Today James Fisher and I journeyed down to BBC Three Counties in Luton to do an interview on the Katherine Boyle show to promote the film. The interview went really well and was about 20 minutes in total. You can listen to the interview as a link off of the top right corner of this BBC News Feature on my involvement with the Zombie Diaries.

Kev has also been very busy with a number of interviews. Here is one with Journalist Matt Staggs.

I will put a new post up on the website in a few days with photos of the premiere. It's been a very long journey, but finally we are there. A finished film. :)

Today I met with John Harwood from Exposure TV to test out the new projector for the cinema showing. John was actually getting ready to launch his own film tomorrow, entitled Royston At War. The film is a 3 hour documentary looking at the people, activities and events that occurred in the North Hertfordshire town and the surrounding area during WWII.

After testing the projector, I suggested he should place some of his DVDs for sale in some of the local shops, as well as drop in some flyers. In one of the shops, I introduced him to another filmmaker, Sarah Davies, who has worked on the film Too Many Bullets, directed by Simon Fortescue, a filmmaker from Baldock. This film goes into editing soon and should be available next year. The film features our actor, Jonnie Hurn and also John's son!

That's a lot of film for such a small area. But there is more. Don't forget Matt Hope's film The Vanguard which I am sure will be a kick ass horror film, due out next year. There's certainly a lot of good work going on in the area.

The theatrical release of Zombie Diaries is finally confirmed. We have littered Letchworth with posters, are taking part in lots of radio interviews with local stations, and been given front page exposure in a local country newspaper. The Zombie Diaries opens on Sunday 29th October for a limited theatrical release. The tickets for the first showing can be bought at Broadway Cinema.

I was at HertBeat FM today to promote the film and explain how more and more people can make films using low-cost digital equipment. The publicity will be thick and strong for the next few weeks...

The publicity has been going very well for the film, with major interviews lined up over the next few weeks. The film made the front page of our local county newspaper, see the edition here.

Kevin and I also listened to the sound mix from Rob and it was absolutely awesome. We made a list of about 70 changes, although these were very specific, and will take the mix to being 'absolutely perfect'. I would recommend Rob Whitaker to anyone as a sound dsigner/mixer, and will certainly be calling on his services if I manage to get a fully funded project in the future. I have to say, him and Steve Hoper are a pair of bonafide geniuses.

Today I picked up the posters, flyers, etc for our forthcoming cinema screening of the film. Kev and I then worked on putting together the final pieces of paper work that need to be distributed. Rob got in contact to confirm he was making good progress on the score.

We are nearly there now. I will be contacing the press and TV this weekend, and hopefully the film will sell out. It has been given a provisional 18 rating which is exactly what we were looking for.

I took today off work and was able to accomplish a lot. Today I managed to get the final order in for posters and flyers to the printers. I met the landlady of the post-premiere drinks party to agree numbers and advertising. I burned a few bits off for Rob and put them in the post. I am hoping to have a finished film by Sunday 8th October.

Today Rob Whitaker, the sound designer and mixer on Mnemosyne, popped down from Telford to look at the film and take notes. We must have watched the film about 3 times, and Rob was able to give us a test screening as well as talk about the sound on a scene-by-scene basis. I have high hopes that he will turn around a terrific mix, despite the limited time we have left. My wife even said to me "Just get this damn film finished - this is starting to drag on" and I have to agree. Steve Hoper finishes the score at the end of the month, and Rob will be done by first week of October. More news to follow..

After the disaster of the CGI (Which Kev has now done himself and I must say looks great), Kev and I have had yet another set-back. The sound, which was being mixed by my friend Adam, was very poor - in-fact we can't use any of it. Adam had refused to give regular updates to Kev and I all the way through his 3 month mix session, and on hearing the results I think it is a shame, as a lot of unnecessary effort could have been saved.

Here are some quotes taken from earlier on in the project. Despite the second quote, Adam was unable to find 30 minutes of ADR and waited to tell me on the day I picked up the 'finished' sound.

• "As I said, it should be very straightforward - don't worry."
• "I will let you know well in advance of any problems or issues"

So now I have decided to pay Rob Whittaker to do a proper sound mix on the film. He mixed Mnemosyne for me and did a fantastic job. It takes the budget up by around 8% and is coming completely out of my pocket. Since Kev took on the extra CG work, I am more than happy to do this.

