There is no way my film will be finished in time for the early deadline of the Raindance Film Festival (June 15th). The film will be ready by July, as the sound guys all have commitments also. It's a real shame, but there are other festivals we can go for later this year, and we're most likely eligible for Raindance 2005.

Anyway, good luck to any filmmakers who do have films entered into this year's Raindance film festival. Here is what the festival programmers are NOT looking for.

Today I finished my first week at my new job. It's pretty cool and right along the lines of where I want to take my career. I have met some really nice people over the last few days and am looking forward to getting back on track financially!

Tomorrow I am picking up the DAT sound from Ashleigh so I can begin laying over audio on Mnemosyne. Once I have this done I will have an idea of what ADR needs to be carried out. More updates soon...

I'm posting this mail from Steve Hoper (Composer on my film) on the off-chance anyone who has had a similar unresolved problem might be able to benefit:

Result !!! I've now got everything working perfectly thanks to a quick chat with Rob and a bit of noodling on the Cubase SX setup page. It turns out that you need to manually select the playback engine (DirectShow, Quicktime, or Video For Windows - it was previously set to Quicktime but is now set to DirectShow) before you can play movies of that type, but this fact isn't mentioned/filtered via the Import dialog box. SX will let you import any video file, but you won't necessarily be able to view it without tweaking the setup !

I recently had an unresolved problem myself: I couldn't get DVFilmmaker to work on any of my files, despite installing the latest version of quicktime. I kept getting DecompressImage Error, err# -2003. I just reinstalled QuickTime (Full Install) and now it all works fine. I guess the Minimal installation isn't enough!

Just a quick update on how things are going with the film ...

Due to some codec problem, Steve and Rob were unable to view the film properly. Rob then did a bit of research, and found the following utility (http://www.headbands.com/gspot/) which will analyse a video and let you know which codecs are required to play it.

Steve is still having problems importing it into Cubase, but hopefully that will be sorted soon. The plan overall is that Steve (Music) and Ashleigh (Foley) will finish their jobs by mid/late May, and then Rob and I will mix everything down in June. I'm not worrying about trying to meet the early deadline for Raindance now - the film will take as long as it takes - I will not compromise the overall quality.

I want to use DVFilmmaker to deinterlace my film, but I keep getting these weird error messages when trying to run the software on any AVI file, so I have given up and will have to get Hak or someone else to run it on their machine. In retrospect I should have shot the film in Progressive Scan. I didn't because I was worried I would lose resolution, but I will anyway by deinterlacing, so in retrospect that was a pretty dumb thing to have done. You live and learn!

In other news, I met up with my lead actor from Mnemosyne, Gareth Howells, today to knock around some ideas for the next short. I have decided to shoot one more short before I shoot my feature and will use the film as a test bed for Panasonic DVX-100. All I know right now is that it will be epic in scope, and will be around 40 minutes long. We'll shoot it in the States and the UK, but the budget will be capped at £1,500. Gareth also has seen the picture lock of Mnemosyne, and he said as it stands (i.e. no sound except for camcorder dialogue) it is better than the other two films he did last year which are not only finished with full sound, but also were funded and produced within prestigious film schools. Result!

The picture lock finally went out to the co-producers and sound guys today in the mail. James Marshall also got a chance to check out the film - he said that currently the film is about a 6/10 on his scale, but when the film is finished with music and sound it has the potential to be a 9/10. He was happy with the shot compositions, story telling, direction, and acting. I can now forget about Mnemosyne for a bit and go back to working on my script for my feature. No rest for the wicked.

I also got to see Dawn Of The Dead (DOTD) and Shaun Of The Dead (SOTD) yesterday in an all-out Zombie-Fest at Rochester UGC. The Americans will absolutely adore SOTD as it represents England so well. The only difference is that instead of moroding zombies, we have drug addicts and drunks roaming the streets. Overall, SOTD was very good, but kinda fell down at the end once they made it to the pub. The big surprise of the day was DOTD - absolutely amazing and not what I had expected. The way the film was shot rivalled the DPing in The Ring. I also liked the new additions, whereby survivors of the zombie outbreak communicate on building rooftops via binoculars and giant boards which they write messages to each other on. A really neat way of forming post-apocalyptic friendships.

I was just running my daily check of Aint It Cool News and found some really cool reviews of the new British Horror Comedy "Shaun Of The Dead". One review in particular really grabbed my attention. It was by someone called "Hitchcock's Hamster" and began with an honest appraisal of the British Film Industry. I couldn't have put it better myself..

