Director's Weekly Post Production Blog WEEKS 133 - 134

Week 133 Saturday 22nd May...

As I had to get up early Sunday morning to go to Monaco I went to bed early
(for Cannes) – 1.30 am. I decided to sleep with my phone beside the bed in case
there was news from Santa Cruz. Stupidly though, I must have accidentally
touched the wrong button. When I awoke at 6am I discovered the phone was off.
After turning it on, I got a text from Jonnie saying “call Julie”.

Standing naked in front of a window overlooking Cannes, I called her and she
immediately said with much emotion “Paul, Paul, we won, we won the jury prize.
It is is so, so amazing… I have your award. It is so beautiful. I will bring it to you.” I
 whispered back a response so as not to wake other people in my apartment.
Both our voices cracked, the tears fell from my eyes. While conversing I decided
in my mind to not miss another festival. To not miss the opportunity to sample
the fruits of the last 3 years work.

I found out from Julie that the jury actually never came to the festival. They watch
the films on dvd and vote on line. One of them is the winner of last year’s festival
– will that mean I am on the jury next year? They never even meet to discuss the
films. It couldn’t be a more dry and evaluative process. No amount of lobbying a
nd sympathetic audience responses contributed to the award. It was 100% on the
merit of the film!

As I walked to the train station, the early morning light giving Cannes a warm
glow, I felt a wonderful high, a rush of fulfilment. Even as the 7.10am train headed
down the coast to Nice and Monaco, the tears of joy kept flowing. It was an
ecstatic state. Four awards out of four festivals. Utterly incredible - how far we
have come since those dark days of endless de-spotting and the sense of
abandonment I felt then.

The race day was wonderful, just like qualifying. My spot on the hill with the
megaphone man and all the other characters - one of which has inhabited this
same spot since 1972 – was another joy on top of the one I felt deep inside.

Monday and Tuesday I spent with Jonnie and Steve Di Marco following up on
sales agents for DEP, a flurry of meetings, up and down La Croisette. Soon we
nearly exhausted all the screeners we had brought. I felt great, mentally I was
on fire. Later in the festival someone said “That pitch you gave Monday was the
best pitch I have heard in the whole of Cannes.”

On Tuesday we met a Sales Agent that had been top of our list for the last two years. I’d never actually met them, though, because the timing hadn’t yet been right. Also, never before had I the confidence that they would take it on. In my opinion they are the best sales agent in the world.

The meeting was great. We had an indication that the salesman wants to sell the film. He loves it. It’s just a question now if the buyer wants to buy it! As Jonnie left, the salesman whispered “I have a good feeling about this.” Later Jonnie reminded me that it was the day of the 3rd anniversary of when I had read the script and the 6th anniversary of when he’d met Stephanie, the inspiration for the film. To me that is a good sign. We should find out next week.

The rest of this week I mainly spent working for Bluebell and on my future projects.
Today I have seen three films. It brings the number of competition films I have seen this
year up to 9. But, for me, no clear Palme d’Or winner jumps out! My favourite film so far is
Copie Conforme – Juliette Binoche is fantastic in that film. Fantastic.

Julie never arrived with the award. Her non-appearance was even reported in the Hollywood
Reporter thanks to us trying to get a photo opportunity with her handing me the award.
Instead I will see her in London next week.

On the subject of finishing the documentary, I have been texting Rhys to no avail. Hopefully
we can meet JD to hand over the sound on the 26th. I also hope to check the DCP next week.
Tomorrow I fly back to London. We are still 0.5 weeks away from completing the film and
1 week away from completing the documentary. Executive Producer Steve Di Marco in Cannes

Blog 134 Friday 28th May...

On the plane back from Cannes I met a young puppy, a film-maker called Tim who wants to make a film called “Two weeks off”. He reminded me of me when I first came to Cannes nearly 20 years ago. He brought no business cards, no 1 sheets about his film, no scripts, nothing. He was totally green. I told him about my experiences on my first film “The Frontline”. He seemed amazed and said that I should make a film about those experiences. I told him he should make the film rather than jumping through hoops. Hopefully I will bump into him again next year with a completed film!

I was exhausted from Sunday till Tuesday but spent the time catching up on what has happened in the world, replying to e-mails, opening post etc. Then I started on the mountain of Cannes follow up work that I had to do which has taken me all the way until this morning to finish.

In my inbox was an e-mail from the Santa Cruz festival, one of its people wanted to say that he loved the film and that Julie had been a breath of fresh air at the festival, being wonderfully honest during the Q&A. He also said “I am so glad that you lived through the purple mushroom incident just so that I can keep my eye out for films bearing your name. Thanks again for sharing your film with us here at Santa Cruz.”

The things I read in Julie’s blog reminded me of BKO at the San Sebastian film festival. They are very warming. It was nice also to see her blog and my blog up together, showing the different sides of the happy night. Unfortunately she couldn’t make it to London this week so hasn’t yet handed me the award. That will have to wait until after Phuket.

One of the things I did this week is get more screener copies of DEP made; both in Pal and NTSC. At present we are hurtling through them at a great rate of knots. I have also had to negotiate with David Holloway, who has done all our recent standard conversions, masters, deliverables and screener copies. Our tab is now getting quite long. He said “I’m not charging for the success I’ve given you by passing through these hands.”

On Tuesday I spoke to Rhys. He told me that Pete’s voiceovers were “Interesting.” We have had to concede to fate and do the meeting with JD in the middle of June. Meanwhile, Steve has been texting me disparaging allegations about Pete.

On Wednesday night Jonnie and I had another conference call with our representatives in LA and brought them up to speed with what happened in Cannes. They are champing at the bit to start working for us now that we have our 4th award.

We have had no news this week from Sales Agents. That is not unexpected. They have been in post–Cannes catch up just like I have. My guess is that the endgames will play out over the next month. I have again not been able to check the DCP. The only tangible good piece of progress is that we have finally set the date of the cast and crew screening. It will be on Sunday July 4th. Jonnie and I will send out invitations a couple of weeks before. When Julie called me this morning, she said that she would also be able to make that date.

Now we are just 0.25 weeks away from completion of the film but still 1 week away from completing the documentary.

Next week I go to the Phuket film festival.

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