Apologies to everyone who tried unsuccessfully to get to the site today - the servers were doen for a 'routine upgrade' that took 12 hours longer than expected. Never-the-less, here is Mnemosyne - it's a 30 meg file. All users should right click and 'save target as'. Enjoy!

Also - it's a double whamy! Hak has also completed his 'Halloween Film Challenge' film today. Click here to view his diary of the film and view the movie.

Today I added the special effects into the visual part of the film, while my brother, Geoff, downloaded the completed soundtrack. I was not 100% happy with the mix that went to Clermont-Ferrand, so I asked for some changes, which were completed late last week, and uploaded yesterday by Rob.

Of the test screenings, the biggest criticism was the car crash scene. This now features effects so that the car actually looks smashed up at the front. I also got a great sound off of a copyright free sound CD I bought from Time+Space entitled 'Distorted Reality'. I gave this to Rob to add into the car scene to highten the panic which many test screeners felt was absent. As I write this, my brother is using his monster of a PC to burn some DVDs and web-ready video. I will check everything tomorrow morning to ensure I am happy (including a proper screening with a projector as well as DVD and web). There is still time to make some tweaks, but as long as my instincts were correct regarding the changes I gave to Rob, the film will be finished!

Hakan, who runs BudgetFilmMaker.Com sent me an e-mail telling me about a short film he is making on the run up to Halloween. He is documenting everything from the idea to the storyboard to the shotlist to the final cut. I am very impressed, as I was going to do something siimilar last year but we never got round to it. Follow his progress here.

Regarding Mnemosyne, there has been another development. I found out that the music used in the original Dawn Of The Dead film (the shopping mall music) is in fact a public domain piece of music called 'The Gonk'. I have had Rob put it in the Doctors Surgery scene to test out if it worked. It is almost comical, and the complete opposite to the music currently in there which is just plain 'weird'. I am not sure if we will use it, but Rob will send me an MP3 so I can evaluate how it sounds. It would be nice to have such an obvious Dawn Of The Dead/Romero homage in the film, but let's see how it sounds first!

The weekend was quite productive. My Frank costume is finished - it's a pretty crude version of the one from Donnie Darko, but it looks very evil!

Rob will have the new, improved soundtrack ready for Mnemosyne by late this week. I'm taking it to my brother's house on Saturday 30-Oct-04 for its final render. It will then stream from halloween night onwards.

This weekend I am going to be putting the finishing touches to my 'Frank' costume for my work's halloween ball. I tried to get a workmate a copy of Frank The Bunny's picture today, and ended up coming across this great article entitled: Donnie Darko: Fear and loathing in an Alternative Dimension. It's pretty good.

I just heard from my service provider, that MakingTheFilm.Com may be down on halloween because of some important server upgrades. It is important everyone is aware of this, because that is the day I intend to start streaming the film over the web. The company said the site should only be down for 2 hours, but I work in IT and know there are always complications! If you cannot access the site on halloween, please try back on 01-Nov-04.

Also worth mentioning - I did a test screening of Mnemosyne yesterday to a work colleague, Marc, who is also interested in making films. He was originally considering using HD to shoot a film, but after seeing Mnemosyne he has said he would seriously consider shooting on miniDV. He had a few minor criticisms of the film, which were exactly aligned with the changes I have asked Rob to make. Overall, he really liked it. I had big reservations about showing it, as it is not the final version, but Marc reminded me that I have seen it a thousand times, and to a first time viewer the things I have been over-critical on go by almost unnoticed.

There have been other test screenings. Most went well, but one response was 'The story just didn't work' and 'the pacing was too slow for the first half of the movie' so it is not all 100% positive, but you can't please everyone.

One final piece of news: the excellent production stills taken by director, Julian Nemwan-Turner have been published in the book Make Your Own Hollywood Movie. It is now available all over the UK and the US. I will get to see them on the weekend as a copy of the book is waiting for me in Chatham.

I sent out a list of final changes to Rob Whittaker today - there were eleven of them, with six being very simple such as increasing/decreasing/moving sounds. I also have made a list up of visual changes that need to be made. One of which is the insertion of a special effect for the car crash scene. I've always been against the use of special effects in low-budget films, because they often end up looking tacky, but this effect is something very simple, and the DVD of Mnemosyne will feature a full video tutorial on how I achieved it.