I think I have established a few golden rules of Post Production on low-to-no budget films:

1. People are less commited during post-production
2. If someone refuses to give regular updates or respond to communication, remove them from the project rather than hoping they will 'eventually get in touch with news of fabulous progress'
3. Be prepared to pay for work, or do it yourself, unless you get really lucky

Two quick pieces of news:

First up, my friend and filmmaking colleague, Hakan Besim, sent me a rough cut of his forthcoming film The Providence Tape.

It is looking very promising and should be a good spooky treat when finished. I have made some suggestions, but overall Hak is moving along nicely with it.

In other news, Hak is co-running his annual Halloween Challenge this year at film-club.co.uk. The full rules are explained on the website - check it out.

I am providing sponsorship this year - a few filmmaking goodies as part of a special makingthefilm prize. See the website for more details soon...

Things have moved on quite a bit since my last diary entry. I apologise for the lack of updates - things have just been incredibly hectic.

The film is going well. Our premiere is all booked up for October 28th with a screening to the general public on the 29th. Details of the venue will be posted nearer the time. The score is almost finished, and Adam is working hard to produce a sound mix. Rob Whittaker (who mixed Mnemosyne) is coming on board to finish off the sound mix as Adam had just got a new job which must take priority.

Kevin is doing the CGI himself (after two other CGI artists let us down in succession) and I have only the contracts and publicity to sort out and we are home and dry. I need a holiday!

Things are picking up again. If you want something done right, do it yourself! This motto is already paying dividends. Kev put together a test shot of rifle smoke and it looks brilliant. We will now arrange a time to get together and get all the rifle shots sorted. We are also going to divide up the remaining CG work and do it ourselves. My job comes to an end soon, so I will have lots of time to dedicate to completing the film.

There is also progress on the opening shots of the film - most of the commuter shots in London looked good. Special thanks to Dominic Law, Hakan Besim and Dionne Antribus for helping out. The opening sequence is nearly done now and it looks terrific. Steve Hoper will have that soon so he can finish off the music.

One final piece of news - my friend Mark Jeavons is about to commence shooting his second feature soon. He has managed to secure a great lead actress and funding for the project. I had a chat with both of them the other day and the project is looking good. I am sure it will do really well. Mark is like a film-making machine and is truly an inspiration. I wish him well.

Today Hak met me at 8am at London King's Cross so we could get some more key shots of commuters. Today there was a difference - Hak was one of them, and wearing a nice pollution mask. We had a great time getting in the shots, and I treated Hak to breakfast to say thanks. Later in the day myself and Dominic Law (a zombie extra who we had to cut) also put on some pollution masks and got in the act.

In other news, Kev and I have had to postpone the premiere of the film. It is now likely to be shown near Halloween. The reason is that my friend James Marshall - who originally told me "I will not let you down" and "I can do the CG work" disappeared off of the face of the planet, and we are yet to hear from him. Kev and I will no doubt have to pick this up ourselves. My friend, Adam said he might have a CG artist who can help, but if not, Kev and I will do it ourselves.

Another item of interest - the budget for the next film could be as much as 2 million - this was confirmed by Dusty Rhodes yesterday. Kev and I will meet him to discuss next week. We have come up with a great idea for a killer horror film - more news on that shortly.

The final piece of news today - I resigned from my job a few days ago as the consulting lifestyle does not suit me now I am settled down in Letchworth. The head of our British wing wrote to me personally and asked if there was any way the decision could be changed, but I have made up my mind. The company are great to work for but it is time for a more stable life...

The time I have had to dedicate to filmmaking has been really impaired lately. A lot of personal stuff has been going on. My jobs over the last month were to:

1. Recruit a new CG Artist
2. Record outstanding Foley with Kev
3. Shoot commuter sequences of London
4. Lay in ADR for Survivors Segment and send to Adam
5. Get consistent updates from all post-production technicians
6. Arrange the screening of the film

So let's look at what's been going on.

Good news is that the ADR is all there and syncs fine. Adam should have received that by now.

I have became the Foley Artist over the last few Sunday mornings as Kev recorded me manipulating a series of unusual sounds which have now been sent to Adam.

Next there is the case of a CG Arist. I have hired my friend James Marshall.

The commuter sequences were filmed (got about 6 minutes) but Kev has asked me to reshoot these with a tripod. I also will be getting shots of people with pollution masks on as well. That happens tomorrow!

The screening of the film has been arranged, but I need to get a projector sorted out.

In terms of updates, James is doing just what Paul Sach did and not returning my e-mails/messages. I think I know how this will end, but I hope I am wrong.

