Thursday, 15th July 2010
The Heroes of Chasing Cotards
Andrew Walton, Editor
Editing is an art form delivered by many and is done well by few. Nearly everyone can edit or teach themselves how to edit, but it is difficult to master.
On Chasing Cotards we were lucky enough to have an editor who was always honest with me and, more importantly, was willing to take risks. Andrew Walton was the man who cut together the film I had envisioned for 3 years.
Andrew came onto the project when our old editor, Edward Richard Hall (a very talented editor in his own right) became extremely busy on Prince of Persia and a couple of other projects. Unfortunately for us he simply didn't the have the time needed to work on our movie. Once Ed Hall had left the good ship Cotards, Andrew stepped up to the breach and we never looked back! Mr Walton came storming in and took charge of our test shoot and then flew into the shoot, assembling the rushes like some kind of superman using an AVID as his weapon of choice.
After we had shot the film and all the rushes were lying in a heap on the cutting room floor… it was up to Andrew to make it work. I had always had a good idea of the non-linear way I wanted to present the movie in. I knew which scenes in what order and had storyboarded it that way, but I always knew a lot would change in the edit because it always does.
However, Andrew presented to me, in his first edit, something I had never thought of. There is a moment in the edit, about ¾ of the way through when we start seeing backwards images, the sound starts reversing and it provides a rhythm to the story a good old kick up the AVID. This was all Andrew's idea and I believe it was one of the most important things to happen to the film. It totally shifts the pace of the film and, what is extremely important, keeps the film interesting. It's a slow start, with a kick and then a final flourish. Perfect for the film, perfect for the story and perfect for the characters.
This is what having a skilled and creative Editor can do to a film.
For this we say THANK YOU to Andrew Walton for being a hero of Chasing Cotards!
I also would like to personally thank Andrew for the following:
- Always being patient with me, even though I was hassling him while he was working in Canada.
- For always being honest with me when he disagreed with a direction I wanted to take. And then letting me divulge my urge only to see it didn't work and ask him to change it back.
- For all his valuable help when the film was falling apart during the grade conform.
- For cutting together an awesome trailer that 5,000 plus people have now watched around the world (including Stephen Fry). Still yet to hear a criticism of it.
- For keeping his sense of humour when I was losing mine.
Right… I'm off to Latitude Festival now for a well-deserved break. If you see me there tap me on the shoulder and make a sheep noise at me.
Until next time AVID lovers,
Ed.
Director.
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Wednesday, 7th July 2010
The Heroes of Chasing Cotards
Phil Trayner, Co-Producer
I have been a friend of Phil's for many years now and if you knew Phil you'd know he surprises you with something pretty much every time you speak to him. This is one of the joys that make him the wonderful human being he is. Expect the unexpected.
It's usually caused by the fact that he has the energy of a 5 year-old boy and an excitement for life that the everyday person simply can't keep up with. One day, back in the day, when we were furiously trying to find funding for Cotards, Phil surprised me again… but this time it was from a direction I really didn't expect.
I sent out a Happy Easter email to all I know and a little bit of spiel about Chasing Cotards, including what we were trying to achieve. I thought nothing of it as, to be totally honest, this was the lowest point of Cotards. We were not finding any funding from anywhere, we had problems with locations and assembling a crew to make sure it happened. All our problems needed funding to fix it - funding that we didn't have and were finding hard to clutch onto in the middle of an incredibly crippling recession.
Phil replied to my email with an emotive set of paragraphs that, when simplified, said that he loved what we were doing and expressed how much he would like to help a friend that he has known for quite some time achieve a dream. It was the first bit of hope in a very stark time. Phil was a lead to something positive and it was something we really needed as a project.
After meeting with Phil he agreed to invest some money, but only if he could "get his hands dirty" and help with the project. I immediately agreed because I knew Phil as a man who takes his job in finance extremely seriously and we had spoken many times about how hard he works to make sure everything is right. He is a man that I knew we could trust. In many ways, his offer was better than the funding because he was giving us his valuable time to help our books stay in order and steady the ship, so to speak.
It is in my opinion that Phil was the catalyst for all that followed, the exothermic reaction that allowed more funding to come through the door. After Phil came on board and supported us we were able to go to other possible funding routes and say that we had some funding in place and some support financially. That sentence always breathes confidence into the mind of another investor because if someone else has invested, it proves that someone else believes in the project.
I strongly believe that Phil enabled us the opportunity to allow other investors from £35 - £5000 to believe in us and agree with Phil that we would do it.
The really interesting part of Phil's involvement is that he came on board as an Associate Producer and was promoted to Co-Producer quite quickly because of all the good work he was doing. Right now Phil is busy getting all our books in order so that we know where we stand heading into the festival push.
So, a MASSIVE THANK YOU Phil for being the first person to believe in us outside of our own families. You opened up a massive door and allowed us the opportunity to make our film.