I finally got to see Mnemosyne on both the big screen (projected) and on DVD today. The picture quality stunned me, as I have been used to seeing the AVI and MPEG2 files. Visualy, Mark Jeavons and Kevin Gates have done a great job; as for the sound, Rob Whittaker's mix is really, really good. I still have one or two adjustments to make from the version we sent to Clermont-Ferrand, but overall, the film is 99% there. I am very close to being able to announce the project as completed. Also, I have been doing nothing over the last few months except talk about how I have ben 'blown away' by various facets of the film. But of course I'd say that, wouldn't I? It's time to let the film speak for itself. Check back at the site on Halloween and make your own mind up :)

I received an invitation today from the British Fantasy Society to screen Mnemosyne in the upcoming FantasyCom. It was very flattering to receive such an offer, and I am looking forward to meeting lots of film fanatics there and consuming vast amounts of alcohol.

In other news, Mnemosyne was sent to Clermont-Ferrand today. A press pack will appear shortly on the website. I have great confidence in my movie, but also great respect for the huge number of very talented filmmakers out there who will also be entering. I thus am going in with the attitude that my film play at the film market, and anything on top (i.e. Clermont-Ferrand official selection) will be a bonus. The following materails were submitted, which may be of interest to any new filmmakers out there, toying with the idea of taking their films around festivals:

• Film Still
• Film Poster
• Film Synopsis
• Director's Photo
• Dialogue Document
• Director's Bio

I am very pleased with the preview tape that has gone off to Clermont-Ferrand, but I still want to tweak the film a little in certain places. The new soundtrack by Rob Whittaker, incidentlly, is really cool - he said he feels he has been able to put his stamp on it, and I really liked the end results. He worked his ass off over my two week holiday to ensure everything was ready for when I got back. Kudos to him for the work and the end result. The first screening of Mnemosyne will be in Leeds on 27-Oct-04 to a small group of workmates. Then on Halloween I will take it to Gillingham to play at a friend's house (Kevin Barraclough - the guy with the hammer in Origins). As the evening draws on I will then enable the film for streaming to broadband users.

This evening two people really came through for me: my brother, Geoff, and my workmate, Stefanie Roll. Stefanie nipped over to the flat and managed the unthinkable - to actually get a half-decent picture of me for the director's photo needed for film festivals. My brother then helped with lots of things, from the poster (Paint Shop Pro was being a real asshole on my laptop, crashing when I asked for a simple resize) all the way to helping log the dialogue in the film, as transcripts are required for some festivals who may wish to provide translations on headsets, etc. Their help was absolutely vital. Lessons learned from all of this: check the festival deadlines well in advance so you don't end up running around like a headless chicken in Michael Bartlett style. Kevin Gates must be turning in his grave!

After coming back from the states, I worked hard to get the visual part of the film finished, including inserting missing shots, digitally removing birds and flies, and altering the coloration of some shots. Rob sent the sound to my brother via broadband, and I then dropped the edit to him yesterday evening. Today my brother will burn up a DVD to send to Clermont-Ferrand. The forms are causing me some problems, but hopefully we can resolve it by the evening. My body clock has spun out of control and I have not slept in over 24 hours, but hopefully adrenaline will see me through!

I've been in my new job almost half a month now, so it was good to finally leave the UK and have a proper vacation. I'm back in Missouri right now, spending time with my fiancee. I've brought my laptop incase I have any flashes of inspiration, but hopefully I won't need to use it!

I heard from Rob over e-mail; he got the ADR that I was forced to record myself with Giles (Dr Jennings) and he said it wasn't very good. Rob said we might be able to do something with it, so I am keepin my fingers crossed. We must have this film off to Clermont-Ferrand by 11-Oct-04

In other news, I had an e-mail back from Adam Wilt regarding the new Sony HDR-FX1 camera:

> Quick question - what do you make of the Sony HDR-FX1 for use in > independent filmmaking?