My company I work for has been causing me grief. My wife came back from the USA recently, and within a few days of her getting back, they go and post me to bloody Worthing! I feel that the consultancy lifestyle is not right for me anymore. Unfortunately, my company has also 'deskilled' me by hiring me as a C#.NET developer and then not giving me any C# work!!! So over the last few weeks you can probably guess the film has been playing second fiddle to me reskilling myself. I have been spending hours and hours getting my skills back to their best. When I am finally there, I might just go get me a C# job after all!

If all of this is gobbledegook to you, don't worry - I am an IT consultant and my main area of expertise is programming what is known as the .NET framework. I am working on some great software for Grandmaster Raymond Keene at the moment which he can use to record tutorials and give public demos. But now you know why I haven't made much progress. Kev, on the other hand, who has not sold his soul to the corporate world, has made some good progress. He has degraded lots of footage for the film which looks great. He said he is thinking of writing an article to explain why films sometimes die in post-production. There has definitely been a massive slow-down recently, but this film will be finished soon, even if I have to take extreme measures and hurt some people's feelings in the process. Seriously.

I haven't had a chance to update the diary in ages as I have been so busy, but there have been a few big developments...

1. Kev and I went up to the farm in late May to record Foley. We checked it back and will need an additional day, but other than that it is coming along well.
2. Kev laid in the ADR for the Scavengers segment
3. The music has been delayed as our composer, Steve Hoper, has been ill and had a lot of external factors causing problems. The music should still be done for late June.
4. The CG artist, Paul Sach, has been too busy to get started on the effects, so we have had to begin a new search for another CG artist; fingers crossed we find one soon.
5. Adam has got started on the sound design, including the zombie noises, etc

As you can see, a mixed bag of results, but this is low budget filmmaking!

My friend, Fred Youdale, went to the FA Cup Final in Cardiff a few weeks ago, and was good enough to set up the following advertising for me!

My friend, Adam (Who boomed on Mnemosyne), has joined the team to work on Sound Design and mix. He came up to my house today and we had a conference call with Kevin Gates. He had some really great suggestions and I know this will work out well. Adam is a talented filmmaker in his own right, and recently finished a two year MA in Film Production where he completed a number of films, including an animation piece. The style of his animation piece was very oriignal and inspiring, and Adam and I spoke about maybe collabrating on this kind of film in the future.

Today I saw one of the most beautiful, powerful and disturbing films of my entire life. How I had never even heard of this film before is beyond me!!!

The film I am talking about is called The Swimmer (1968), starring Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard and Janice Rule. It reminded me very much of the book I AM THE CHEESE, with a main character undertaking a journey (much like in The Straight Story) which itself is a voyage of discovery. It is harrowing, and the slow degrading of a beautiful summer's day to a stormy finale rips your heart out.

One reviewer describes it as "A middle-aged suburban man (Burt Lancaster) decides to swim across his wealthy Connecticut county, through all the swimming pools of his neighbors back to his own home. As he makes his journey you gradually become aware that he is not all that he seems. Dark secrets keep getting revealed and it soon becomes apparent that we are witnessing a telescoping of the man's entire adult life into a few afternoon hours of an early autumn day. [The film] can be interpreted as a religious parable about the self-deception of fallen humanity" and I would be quick to agree. A MUST SEE.

This weekend Kev and I went through the film and spotted the music sections which I will now send on to Steven Hoper. We also made notes so we can form the 'palette' for our Foley. Kev will mastermind the technical recording of this, while I become the 'Foley Artist'. We'll do this next weekend. The weekend after we'll work on laying in the ADR and Foley. Then the film goes off to the mixer! :) Woohoo!

Julian Newman Turner also popped around and we had our usual beer and pizza session while watching the EuroVision song contest. Good to see the Finish winning, with their mediocre song dressed up with special effects and costumes. They've obviously sussed that to win Euroviison you need to draw inspiration from low-budget film-makers! Jules and myself discussed some films we are looking forward to. These include:

1. The King
2. Murder Ball
3. Punishment Park
4. Flight 93
5. Grizzly Man
6. Southland Tales
7. The Fountain
8. Overnight

I hope to get all of these in this summer. Some are alreeady on DVD. The best film I have seen this is year is still definitely R-Point, the Korean Vietnam-Horror, but I'm sure one - if not all - of the aforementioned batch will further impress.

