October update

Okay, a few things have happened since I last posted.

I have finished the revised edit and showed it to my friend, the actor and filmmaker Robert. I had been holding back showing it to Robert. He is a fan of my work, so on the one hand he would be too forgiving. On the other he is quite sharp and critical as well.

First I was disappointed in some ways with this comments. He did not notice the changes I made in the new edit! But of course I was being ridiculous. The whole point of that work was to make sense of this or that part. The test is whether he would not notice the new parts.

Well Robert had a few minor comments but generally was very impressed. So far so good. Yes, there is still a lot of work to do. There is still no shape or pace in the edit. There are decisions to be made in regards to incidental music and the non-music that Roland suggested in the spring.

I have rewritten all the scenes that I workshopped back in the spring. There was always something that bothered me about these scenes. One night I showed Flora the edit, and then we went to watch some bits from Antonio's L'Eclisse. I was especially interested in the scene where Vittoria first meets Marta. It is is girl's night in. There is no drama, and the thematic elements only appear by the by. I had written my scenes as drama, and clearly they were not. I, the writer was also imposing myself into the film.

One of the changes involves bringing in a new character and now I have to cast another actor. That is my next step.

And finally I applied to Cinemart at the Rotterdam Film Festival. This is market to meet co-producers. I send in two applications for two new projects for development, and also for Tidal Barrier for post-production. Of course my chances are slim but it is my first test of the film outside friends and colleagues visiting my flat. So we shall see.

Dalston report

We spent Sunday shooting pickups in Dalston. It was a long day, but very productive.
I wanted to fill in a few gaps we found in the editing. As I said previously this is my shorthand being rather too short.
It is amazing what a few shots will do to an edit. For example, in the final scene of this segment Claire watches Paul leave for work. This was shot from high, at a distance, too much of a distance to know who we are watching. We just needed a shot of Paul leaving the flat. I shot this from the top of stairs, as to suggest that here too this is Claire watching Paul.
The scene that followed has caused some confusion as well. When Claire is sure that Paul is gone she goes about erasing herself, removing all traces of herself from the flat and his life. But there was never enough detail for anyone to understand what was happening. I added another segment on Sunday, where Claire gathers up her clothes into a bin bag and throws them in the trash. Starting over again. Will this scene now make sense? Well I will need to show the new edit to a few people and find out.
In both these cases, given a larger budget you would simply shot them in the first place, but as I can only shoot what I am going to use I was happy to do it this way.
We also re shot scene and 8 and 9 to change the emphasis of this scene.
Yesterday Marc passed me the sound files and I synced them up with the rushes. Everything looks good. I spent yesterday with the edit, trying to piece it together. There are a few cuts which still need some more work, but overall what we did has been very effective.
Next steps. I now have more scheduling headaches. I am going to start writing a revised scene with Claire and Sophie, and a new character, and I will need to find this new actor. Then I will try to squeeze a day of shooting of this new scene in to October.

Norway results and more

Last Friday we got the Norway pickups returned from the lab and... everything was absolutely fine. We probably have one soft shot, but it is looks so amazing I think someone might think we did it on purpose.
I did a rough cut of the footage on Saturday, but I was without the sound files, so I did not spend too much time on the edit. More on that later. For now I am distracted.
I have more scheduling mayhem, so I working to shoot pickups here in the flat in Dalston this Sunday. Of course this means a load of preparations, especially just finding all those costumes. I may have to reshoot some scenes just because of costume alone, but in a way it is just as well. The scene concerned is Scene 8, when Natalie first visits Claire and Paul, and then Scene 9, the argument that Paul and Claire have after. This scene was always weak. First I think that the dialogue between Paul and Natalie is given too much emphasis. It it Claire's relationship to Natalie and Paul that is important. I also went too thin again, that is the shorthand is too short. There is too little material. So, it is just as well that I have to reshoot. I am going to look at rewriting or restructuring the scene tonight. More on this after Sunday.