The British film industry has been in something of a rut for decades now. This is a shame as there is creative talent over here by the bucketload, but there is a total lack of feature film funding. Instead we are too often the studio for American films looking for facilities, but with the rise of Australia and New Zealand in the wake of 'The Matrix' and 'Lord of The Rings' even that seems to be threatened. British directors get the hell out and decamp as soon as they can to foreign lands and financing - which is a real fucking shame because the remaining output has become stale.

There are three types of formulaic movie we turn out:

1. The low budget gangster film
2. The kitchen sink drama
3. The feel good comedy

Today I finished off Mnemosyne in the morning, and then sold my camera to a fellow SimplyDV BB member by the name of Graham. I worked out my loss on the camera, and also had to add £70 which is what it cost me to have my DAT tapes dubbed to WAV format. The final cost of my film is:

MNEMOSYNE COST
Item	Cost
Loss On Canon XM2	£450
DAT Tape Dubbing	£70
Total to date:	£1900

Graham also had the opportunity to watch the final version of Mnemosyne. I have held off sending it to the sound team, as I wanted to get it as good as possible. The version I have now is likely to be the finished version, and Graham was definitely impressed. He said for an 18 minute film, it felt like 10 minutes (always a good sign). At no point did he feel bored, and he said he was intrigued for the entire duration of the film as it kept him guessing all the way to the end.

I am very pleased with the film and the way it is looking, but some of the finer touches probably wouldn't have happened without Hak continually pestering me to strive for higher standards. Overall his contributions to the producing and editing of this film have been invaluable, and I hope I can return the favour when I work on his feature in 2005.

Back in 2001, only two people on the internet were talking about the Panasonic DVX-100 and how it would revolutionize independant film: Scott from pixelmonger, and myself. I saw an article about a new film from InDigEnt on the BBC website not so long ago and thought I'd post the link. The film is called November and wa shot with the panny! Even better, it won the cinematography award at Sundance this year. Read more here.

Today my friend Sean nipped over. He said that he'd watch Mnemosyne and give me a very realistic and honest appraisal of the film. "If it's shit, I'll tell you" he said. I love brutal honesty. When Jeff Povey first critiqued my scripts he thought I might not ever speak to him again. Criticism is good, so long as you know when to leave it and when to take it. Sean not only gives honest feedback, but he also was a great candidate to review the film as he is part of my target audience (loves films that challenge you to decipher them and provoke thought), and also knew nothing about the film.

Sean watched Mnemosyne, accompanied by my running commentary of what sounds would be present. He said overall the film was worth 7/10 as a short. He felt that when the sound and music was added, it could be considerably better. He liked the fact that the idea was new ground that was untried by any other filmmaker, and also liked the similarities to related films such as Mulholland Drive, Memento, Fight Club, etc.

I added a new ending and beginning to the film, and both were well received by Sean. I thought I might be giving too much away with the new beginning, but he said the film would not have held people's attention without it, as it lays down a puzzle and says "Solve me". Without this, the film could be interpeted as a standard short 'gone wrong'!

My biggest concern with the film was its pacing. I thought it was perfectly paced, but sometimes I tend to exist in my own world. Sean said that the film is not 'your typical short film'. He said that it is more of a lynchian piece about isolation, and due to this, it would have been rubbish if it had been jazzed up in any way. This was a big relief to me. He went on to compare the pacing to Lynch's 'Straight Story' which was EXACTLY the pace I was aiming for. He noted that although he was able to understand Mnemosyne when it had concluded, there was one element that had left him still bemused. We discussed this with Hak, and I am now going to change one part of the film ever so slightly to accomodate this. I am very pleased - the film is flowing much better than the previous version which I had declared as my 'cautious picture lock'.

Everybody who has seen the trailer for film thus far, has written to the website and used one common word: "Lynchian". A lot of filmmakers may drop their heads at the thought of being compared to lynch. His films normally have unusual narratives, are difficult to understand, and the majority of people and critics have the belief "I don't understand it, therefore it is shite".

But this is what Mnemosyne is all about. A lot of people are tired of unchallenging movies, so now they are being given something to chew on. My brother saw Mnemosyne for the first time yesterday (This is the picture lock) and said I needed to drop the ending as it explained too much! Hak also said the same thing. This means the film will be even more inpenetrable. But I kinda like what they both mentioned. The film is less sentimental, but much darker with the new ending. Over the next few weeks I will be showing the picture lock to various people, and it is always an hilarious event, as I have to give a running commentary. Without sound the film is just like a sequence of dream imagery, so I have had to explain what sounds are present, and when they are present, so people can make an informed judgement on the movie. The sound guys are going to look over the edit in a few days (I am sending S-VCDs to them tomorrow) - I'll know then if anything needs to be changed. Some of the longer shots may be cut down, and the coloration needs to be fiddled with some more, but overall things are looking more positive.

