Paul Hills’ weekly post production blog
Weekly Blog 31 (Saturday June 7th)
On an early plane to Madrid for the Madrid Cine Expo for Bluebell Films. It will be a few days working on something other than DEP. I also might get a chance to read, having read all of Diderot before Cannes ( I didn’t read a word while there) and now am starting on Rousseau!
The last week has been a roller coaster ride. On Saturday after the management relented I got a chance to try out the new song by Ellie Lawson. It worked wonderfully at the end of the film. After that me and Caroline had a chance to do the deleted scenes for the dvd release and look at out-takes as well. At the end of the day I met with Daniel Nussbaumer. He is now doing the visual FX for the film.
I expected some responses from Sales Agents this week and got a couple of passes. One guy absolutely loved the film, saying it was incredible and wonderful, complementing the performances, the story and the direction but that he couldn’t see his company as being the right one to sell it. He recommended another one which is, funnily enough, one of our most desired. Let’s see!
On Monday I discovered that the picture conform has still not taken place and that there will be another weeks delay. The actual scanning still hasn’t happened is why. This is not too bad as the picture had some breathing space in the schedule – but not any more! I also discovered Roger Bonnici is soon taking a holiday. He is needed, of course, for the grade.
On Tuesday I saw Daniel at the monthly poker game. He had done great work already on the fireflies FX. The efficiency of the Swiss is wonderful. If you had ten Swiss you could conquer the world. I wish I had a Swiss music supervisor!
On Wednesday we did the ADR recording. First up was Grace, then Jonnie and then Jonnie and Julie, who came over in the morning on the Eurostar. Nicolas la Messurier, our dubbing mixer, sat in on the recording. He gave me great relief by saying he could save a lot more original stuff than Axle thought was possible. That is fantastic as I hate ADR in films and always desire as little as possible, especially since Boston Kickout where thanks to the genius of Simon Kaye, I didn’t have to do a single line.
We now have potentially very little in DEP. Hopefully a maximum of ten lines. That’s a tribute to Axle’s recording abilities. Also half of those ten were either unavoidable or were recorded before she took over on the recording! At the end of the recording I got Julie and Jonnie to improvise for two lines I needed in the forest off camera. It was wonderful to continue that right up until the end.
While in the ADR session Marcel called. He said he was sending some music. It’s a theme that he came up with for another film which never got used. He thinks it will work perfectly for our film and we can adapt it as necessary. It has bazouki’s and other ethnic stuff in. I will try it out with the picture next week. It was good he called as I was already starting to think of plan B, of having to find another composer. One in particular has been hounding me since before the shoot.
After the ADR I bumped into Cristina Corazza in the street. I thought, at first, she was trying to deliberately not see me but I’m not sure. Our 45 minute conversation turned from her outstanding expenses to the Blog which she is fiercely opposed too. Her main criticism is that I shouldn’t be so honest and that I shouldn’t mention names when what I say depicts people in a bad light. Even if I say ten things good about someone, I shouldn’t say one thing that is bad. My problem is I AM honest. I just write what I truly feel.
On Thursday morning, me and Jonnie went to see Ellie Lawson’s manager. She was very nice as it turned out and things progressed between us. I did discover, though, that both songs were co-written, one by five people and further had a sample from another song in it! What a pandora’s box this is turning out to be! More negotiations! More work! Also Sam, of course, has chosen this moment to go on holiday to Australia for three weeks! Nightmare! I will have to do all this extra work myself or find a new Music Supervisor to help me.
In the afternoon me and Jonnie did some accountancy and admin work. We were able to pay some small bills including one of Cristina Corazza’s phone bills. Fuji film are hassling me at the moment despite us having made significant inroads into that debt so I had to ameliorate them.
Yesterday I got a letter from HM Customs and Excise. Finally after 9 months waiting they have given us a VAT number!!! Hooray!!! The only problem is that we will not get the first form until August. That means we have another two and a half months of warding of creditors!
If that wasn’t bad enough, Max Steadi wrote a ridiculous e mail to Jonnie this week saying that not only should he sell his flat to pay the money outstanding, but that he should sell all his possessions! Jonnie e mailed back saying maybe he should sell his newborn into white slavery also!