Director's Weekly Post Production Blog WEEK 12 Saturday January 26th...

Really back in the swing of things now after my holiday, back in life, being a film-maker, the endless process called development which is really just trying to get films into production…

Now I’m heading out of town again to push forward a project that I am developing / trying to make into a film. The possibilities for this year realistically are either “The Cult”, a kind of Bressonian horror film or “No More Heroes” about a newly qualified psychiatric doctor at the NHS coalface. So many of my other projects are in a kind of purgatory waiting for people to read them / people to agree to become attached / others to finally agree their contracts etc!

I have another 5 months to see if this year will be successful or not as actually getting a film into production is really my only standard of evaluation. On that barometer last year was certainly a success! DEP was a wonderful experience, creatively fulfilling and rewarding. It seems always that I actually make a film in autumn. The four feature films and many of the shorts I have made so far have all been shot during autumn. Strangely, of course, it is my favourite season! Which of the two I have mentioned will be the one I do not know. Of course it may actually be a different one from those that I am developing that spontaneously accumulates the necessary critical mass.

The problem with development is it always seems endless. It goes on forever. It is hard to stay focussed. The key as I have said is getting a film out of development and in to production. Production is about momentum, forward motion that propels it into the shoot. The films I have made all hit production by a decision being made that no matter what shooting would commence on a certain date. In some ways the date is random but really it is just a marker in the sand, a point of no return.

This week has been split between doing producerial financial and marketing things on DEP and directorial development things on other projects.

At the start of the week while in the middle of a mobile telephone conversation I bumped into Pete Stevenson on the street. He seemed well. On the 73 bus, I thought that he, like me, has a similar problem now - but possibly a more acute one. I think he has shot over 40 hours of footage for the “making of” and probably hasn’t yet started really moulding it. For me the moulding, once we start properly editing, will be a little simpler. The aim of the editing of DEP is to tell the story of the script as well as addressing the subtext and themes that I am interested about. For Pete he must make from the footage a “making of” that tells the story of making the film but the focus is so much more a matter of deliberation and choice. His choice. He could make any number of films in terms of focus. When we wrote Pete’s contract, like with the guy who did the documentary “Do you really want to wrap here?” about the making of Boston Kickout, we agreed that he would have final cut. If we were a big company we wouldn’t have done that – in case we were filmed doing something discernibly evil - but somehow, I think, as a fellow film-maker, it would be hypocritical to do that. What the finished documentary is like will be truly a surprise!!

Tuesday was my monthly poker tournament. So many of the crew of DEP came that I had at least 5 more people at the tournament than ever before. Matt Blackmore, Daniel, Katie, Marina, Chloe, Jonnie, Matt King were all there. Despite being more than a little tipsy(!), Dougal Porteous won against expectation!

In terms of the debts outstanding and reclaiming the VAT (which we need to do desperately), there was a small amount of progress. Max has agreed to accept a small amount now and the rest when the VAT comes through as has another of our major creditors. I finally met Williams yesterday and he gave me a portion of the receipts. Probably a third. The rest he promised will be delivered to me tomorrow which is also when Lewis Partovi returns to iron out some IT problems I have been having with my laptop etc since the shoot in France. If we can submit accounts to HM customs and excise next week we hopefully should have money to pay the outstanding costs in 8 weeks or so.

Apart from the financial concerns on DEP, I have had half a day in the cutting room looking at rushes and a couple of meetings regarding the poster design which should be printed on Monday. We need a poster and also a trailer for the Berlin film festival so we can show sales agents what is coming. It is impossible and impractical for the producer to sell a film all around the world. You need a sales agent to do that and thus getting the best one possible is important for the film.

Steve Norris texted me again this week, presumably after seeing Boston Kickout. He texted “what a great film bko is what great eferrt”

Another week of waiting for Williams draws to a close with some progress. He didn’t show Sunday and couldn’t do Monday. I met him on Tuesday and got a second third of the receipts. Only a final third is now outstanding. He told me that he wanted to order them properly so that there are as few as possible queries. Along with him getting Salmonella and then feeling generally un-motivated those were the reasons for the twelve week delay. The need to order them perfectly is in some ways a bit paranoia but I am happy they will be ordered well as it is a nightmare to go through a mountain of receipts.