Hard to say until I can do a controlled test, but it looks very interesting and well worth considering. I looked at the pro version (HDV/DVCAM, XLRs, black body instead of gray) at IBC and it seemed very nice, and the pix looked fabulous both on the Sony 720p plasma in the Sony booth and on a JVC 1080i CRT in the Canopus booth. The CCDs however are only 960 pixels wide, so the horizontal res isn't hugely better than, say, the DVX100 with anamorphic, and depending on how the Cineframe24 is done (couldn't tell during my limited hands-on) the vertical resolution in a filmout may not be hugely improved over a true progressive SDTV capture (DVX100 @ 24p). Having said all that the raw and off-tape images were stunning in terms of detail (and the pix didn't show any noticeable compression losses). I look forward to getting one in for a proper review and doing a side-by side with the DVX100, both uprezzing the DVX100A footage and downrezzing the FX1 footage.

I won't publish any more updates until mid-October, when I am back in the UK.

Last night my brother downloaded the trial version of Vegas Video and played around with its deinterlacing abilities. He said the results were very sharp which bodes well. I have heard on various messageboards that Vegas has the best deinterlacing around (outside the over-priced Magic Bullet) and gives DVFilmmaker a run for its money. I will check the results when I get back to Chatham tonight or tomorrow, and may consider purchasing it over DVFilmmaker.

Today is my last day at work before I go on holiday, so I am in a very good mood ;) I am looking forward to getting back to Chatham so that I can make the final adjustments before I fly out. I have the following left to do:

• Add Credits
• Paint Out Birds
• Insert Missing Shots

Yeah, that's the only word to describe the last weekend. It started on Friday evening. A three hour journey to Telford to work on the mix with Rob. Then Saturday evening, a five hour journey back to Chatham. Sunday morning I had the AKG C1000 mic picked up from Stewart Taylor, and then had a three hour return journey to West Hampstead to record Giles' ADR.

Giles' ADR was very difficult to do, as all he had was a laptop and no speakers. Luckily I have been taking my mp3 player everywhere with me recently as I have been playing the new Prodigy album to death, which is actually starting to grow on me. I thus was able to use my earphones to monitor the sound. We downloaded Goldwave, a free sound capture and editing utility, and wrapped up the lines in about an hour and a half. Oh yes - and to finish the weekend off, I then had a four hour journey back to Leeds, which is where I am now!! It was a very exhausting weekend that has left me with chronic back pain from all the train journeys.

But the total travelling time of 15 hours, plus all the work that went with it was well worth it. I am pleased with the ADR for Giles, which went to Rob this morning, and the mix session in Telford saw the film nearly completed. I gave rob a list of about 12 things that are still outstanding, and he said he will sort them while I am on holiday. I fly out to the states this Thursday, 23-Sep-04.

I was out watching Open Water again last night, and received a text from Steve Hoper to say that the music for Mnemosyne had been completed. After a quick beer in Revolutions, Leeds, I headed home, downloaded the mp3, laid it over the MPEG of the film and watched with baited breath.

My first impression was really bad, and I found myself switching between using and not using earphones, and between laying in the foley/dialog and having the film silent with only music. After a few watches I noticed it was growing on me. I sat there religiously, playing the film over and over again. Before I knew it, I was really loving the score. By the time I had dissected it to the point where I knew the changes, I had decided it was virtually perfect. There are only two changes for Steve Hoper to make and they are so minor he could make them with his hands tied in under 2 minutes!

I didn't have much sleep due to the excitement at the film's score. Eventually I got into work (Thank God it's Friday) and then had an e-mail from a colleague, pointing me at a review for the Sony HDR-FX1 which I had noticed before on simplydv.com.

Last night I sat down and listened to the first 13 minutes of Steve Hoper's score for Mnemosyne. It was the most nervous moment of the production since the first day's shoot. I listened to the score over and over again for about an hour and a half. The music, if you excuse my language, is one serious head-fu*k. When teamed up with visuals you are left with an incredibly overwheling monster. It is starting to remind me of one of those weird films you'd see on Channel 4 late at night, and it will definitely give kids nightmaares, there is no doubt in my mind. Stewart Taylor from The Theme Team even went as far as to describe the film as a horror movie! There are a number of changes I requested Steve Hoper to investigate for me, but overall I am over the moon with the score. The feeling of isolation in the film is so thick, I find it almost depressing, if not moving.

