Do

I am in a hotel room in the south of Spain, trying to keep awake before the race starts. Hamilton has been dominant in all three practise and qualifying sessions such that without some bad luck it is there for him to win.

As this week progressed it became quickly obvious that there was nothing that could be done on DEP and thus when Marc asked if I wanted to go to Spain to play some poker for a few days the answer was obvious.

On the six previous occasions we have done this trip, I have lost money but this time I have won. I hope that is a sign that my game is improving and not just the music of chance. The number of complaints I have received at the slowness of my game, though, is a little disconcerting. Most players here make split second decisions simply evaluating if they like their hand or not and not bothering too much about their position, other people’s moves, their relative chip position to other players and the blinds nor even trying to get a read on the players acting before and after. Instead I try to evaluate everything and take at least 30 seconds on a so called “simple decision”.

I made this trip thinking it would be restful. That has far from worked out and I am in a worse state now than when I finished shooting the documentary. I play cards at night and sleep during the day. The milieu here is far from Spanish, an English ex-pat concrete dystopia of eggs and bacon, beer bellies and bad sun tans with hardly a tapas bar in sight. A “shit hole” as even Marc says!

I received the last of the music this week but Caroline does not have time at present to do the final fitting. It is a terrible shame as the time was there this week with Nic to do the final mix. Of course it is not just Caroline’s fault that we have missed this opportunity. The main reason has been cash flow. It has taken ages and ages to be able to pay the money we needed to pay to be in this position. If it wasn’t for those delays we would have completely finished the sound by now. I hope to be able to do the final fitting next Sunday and then hopefully there will be time at Synxspeed the week after. Let’s hope.

Vanessa and the O’s did a remix on the song they have recorded that addressed the problem I perceived last week. It is much improved but I will not be able to give a final answer until I have had the time with Caroline to fit it.

I have conversed much this week with Neil Harris about the picture things that need to be done. I am still waiting for the day or two needed to finish the final grade. This seems to have been endless now. We have not had any time to do this in the last 7 weeks. We have decided now to take the de-spotting and final picture mastering somewhere else. It is our only option. On Monday I will revise the contracts for both things and send them to the respective parties.

Unfortunately, as the one year mark approaches, I feel more alone and lost in my journey to finish DEP than ever. I’m very low. The recent distractions and interminable fatigue do not help. It also seems again that everyone else is only interested in the next film. The present one is totally forgotten. I feel like a Vietnam vet about to return from a long tour, somehow expecting flags to be flown but instead just receiving vilification. Of course, no matter how depressed I feel, I will finish this film. It’s my duty.

The last hurdle is always the hardest.

Now I am on a train to the South West for a flying visit. It is almost a year since, straight after the shoot, I made the same trip for a similar reason. The Cornish writer I am working with, after totally alienating the Producer of our shared project, has now gone loopy again (fourth time) and want to start re-negotiating the writers contract yet again. Already these discussions have taken over two years! Of course he has no basis to do so but when someone is insane, things like having a reason, do not come into the equation.

I am using this train trip as an opportunity to read the work done so far on the next project that I hope to make with Jonnie. Unfortunately I have been stupid enough to let people know something about this project before it is written such that there is an air of expectation before we have even completed a first draft. This pressure I consider to be utterly unhelpful. Anyway, the delays in completing DEP have at least given us some breathing space.

Last week I was quite despondent about the progress. I can’t say I am in a much better state of mind this week. The fitting of the music is still pencilled for Sunday afternoon. After that has been completed I will arrange time with Ian at Synxspeed to do the final mix.

On Monday I revised the contracts for post production as they stand now and sent them to the respective parties. In some ways I have been delaying doing this for a number of weeks. Maybe the reason is sentimental and that it makes me irrevocably acknowledge something that I didn’t want to acknowledge. That something being that Midnight Transfer have let us down badly on DEP. Very badly. This makes me terribly sad as in the past this company has been one of the most supportive and helpful companies I have come across in the whole UK film industry. I have worked with them on a number of things and had fantastic service irrespective of the budget being large or small.

Basically, I have got to the point now, though, where I am utterly fed up with constantly calling Rebecca at Midnight Transfer and being given the run around. It is nearly 6 months since I first gave her the EDL list. A year ago when we began this relationship Midnight Transfer was a family run company that worked with the film-makers. There was one person to call to make a decision and there was the sense that they were working with you not against you. Since Deluxe bought Midnight it has turned into a bureaucratic Kafka-esque corporate nightmare run by accountants and money men. There’s no-one who really helps or understands the film-makers any more. It’s all about bottom line. It’s a kind of hell. So the sooner I can finish the grade and get out of it the better!!

On Tuesday I managed to raise some more money for the film. I wish I was not the only one still raising money, though, as sooner or later we are going to reach a brick wall when we run absolutely dry.

I then spent the rest of the week trying to get to the bottom of whether the missing frames had been re-scanned by Midnight Transfer or not. At one point I learnt they had but then somehow had been corrupted. Then I learnt they were fine. Presently I still do not know what the truth is. Something as simple as this is made insufferably complicated. I will call again Monday.

I have learnt that Jonnie will be back in the UK for a week in early November. That is good news for me as there is a lot for us to do especially in terms of our financial predicament.

Currently we are about 75% of the way with both sound and picture but sound is looking like it will be finished much quicker.