweet screened and how no-one we met actually liked the film. Of the 28 paying customers who had seen the film (22 had tickets given to them), I must have talked to 8 people at the party who had seen the film. One said to me “God, I hope your film is better than that!” Another said “I’ve seen better acting in a school play.” The latter was a trifle unfair overall although in the first few scenes it was certainly true!

Jonnie told me latter that we should have expected this outcome. Bon café who invested money in the film, were also are one of the festival’s sponsors. Politics frequently plays a part in film festivals. Although I believe it didn’t play a part at all in Indie Spirit or Santa Cruz!

Anyway, I am pleased we won something and am also thankful to Scott Rosenborg that he didn’t totally stitch us up. I e-mailed him yesterday to thank him. We have kept our perfect record now. 5 awards from 5 film festivals if you include The Mexico Film Festival. I’ve never had a record as good as that before with a film. Hopefully there will be a European film festival soon. I must admit to still being shocked by Edinburgh not inviting the film - incredible.

Tomorrow will be the cast and crew screening. It will be a chance to see people I have not seen since the wrap party. It will also be for many of them, the first time they will see any of the film apart from that contained in the trailer. For me also it will marks the completion of the film - and this post production blog! The film will screen in its dcp format. That is the best version of the film that we have, the most picture definition combined with 5.1 surround sound. All the screenings so far have been from HD or less and with only stereo sound (mono in Phuket!).

Emma Rozanska, our designated projectionist at the Rio cinema (and also a talented emerging film-maker) texted me yesterday having done her own checks saying “Hi :) your film works a treat and looks lovely…”

Now I am leaving the office to go meet Julie at St. Pancras station. She has the award from Santa Cruz with her.
As I have not had a chance yet to check the dcp yet, the screening tomorrow will be that chance. Once that is done the film will have been completed but we will still be 1 week away from completing the documentary.

THIS (NOW BI-)WEEKLY POST PRODUCTION BLOG WILL BE SUPERCEEDED BY A MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION BLOG STARTING AT THE END OF JULY.

PREVIOUS WEEK

MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION BLOG