Last night one of the girls from my company came over to borrow Donnie Darko and I showed it to her and she was blown away. She also fell in love with the colors, describing them as amazing. Mark Jeavons (My DoP) will be pleased. I can't wait to start taking this picture round the festival circuit! ;)

Okay - so it's no secret that I love films all about reality and the human mind. Vanilla Sky, Jacob's Ladder, Memento, Fight Club, Brazil, etc. Mnemosyne is almost a cross between the whole lot. Well now there are two more films on their way out like this. The first is due here in the UK soon, and is called Trauma. Apparently it has an entire sequence taken from Jacob's Ladder, so I am worried it might turn out to be a big rip-off, but I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

The second film on its way is The Machinist which looks much more promising. The lead actor, Christian Bale from American Psycho lost a third of his body weight for the role!! This film has been compared to Fight Club and looks very, very good. A contact of mine e-mailed me today to tell me about it from The Toronto Film Festival. Speaking of Fight Club, I heard the makers of Dawn Of The Dead 2004 added a subliminal frame into the ending credits from the Paris Hilton video. :/

I saw Open Water today and loved it. Admittedly it did drag in places, but overall I thought it was very well done, especially for a low-budget indie movie shot on a PD150. Check out the following interview with the director.

After I got back I began work on the end credits for Mnemosyne. In a week's time I will have a virtually finished version to show people! Tomorrow I should get to hear what Steve Hoper has come up with for the music! It feels good to be into closing stages at last :)

Today Gareth Howells and Scott Ainslie had their ADR session at Stewart Taylor's studio in Gravesend. The session lasted from about 11am to 4pm, and we managed to cover everything comfortably. Scott hadn't been too pleased with his performance, but on watching it back was much more positive.

After the ADR was over, Gareth and myself went for a quick pint to discuss the new 'shoestring budget' feature; I have decided that I would like him to play one of the leads. Next Saturday I will be in Telford to mix down the dialogue and music with Rob, and with thus have a virtually finished film; Giles' ADR is all that will be missing, and that should go in the week after (Rob will lay it down while I am on holiday). Once that is mixed down, Rob will send me the finished soundtrack. I will then burn the DVD and VHS on 10-Oct-04, and mail it to Clermont-Ferrand. Of course, this is only the plan - what will really happen is anyone's guess. Nothing surprises me about this film anymore!

I came up with an idea for a feature film recently that - unlike my other features - could be shot on a shoestring budget. The film probably is the most commercially viable film idea I have come up with so far and that's an important thing, as this industry is about making money after all.

A work colleague, Alan Treston, has been working with me for the last few days on developing the idea. Today, over lunch, he had a stroke of genius regarding the plot. The two of us are going to work really hard to hammer something out soon. I am keeping this idea under my hat for now, but the good news is we could start shooting as early as November/December. It won't be the 'film' that this makingthefilm.com project is leading to, but will make a substantial contribution to this site never-the-less.

Today was an interesting day, and has given me a lot to think about. It started when Steve Hoper, the composer for my film, e-mailed me to say he was having some difficulties with the score. I have included an edited version:

I'm now working on the score almost full time, but I'm having more than a few headaches in terms of being happy with the way it's going - on Monday I binned most of it (for the second time) and started again from scratch. I went to a workshop with David Arnold (Bond composer) yesterday morning, which was excellent - very inspirational. I was relieved to hear him say that he frequently rescores a film time and time again if he feels it's not coming together, and that some of his most famous scores were written during the week before the deadline.

I then had a text from my lead actor, Gareth Howells, who had received a copy of the film with dialogue guide tracks to prepare him for the ADR. He said he loved it, but it totally lost his wife. He said she thought it was easily the best film he had been in yet (and this is a version without music!) but didn't get it when it had ended. There is a 'revelation' at the end of the film, but it doesn't give away too much. I like the idea of not giving away too much so that the film sparks debate, but I don't want to alienate my audience. I realise now that I need to do a number of test screenings. It is quite a worrying time for me, but just as I believe Steve Hoper will sort the score out, I believe we will wind up with the best version of the film. I have supreme confidence in that.

I found out today that the deadline for submissions to the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival is October 15th. I got into a panick, as everything on the film was scheduled to be wrapped up on 18/19 September - with the exception of Giles' ADR which was not scheduled until 23 October!! I thus got into a frantic exchange of e-mails and telephone calls with Giles who is out in Berlin and Stewart, whose studio is required for the ADR. Unfortunately I was unable to move the ADR session any closer, so now I am going to have to do it myself. The session on 11-Sep-04 will hopefully give me enough exposure to know what I am doing. This is crazy, but there is no other way.