Anyway, I haven’t been able to get hold of him again for the last two days but I STILL hope to get it sorted before we go to Berlin Film Festival and the European Film Market on Wednesday. The last time I went was after making Boston Kickout in 1997. I remember there was snow on the ground and the place was seriously cold. The opposite to Cannes. In recent years the film market in Berlin has started to rival and complement it’s more illustrious rival. This will only be my second time in attendance.

The poster for Berlin was finalised on Tuesday and is now being printed. Monday coming we will also finalise the new trailer. Myself and Jonnie have been chasing up contracts and doing the accounts this week. Kylie also raised some more money for the film which is much needed.

The high point of the week, though, must be seeing “There Will be Blood”. The performance of Daniel Day Lewis I found amazing. It must be one of the most powerful performances I‘ve seen since DeNiro or Brando in their prime. The last scene I nearly stood up to applaud!! If Day Lewis doesn’t win both the Bafta and the Oscar it would be criminal.

I have not been able to venture into the cutting room and the last 13 scenes lie there still for me to view with Caroline. I should do that Monday and Tuesday. Caroline is now poised to finally start the first assembly. The process I assume will take about 4 weeks. In my mind I look forward to thinking about her shaping the raw footage while I am away trudging up and down the strasse, she is breathing life back into the fragmented work, creating narrative and a kind of life from the separate pieces.

It will also be my first time back in Germany since I made the ill fated “The Poet” and afterwards toured it round the country with born again Christian rock siren who performed the title track. We spent hours talking about the meaning of Balaam’s Ass from the bible!

That whole experience on “The Poet” is the worst I’ve had by far on the 17 shorts and 4 features I have made. An experience thankfully eradicated from my psyche by making DEP. Almost certainly fate will decree that I will bump into the German producer of that film. Maybe we will even agree on something now!

Pity I’ll not be visiting Bavaria. I love the weisswurste…

God blessed me. This morning, as if by magic, I ate weisswurste for breakfast. Six of them! I have given up having breakfast at my hotel as it is far too grim, a kind of East German Stalag with rock hard bread and seemingly stale cheese. Instead, this morning, I went to my partner in the distribution company’s palatial Rocco Forte hotel which, by chance, I discovered has weisswurste on Saturdays. They were transported by train from Bavaria first thing this morning as they have to be eaten on the same day they are made. Delicious.

One great thing they have done here is mark on the ground where the Berlin wall used to be. Now with the amount of building that has gone on many buildings have been built over where it stood. The funny thing is seeing streets that were half in the east, half in the west. The Stalag hotel I am staying in is in the former East part of a long street.

On Sunday Williams arrived at my flat at 10.30pm without prior warning. Luckily I was home watching Guinea being beaten by the Ivory Coast (the Elephants). He had all the receipts and invoices that are outstanding. Finally we are now able to claim back the VAT and also get a true picture of where we are financially.

Instead of apologising for the thirteen week delay, Williams complained about the lack of facilities in the production office and all the things that happened during the shoot that weren’t ideal. All his complaints are justified BUT so is my disappointment that it has taken so long to get all the receipts.

On Monday and Tuesday we finished a 3 minute trailer that I have been showing to Sales Agents. I even have it on my mobile phone in case of impromptu meeting where there is no dvd player etc. After finishing the trailer I saw more footage including the stuff that hadn’t been transferred, the car going past the Hindu temple and some of the later office scenes.

I am now sitting in the café at the centre of the Berlin European Film Market. I’m quite tired with all the running about and meetings one after another although Berlin is nowhere near as mad or hectic as Cannes is. Things also weren’t helped by a drunk French girl knocking and clawing at my door last night desperate to get in.

I reckon by Monday I will have seen about 27 sales agents. Three already have expressed strong interest. Only one has passed. Ashley Luke at Fortissimo passed on the film purely on the synopsis and poster. He didn’t even want to see the trailer nor actually take a meeting!

The general response is that people really like the title of the film and respond well to the trailer. Opinions on the poster are a little divided. I think we should do a little more work on that. Of course one problem is that how it prints depends on the printer.

The next step will be to show them a rough cut of the film. This I will do in May either before or during Cannes.