Today I took my external 60gig Firewire drive to Hak's, and backed up the entire film and capture to his computer. We burned off a few S-VCDs for the sound guys, but I am still hesitant to call the film a picture-lock. The problem I am having is that I have watched the film so much over the last few months that it's losing its effect on me. I've realised the only way to work out what truly works, and what truly doesn't work, is for me to take some time off from the film. I am thus gonna chill for a bit, and edit a friend's wedding. Then I will come back to it fresh in a few weeks.

A number of close friends have agreed to look the film over, and provide feedback. I have made sure I have chosen people who have no idea what the film is about, as I want to ensure the impact is maximised when the revelation is revealed at the end of the film. It's also really hard to judge the film when it has no sound other than dialogue. I'm sure the music, foley and sound design will transform it. Still, I am very cautious now...

I thought today was a bit over-eventful when one of my friends announced his engagement was called off to his long-term girlfriend. Then one of my friends announced she had fallen pregnant and was in a right old state as she couldn't tell her family. Then a few minutes ago, James Marshall revealed to me that he had developed melignant melanoma, and that he might die before he got to make his first film. I can't believe it didn't even occur to me it was April Fools Day.

In film related news, I finished the picture-lock last night, but still need to tighten a few bits up, so I am looking at finishing them off this evening and tomorrow morning.

I imported all the various pojects today and locked them together, ironing out the creases that I could see. I spent most of the day working with the film's coloraton, so that all the various shots matched up nicely. The film is now 16 minutes long. I need to add on the climax, and the beginning and end credits. I hope to have this done by the end of tomorrow, but it will probably not be finished until Friday 02-Apr-04, as I know I will keep fiddling, and constantly trying to improve it. Overall it looks like it will end up being about 20 minutes long.

The teaser trailer is finally online for Mnemosyne. The file is 2.2 megabytes but even for dial-up users, this should still come down pretty quick! I will add a more substantial trailer around May or June. Hope you all enjoy it and are looking forward to the film. Any feedback, please e-mail me.

The first full 6 minutes of Mnemosyne are now edited. The 5 minutes after that have also been edited (back in November), so all I have to do is link the bits together, tighten a few things up, and I will be able to hand things over to Rob, Ashliegh and Steve. The feedback has been very good. People have waited patiently for a long time, so I am glad that we are now closing in on the finished product.

My prediction is that the sound guys will work through April and May on the sound. I should have any ADR cleared up within April without any hassle. This means we should have a festival-ready film by early June.

My personal feelings on this picture lock, are simply that it has exceeded all expectations. The sense of isolation, the mood, the lighting ... it's come together very well; my hat goes off to my crew who worked so hard on this film for me. Over confidence is dangerous at this point, however, as the sound and music has yet to go on. People have said to me lately: if the sound is as good as the visuals, you've got a winner on your hands. I believe in the talent of my sound team, and am looking forward to hearing the results.

The editing is going really well for Mnemosyne. I finished the first three and a half minutes yesterday - I can't get over how fast I am editing. Even my computer is behaving itself and not crashing on me! I only have a few scenes left to edit; soon we will be at picture-lock. Stuart, one of my co-producers, saw the results and was blown away by the lighting and composition of the film. He said now it is really down to the sound guys to come through for us. There is no doubt in my mind that Stephen Hoper will put his stamp on the movie in much the same way Michael Andrews did when he scored the music to Donnie Darko. I should have a trailer up soon at this rate!

I have spent the last few days working on moving my feature film into second draft. My writing partner, James Marshall, has been working with me flat out. The coming week is a big week, though. I will actually finish the rough cut of Mnemosyne and have it ready for my sound guys.

I have accepted a job offer and all things being equal should be back in work again. My new job is likely to be very demanding, so I am thus getting Mnemosyne finished ASAP.

The official site for my film Mnemosyne has been launched today. It has a full production diary, synopsis and cast and crew information. I will be revamping it in a week or two, to add sections for the teaser trailer, publicity material and so forth.

It's been a very busy day. I spent most of the day working on Hakan's website budgetfilmmaker.com, and also marked up the interview with Shane Carruth into HTML. You can access the interview here.

