Last week I had a bad dream. We were having the cast and crew screening I'd been promising everyone for months. And we get to the end of the film and everyone seems happy, some people tell me it was better than they were expecting. But I'm not listening, because something is bugging me. There was something missing. Then it hits me. We forgot about the second musical sequence!!!
So we're at the six month mark (slightly over if you take into account the odd week I didn't post a diary) and we're still not finished, the picture edit still isn't locked. I'm not sure if I've ever gone into detail about the reason for the delays but essentially it's this - if you're working with professionals and you're not paying them, then they will inevitably have to put your project on hold until they have time to do it. And this is fine and not something any reasonable person can take issue with. The part that's frustrating is the fact that on a number of occasions I've had reason to believe we were nearly there. It was September when the rough cut was finished. At the time it felt like we were no more than a week away from locking the picture. Not two months. The other frustrating element is how close we are to actually being finished. The time required is a fraction of that we spent on the actual edit, but it's time that just isn't available at the moment.
I've made some rather bold statements in previous entries about the films I've worked on or known of that have dragged on for years, to the point that everyone involved has moved on to other things and lost any enthusiasm they had for the project in the first place. I was determined not to let that happen here. But what I've come to realise is there comes a certain point where you lose control over when things get done. I've seen people attempt to retain that control by switching personnel every time there's a delay. In the end this only causes more delays and it's not something I would ever consider. I started out on this project with a team of very talented people whom I have a lot of respect for and I want that same team of people standing with me when it's finished.
So all I can do for now is keep checking in and hope that posts like this one do not become a regular occurrence.
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2 comments:
Producing a film sounds like one of the hardest things to do.
Especially writing one.
I have tried, but it hasn't worked.
But that could just be me.
Peace and Love,
D
It's lots of different kinds of difficult really - each stage of production brings it's own unexpected challenges.
Keep up with the writing - it is also diifcult, but the advantage over filmmaking is that the only person responsible for getting it done is you.
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