Post-Production Update

Georg Rockall-Schmidt, Silver Swimming Certificate

Hello there. How are you? I’m fine.

It’s been quite a while since the main bulk of filming was wrapped, with additional filming taking place in November finishing off location work. There is one single shot left to film, for a thirty second scene, which is a very simple shot, but which I chose to leave for last as it adds an opportunity to do something with the scene’s setting. Other than this simple one-shot scene everything has been shot and assembled to a point where, although not yet finished, I can safely say no re-shoots are needed. Hooray.

Where The Edit Is

I’ve always considered the edit of a film to be the critical make-or-break point, but perhaps also the point where the mistakes of pre-production and the shoot itself become truly apparent - you can edit out a bad line, you can’t edit out a bad idea. The edit is also where people inevitably become very close to the project, so that it can be difficult to retain anything close to objectivity. With all this in mind, I would sum up my feelings on the edit like this:

A) Looking and listening through everything I think I got a lot of usable coverage, and because of that I’ve not had to compromise on shot choices. I think the casting and directorial choices work. I think the film works and that its tone is consistent and is exactly what I was trying to achieve.

B) Deluded people often don’t know that they’re deluded.

So what I’m saying, in another long-winded way, is that I like it and feel good about it, but also that when it comes to Collaborator I’m the least objective person in the world.

I also feel as though I could have edited everything much more quickly, but have taken a lot of time with it, almost unconsciously. I think most of the valuable ideas I’ve had for the edit have come only with time. I know that this isn’t a luxury a lot of filmmakers have, and that like everyone involved I’m keen to see a finished product, but taking time to tinker with things is worth it.

Tinker With Things?

Essentially that’s where I am - I have an edited film. Shots are next to other shots. Words happen. But now I need to tune things. In February the composer, David Willox, will be working on the score with me, and I’ll be focusing on sound design. Both the score and sound design are critical for the atmosphere, but I think both David and I want to keep things subtle too.

There are other things to do. The colour design isn’t final, there are a few bits of foley I still want to get, and there are still a few changes to the edit I want to make. But, for now at least, there aren’t any problems I wasn’t expecting.

Focus Testing And Collector Packs

I don’t want to screen a cut of Collaborator without near-finished sound and score. I plan to screen it to Kickstarter Focus-Testers and Collectors probably via a limited-time link on Vimeo, probably in March/April. It won’t be finished then, but it won’t be tremendously far away from that either. I’ll explain more about the test screening in a message to the relevant backers that I’ll send when we’re closer to it. This time-frame might change as I want David to spend as much time on it as he wants and needs, and things do come up.

I plan on doing another two livestreams for Kickstarter backers of the livestream tier and up. I’ll do one stream some time before the focus testing, and one stream after. I hope this will go some way to making up for the stream going all Max Headroom last time.

I also want to thank the Collector-tier backers for their patience. Next week I’m going to start mailing the Collector’s packs. This might take a little time, so if you are a Collector I will message you via Kickstarter when I send out your pack.

Thanks to everyone for their patience, messages of encouragement, and of course all that lovely Kickstarter money, which I remember fondly. I’m pretty sure I can convince Uncle Sam that the Turkish bath scene exists on the cutting room floor, ahem.

I’ll write another update before any focus testing. Ta-ra.