I have always had a fascination with Clermont-Ferrand. Even if we do not make it into the film festival, I know that the film market is the largest in the world for short films, and thus want to make sure we have a stab. Because of the prestige, this is a film festival I almost expect to get rejected from, but believe firmly in trying - otherwise you'll never know. I really like the philosophy of the film festival too, as it doesn't cost money to enter, which is the way it should be for short films by up-and-coming directors.

In other news, a friend of mine who is based in the USA has been asking me recently to help him find available scholarhips as he wishes to go to filmschool. During my research I found the follwoing links. I am posting them as they may be of use to other readers:

• Choosing a Film School
• Scholarships.Com
• FinAid

I spoke to Giles today who was out in Berlin. He is okay to do his ADR on 23-Oct-04. That will pretty much be the last thing done on this film, as everything else wil be mixed by then. Today I put the dialogue guide tracks in for the ADR. I then burned the film onto CD and will mail it out to the actors tomorrow morning so they can study it in preparation.

My speakers at home are so bad I have no idea if the sound from the boom is okay or not. I thus have chopped out the correct segments and will take them to Rob's on 18-Sep-04 to mix down. I will have to thus ADR all dialogue next weekend just to be safe.

Today Kevin gates and I were out in Letchworth Garden City at 6am, gathering the last of the shots for Mnemosyne using his Sony VX-2000. Kev did all the camerawork, while I ran around trying to clear off pigeons who were trying to make cameos. In the final edit of Mnemosyne, I have got a number of placeholder shots, which are essentially reused shots of the deserted city. I can now replace them.

There are only a few things now left to do on the film. In order, these are:

1. Sync dialogue from DAT tapes - 30 Aug, 4/5 Sep
2. Send soundtrack to actors for ADR - 5 Sep
3. ADR Session #1 (Gareth, Scott) - 11 Sep
4. Music Mix Session - 18/19 Sep
5. ADR Session #2 (Giles) - Date Unknown

I originally booked a holiday from 23 Sep to go to the USA, but due to the timing of this vacation, and my manager's vacations, I have still not had it approved. Thus, I might movie it to October and see if we can get Giles in for the end of September for his ADR session.

I posted a new interbiew today with horror director, Jeff Lando. His film, Savage Island was recently acquired for international distribution. In this interview, Jeff talks to us about the making of his film, and the issues at hand when trying to get your movie distributed.

I finally got round to adding a forum for the website. I should have done this ages ago. Anyway, click here to access it.

Today I travelled to Lewes in Sussex to meet with composer, Ashleigh Ivil and my co-producer, Hakan Besim. I showed them both the current version of Mnemosyne which is basically the finished film minus music. They were both really impressed, and Hak was pleased with himself that he pestered me to keep on striving to better the edit. Hak will probably end up as one of those guys selling motivational life coaching videos on late-night infomercials!

I spent this weekend in Telford working with Rob Whittaker on the first mix session for Mnemosyne. The mix session was absolutely brilliant. We took the foley that Stewart Taylor from The Theme Team had created for us, and really screwed around with it, creating a beautiful palette of sounds that work really, really well. Rob is an incredible person to work with - the speed and meticulous nature in which he works are truly remarkable. After two long days we now have about 95% of the sound design done. Interestingly enough, we spent over an hour on one sound!

I now have a week off of work that trails onto the bank holiday. During this vacation time I plan to get a bit more work done on my feature script. Quiddity is on hold for the moment, just like my previous feature. I seem to keep jumping around from idea to idea. I hope to settle on something soon, and then write it with passion, just as with Mnemosyne.

I also have some technical articles to write on Artificial Intelligence for a web journal, and in addition will take some time to visit Ashleigh Ivil (the other half of The Theme Team) and also sync up the dialogue for Mnemosyne. There was a misunderstanding between Rob and myself whereby I thought he would sync up the dialogue, and he thought I would. It's probably best that I do this though - Kevin Gates did all the sound design/foley/lip syncing in his film and stressed to me that it is good experience to gain.

