Paul Hills’ weekly post production blog
Weekly Blog 16 (February 23rd)
I have recovered from the flu but am still feeling low. Why I am feeling low I don’t know. I have never suffered from proper depression but guess it must be something like what I feel now. I’m well known for my eternal optimism.
Caroline is still cutting the film but unfortunately she has also been busy this week on other things. That’s the problem when people are not being paid proper money and thus aren’t on something full time. When I see her next I should be able to view the first assembly. As of yet I am not sure when that will be though.
I have spent much of the week negotiating a writer’s contract. The same one I had to continue negotiating again straight after the shoot. It is still not agreed. This whole process has now gone on a total of 22 months. A ridiculous length of time. Normally a writer’s motivation for writing a script is to tell a story. In this case it seems to be about money much to my sadness.
Finally we have handed over the accounts to our accountant Richard Juneman, only to discover that HM customs and excise have asked for further clarification on some minor details about the company. This seems endless but I hope these questions will be the final ones.
On Tuesday I got approached about a film about Billy Graham. Why I don’t know as most people would assume I am the last person who would want to do a film on that subject. My agent said “They don’t mind if you are not a Christian, just as long as you are not Muslim or an idol worshipping pagan!”
On Friday me and Jonnie did some more admin stuff, paid a few people and wrote letters to companies who are threatening to sue us. We need some more funds, either by investment or by getting back the damn VAT. We also sent copies of trailers to people we were not able to see in Berlin mainly because they hadn’t attended the festival.
The response to the trailer remains positive and better than the response to the poster. Amongst others, I showed it to Dougal and Cassandra on Thursday when I saw them both at Cassandra’s party. They were both very excited by it.
Midweek I showed it to one of the investors. I didn’t watch it as it played. The Investor asked “Why aren’t you watching it?”
I told them “I will see the film enough when we are in the thick of the editing. I don’t need to see it any more!”
“Aren’t you excited?” they asked further.
After a long pause I explained that I wasn’t excited yet. I had been greatly excited during the shooting but now I am in a different stage. My hope for the film is that it goes to many film festivals and is released all around the world to critical acclaim. That is what happened with Boston Kickout but is exactly what didn’t happen with The Poet. Until you show the film to an audience in a cinema, you don’t know how the film will be perceived. You just don’t know. There is lots of excitement to come one way or another.
I hope to God, I’ll finally get to see the first assembly of the film next week.