The director's commentary (right-click, save target as) for Mnemosyne is finally online. I recorded it a few days ago for the upcoming US release of the film on a Short Films Compilation. Please don't watch this unless you have already watched the proper film (available in the screening room) as there are major spoilers. The commentary version of the film is heavily compressed - I assure you I did not record the commentary from inside a dustbin! Enjoy!

Today I finally managed to get around to reading the script DOGS by Russell Jones, the actor who played Goke in The Zombie Diaries. I was very impressed, it was actually one of the best short film scripts I have read in ages. What I liked about it wwas how different it was, and how fragmented the story was. I kept turning the pages as I was eager to put the jigsaw together.

MakingTheFilm.Com was moved to a new server last night, so was temporarily down for a few hours. It all seems to be up and running again now, which is a relief, as moving things between servers is always a bti tricky. I've been trying to get onto the Talent Circle website for ages now, but there are always messages saying the site is being migrated and will be up soon. The deadline keeps getting pushed back too!

Today I have been trying to persuade my friend Adam, who worked on the sound for Mnemosyne, to come aboard and take on The Zombie Diaries as his next project. He has all of June free, and Kev will be sending him a screener tomorrow.

I also got to take a professional exam today - and narrowly failed with 648 (Pass mark 700). Studying for the exam has taken a lot of time up recently, and after failing I now know what areas to brush up on. They are not too time-consuming, so that is another time-sucker out of the way. Come June the constant weekend work on the film will be over, so it looks like I get to have a free summer. When you think about all of the thigns I have done in the recent months, you have to admit I have earned my sabbatical!

Today I spent 5 hours travelling on the train, as I had to visit Letchworth for the fifth ADR session. I arrived early and recorded my director's commentary for the fortchoming US release of Mnemosyne. I was quite pleased with how it went. I managed to make sure most of the amusing anecdotes made it in, and hopefully it will help a lot of aspiring filmmakers out there.

Jonathon Ball arrived at 3pm, and Kev and I switched to the same set-up as last weekend to nail his ADR. It is just Victoria Nalder to do next, and then we are finished. I will probably have to get the Sound Designer/Mixer to make the most out of her live sound, as she returns from her trip to LA one week before our deadline!

Hakan from over at budgetfilmmaker.com / urbanfilmmaker.com is planning another Halloween Challenge this year. Things have moved on quite a bit from the first year where Hakan challenged himself to make a film in a week with a limited set of resources.

This year, Kevin Gates and myself will be joining the free-for-all and there will be some prizes as well, sponsored by MakingTheFilm.Com. Details will be announced soon, but I want to see as many filmmakers entering this competition as possible. I would also like to see online journals of how each film was made. There might be a prize for most professional and informative journal too!

Today was a nice quiet day. Russell Jones popped over for his ADR session and we wrapped it up in 3 hours. I then took a well timed train home to make sure I avoided any over-zealous football thugs. It was the last day of the English Premiership, and you know how it is...

Stephen Hoper sent through the latest mix of the trailer music. It was spot on, and has now been added and uploaded. You can access the teaser at http://www.zombiediaries.com/trailer.htm. Enjoy ;)

Today Kev and I managed the ADR for actors Hiram Bleetman, Craig Stovin, Anna Blades and Ralph Mondi. Kev managed the set up of the equipment (Rode NT-2 to DAT to PC) and handled the recording. In order to do this he was stuck in his computer room. I had the easy job, sitting in the lounge with the actors. The mic is so damn good we didn't need to worry about bloody planes and trains, etc. The sound quality was awesome, and Stewart Taylor of The Theme Team helped us make sure the mic settings were cool.

My job was durecting the actors and then jointly making decisions with Kev on which takes to use. There was quite a lot of amusing method acting to get things sounding right. I had people jogging on the spot, lifting heavy equipment, and even. I am very, very picky, but can you blame me? Hakan Besim dropped over and we rounded the night off with a great curry.

Today was a bit of a bummer. We mainly had musicians apply for the job of Sound Mixer/Designer, and of the few designers, most showreels were inadequate or generally not very good. I finished the last of my interviews today and selected my first choice only to find out he had just landed a job. My second choice thought the film was a short and thus wasn't able to commit. So now I have to advertise all over again! I did have a third choice, but the guy wasn't able to show me any 'sound design', only music (which was fantastic) but I can't gamble the feature on that.

I will contact the Theme Team this week and see if they might be able to help. At least I know those guys will do a first rate job.

The trailer will be up soon. Steve Hoper sent some great music, which we will tweak ever so slightly. Expect an update soon..