Today the new album comes out from The Prodigy entitled "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned". I have been waiting for this album for over 7 years, so I will begin the weekend with a great soundtrack to spur me on!

The final piece of news is that the interview questions have been dispatched to both Kevin Gates and Jeff Lando, two directors who recently shot horror feature films on DV. I hope to have them online within the next week.

Today I got to see Savage Island by Jeff Lando. The film won ManiaFest 2003, and was recently picked up for distribution. The next interview to appear on the site will be with Jeff, and will be centred around getting distribution and commercially viable films. I am pleased to say that Savage Island is the first decent horror film I have seen in ages, after a huge string of flops (Jeepers Creepers, Cabin Fever, etc). It was a riveting film shot on DV, and - interestingly enough - without any regard for the DV. Rather than try and make the movie look like film, Jeff and his team made the footage look as raw and grainy as possible. The entire film has no live sound (everything is ADRd). This made all the difference. In my short time making and watching DV films, I have come to learn that the tacky cheap feel that we associate with camcorders is actually based more on sound than look.

I got the edit finished today and ready to take to Rob Whittaker's house this weekend, where we will mix down the foley and dialogue. I managed to cram in a few films as well. Japanese Story and Bubba Ho-tep, both quality films, although Japanese Story was the far superior. I really liked the cinematography on Bubba Ho-tep, though. It had a certain warmth to it that really worked. I also have managed to get Gareth and Scott lined up for an ADR session on 11-Sep-04. Giles is not going to be in the country, so I might have to schedule him in for another day. I plan to travel to the states for the end of September/beginning of October, so we might have to do this when I get back. Hakan is going to work on the 'making of' featurette while I am in the states, so the launch of Mnemosyne will now be Halloween.

Today I travelled back to Chatham to polish off the edit of the film (Gamma tweaks, shot adjustment, etc). I met with fellow employees, Gana Nathan and Kyle Sparks, who expressed an interest in meeting me after my firm ran the article about me. Gana has previously acted in a feature film, whilst Kyle is keen to collaborate on a future project with me, seeing that he is an actor who is originally from Arkansas (Where I have been considering shooting Quiddity).

I have also come up with another feature film idea (This is always the way - no progress, then suddenly lots of feature ideas at once) that I feel is even better than Quiddity. I hope to settle on something soon, as I have some holiday the week after next, and it would be good to get some writing done.

On the way back to Chatham, I stopped off to visit Stewart Taylor at his studio in Gravesend. Stewart is one half of The Theme Team, his partner in crime being Ashleigh Ivil. The two of them have worked very hard on the foley for Mnemosyne, and I had a chance to hear the finished article. Overall I was very happy. Hearing the droning wind in the deserted towns for the first time was very, very cool. The sound felt so film-like and professional. It brought the film to life.

The full Foley for Mnemosyne is complete. Today I got an e-mail from Stewart Taylor, of The Theme Team:

Hi Mike glad to report I've completed the Foley and SFX for Mnemosyne, I've mixed to the formats you requested. I've done a total mix down which is obviously to my own taste therefore I've mixed this down to four individual tracks. This way you have an isolated copy of each sound. I have also produced a file of all the individual sounds in their raw state, before I edited them. You should have plenty of scope if you wish to change anything. I spent a total of £77.32 and have attached all receipts. I can give you the odd change when I see you next. Your more than welcome to pop over Saturday for a couple of hours to view what I've done and to pick up a copy of the files. Alternatively I can post them to you or leave them with Ash. I'll wait to here from you.

All the best

Stew

Obviously there could be tweaks here and there, but overall this is a huge chunk of the work out of the way. We are just waiting on Steve Hoper's music now, and the film will nearly be complete.

What will these university bods get paid to research next? I just found this hilarious article on the BBC Website, which explains how a mathematical formula has been conceived to calculate how scary a film is!

There have been some interesting developments on my 20 minute film, Mnemosyne. I have been trying to get everyone together for an ADR session in September. Right now it looks like I will go to Birmingham for August 21/22 to mix down the majority of the sound with Rob. Then, most likely, on September 10/11 there will be an ADR session at a studio in Gravesend, followed by a second mix session on September 18/19 in Birmingham. Steve Hoper is unlikely to have the music ready in time for the first mix session, so the second session will give us enough time to mix down the music and ADR.