I woke up at 6am today to call Shane Carruth and interview him about his film Primer. Shane is a really nice chap, and even offered to move the interview from 10pm Dallas time to midnight, so I could get a few hours extra sleep, being 6 hours ahead here in England. As it was the first interview I have ever done via telephone, the resulting structure will be significantly different to other interviews on this site; this is because new questions popped up, and follow-on questions were added at "run time" (Couldn't resist some programming jargon - Shane, incidentally, was a C++ programmer before he made Primer!). Shane is editing the interview as I write this. When it is ready, it will appear here.

In other news, there have been many strong developments on the job front. I've got to second interview on a number of job applications, and even had one offer to work as a C# developer for big money. I am going to spend the coming week weighing up my options, instead of being pressured into making a decision (which one of the agents are trying to do to me). After all, the decision I make now will affect me for the next 3 or 4 years - it's not as simple as choosing a pizza. But it's all good anyway, as I can finally get back into my 9-5 work and start putting money away for a feature. More news to follow.

My apologies for the lack of updates over the last three weeks. I've been busy going for job interviews and learning new programming skills. I took a risk installing a lot of database and programming software on my PC, and although it's not sitting alongside the editing software perfectly, it's workable, although only just!

Anyway, some nice updates! First off, Hakan befriended a talented composer recently by the name of Ashleigh Ivil. He has taken my DAT tapes and is going to burn them off as WAV files for me for a very reasonable price.

Secondly, the stills photos from Mnemosyne are going to appear in a new book on low-cost digital filmmaking published by SyBex. Julian and Hak will send the photos off this week. I believe the book goes into publication within the next few months.

Finally, I spent all of yesterday working on the official website for Mnemosyne. I will provide a link to its URL when I launch it in a week's time. A few people have mailed the site asking when Mnemosyne will be ready. I have told most people that May is when I predict, but June is the absolute deadline.

I flew back on 7th Feb and got to see Lost In Translation amd Master and Commander again on the plane (at last - good films for the flight!). Since then I have begun work on finishing the rough edit for my composer and sound guy. Coming back and viewing my previous edits with a fresh perspective has really helped me realise which areas needed attention. I have not digitised any new footage - it's all been work on existing clips, but I'll be ready for the new stuff soon. Other than that I've been working hard trying to get a new job.

I finished up my holiday here in the USA with one last film - Lost In Translation. What can I say? I don't think I was watching the same movie that almost everyone I know branded 'distinctly average'. The film was perfectly written, perfectly directed, perfectly acted and perfectly photographed. I have not enjoyed a film so much since seeing Vanilla Sky. One special mention must go to the dialogue in this film - it's so realistic it's as if Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson aren't even acting. I normaly sit stone-faced through most so-called 'comedies', but this had me laughing out loud many-a-time. It's such a shame that Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy climaxed this year. On any other year in recent memory, Coppola would have won Best Director at the Oscars.

My stay here in the US is nearly over. It has been the time of introspection and rest that I dearly needed. Before, when I was back in the UK at my old job, I was sick all the time, run down all the time, and pretty uninspired. This holiday has made me realise that I actually enjoy programming (for a while there I thought I hated it and was considering a 9-5 career change!). Everyone here has been sick, either with the flu, or heavy colds. I, however, have not succumbed to illness. I feel better than I have ever felt, healthier than I have ever been, and am now ready to get back to the UK and continue this project with more vigour than ever.

There have been a few developments in the last week. Firstly, Shane Carruth, who shot his Sundance winner, Primer for only $7,000 has agreed to do an interview for the site. Secondly, Steve Ayson, director of one of my favourite short films ever - The French Doors - e-mailed the site and announced plans to make a feature length version of the film. Finally, Jeffery Lando, writer/director of Savage Island has also agreed to do an interview on selling an independant film. He recently secured US rights + Amazon.Com have agreed to sell his movie. I will tackle the interviews when I am back in the UK.

I finally got round to seeing The Butterfly Effect at long last. The critics gave it a good old slating, but in my opinion it was actually a pretty good film. Like most of these films with complicated/unusual narratives, there are plot holes. But even Memento had some pretty big ones too, so I'm not going to pull this film down for that. Overall, it was incredibly enjoyable and left my head spinning when I exited the theatre. The only half-decent review of this film (and the only review that didn't slate it for that matter) was by James Berardinelli who actually said it was pretty good. Make up your own minds, but I suspect this movie got low marks because 1) Reviewers don't like Ashton Kutcher (Non-US readers: Some kid who's well known in the US and suffering from being a tad typecast), and 2) Mulholland Drive Syndrome (MDS) among critics. As this film was actualy quite easy to comprehend, I'll guess it was the former, although I never cease to be amazed by some of the most simple films that give critics MDS (Vanilla Sky, Identity!).