Tuesday morning. 6am start. Well, that was the initial idea. Mike and I didn't manage to set off until just after 9. And just for laughs, Mike lost his keys. On the road, McDonalds in the belly and with a few hundred miles of road ahead of us we were on our way to London. Heading down the M6, there was a bit of a crash on the road (going the other way (too Manchester)) and there was a queue of cars that went on for about 20 miles. It reminded me of the time Janie, Miya and myself we stuck in traffic all the way to Leeds. Was not exactly one of the highlights of my life..
..So after a slow start and a quick piss stop, we hit London town around lunchtime. And went searching for a car park. Tony Streeter and Michael Keogh found us as I was once again about to have my bladder explode all over the car, and I'm sure they were both still wasted from the night before. We parked up in China town (FYI Parking in London is stupidly expensive, and with the congestion charge!?!?! (Ken, you need stringing up, mate))
Deciding to drop the neg off to Smoke & Mirrors before we were due to begin the telecine and grade at 5, I grew increasingly more worried as I headed down brewer street, thinking, "where the fuck is it?!" A phone call and three more streets away later and we were there, right opposite RSA (yeah, that's the bloke to did Alien) in the heart of the media district of Soho.
(One day we'll have frosted glass windows)
Mike and I arrived back at 5, and shortly afterwards we got to see the first shot of the film. I looked at Mike whose eyes didn't want to leave the monitor to begin with and I just smiled. I smiled like I was on drugs. It was beautiful, as we went through the footage, I grew increasingly more excited We are on to something special here. Even though we did not have any sound to hear at this stage, from the expressions on the actors faces, they just nailed it.
Dan (DoP) and Tubbs (Gaffer) also came down later, which was great as Dan, with his experience of grading worked with Ned, to get the best out of the footage that we had.
It's amazing how big a part grading plays in the post production process, what you 'film' is rarely what you 'see' the negative is run though a projector which uploads the images in real time on a server. using equipment that frankly looks intimidating colours is added, taken, altered, light is removed etc... and it gives the image depth. (for the want of a better word) It took us around 51/2 - 6 hours to go through our two hours of footage.
That night, the footage is then transferred onto Digibeta (broadcast standard media), ready for us to collect the next morning.
So after a quick bite to eat, Mike and I (with Tony) headed back to his, where my infamous snoring, decided to make a cameo... We left London around noon the next day tapes and neg in hand back up north....
Everything seems to be coming together rather nicely. Our editor is working really hard on a rather popular BBC 2 programme at the moment, which has already begun broadcast, so he's already working around the clock, but the star that he is, we should have some rushes on DVD soon.
Though Mike has asked that I don't upload any images onto the Internet until the film is nearing completion, But trust me. It's all very good. I'm so excited I could Piss my pants.
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