IN OTHER NEWS:
We were able to screen our 70mm print a few of the important crewmembers who missed out on the Premiere in May. This was great because it meant that most people have seen the film now in all its IMAX glory. I'm glad to say that it still looked beautiful and I am still extremely proud of it. Phil was one of these people who was able to see it for the first time and I hope he was happy with all the hard work he has put into it. He seemed to be buzzing afterwards… but that's what he's always like!
We have officially entered into our first film festival. I will let you know how it goes. All I can say is that it is a major one and they accept 70mm print. I doubt any other short is offering them an IMAX screening of their film… so I'm hoping this will put us in a good place.
Our festival plan is a long one and we believe we will probably be hitting the other festivals next year. But it all depends on this first submission. If we get in… that will change everything.
Until next time mother lovers,
Ed.
Director.
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Tuesday, 21st June 2010
PREMIERE VIDEO BLOG FROM UNZIP MEDIA
Here is another video blog from our IMAX Premiere on May 8th this year. It’s by an up-and-coming company called Unzip media who has put together a little edit that is both charming and a great representation of the evening.
You can follow Unzip through these bat channels:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/UNZIPMedia/276818193921?ref=ts
http://www.youtube.com/unzipmedia
And I have been asked to thank the following people:
Ismar Badzic – Presenter / Interviewer
Rose Fryer – Research
Ross Etherton – Camera Operator
I’m tired now after all that promoting.
Enjoy the video!
Until next time folks, where I will be following on in the series of The Heroes of Chasing Cotards.
Ed
Director
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Thursday, 27th May 2010
The Heroes of Chasing Cotards…
Stephen Follows, Executive Producer
I’ve decided to dedicate the next season of blogs to certain people who worked on our project who stepped above and beyond to make sure our film happened. People who are so dedicated to their professionalism and loyalty that the film wouldn’t have been possible without them; I am starting with our Executive Producer, Stephen Follows.
I heard about Stephen through our talented writer, Olivia Wakeford, who suggested that I be in touch with him about possibly joining the team for the biggest short film of all time. After a couple of emails back and forth Stephen suggested that I come to meet him near his office in Kilburn (they have since moved to Ealing) to chat about everything further.
Samantha and I arrived at the coffee shop not really sure what to expect from this man who had an excellent pedigree but, apart from that, we didn’t know what he was going to be like.
That meeting changed the course of Chasing Cotards.
Stephen spoke frankly and honestly for a good 2 hours about our project, what he thought should be done to make sure it happened and what he felt the project needed. It was clear within about 20 minutes that Chasing Cotards needed Stephen Follows more than Stephen Follows needed Chasing Cotards. We had been going for some time, we had assembled some crew and a little bit of money. Stephen injected an element of professionalism and organization to the project that was missing before. He also, importantly, acted as an excellent mentor to Samantha.
Sam will not mind me saying this, but she has learnt more from Stephen than she has on any other project. Sam is a white-hot producer and someone destined for great things, but she is that way now because of Stephen. He has helped shape what was a Producer with HUGE potential into what can now be described as a Producer. Samantha has taken the step from ‘maybe’ to ‘definitely’ and this is through Stephen’s help. Check out the end of Samantha’s interview here at the Premiere to hear it from her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WARq4PSm3HA
And what did Stephen ask in return? He wanted to come on board as Executive Producer and for his company (Catsnake: http://www.catsnake.com/) to have ‘in association with…’ credit. That is all. For what he gave the project, he could have had a bigger credit and demanded more, but he only took what he believed was correct.
There were many times on this show where Samantha and I really didn’t know what we were going to do and how we would fix a problem. The first person we phoned every single time was Stephen. He would then proceed to explain to us in great detail what the next step should be and how would be the best way to deal with the problem. This advice saved us on so many occasions I can’t even begin to remember how many. The thing I remember is that he would always say at the end of every phone call “If you are still having problems, just ring me up, it doesn’t matter if it’s 3am or 3pm, I’m here if you need me”. That isn’t just good business, that’s nice business.
I’ll never forget the evening I called Stephen in a fit of rage. Our grade conform was going wrong because of missing frames and false Quicktime frame rates. I was angry. I was angry with anyone remotely involved with the process and I was ready to launch an attack on the people I “thought” were responsible for the mistakes. Stephen spent an hour and a half on the phone to me calming me down. He let me vent out all my anger at him and he quietly explained to me how to write my email to fix the problem. I said, “thought” and placed the speech brackets around it because I was wrong. I was both wrong in my accusations and in my belief that I should let them know. Meaning that had I actually sent my angry email and accused the people I wanted to – they probably would have left the project and rightfully so. They hadn’t done anything wrong and I was entirely mistaken in my beliefs. It’s moments like that when you realize how important Stephen was to the project and that was but one example of quite a few challenging moments like this.
Every film, whether it is short or a feature, needs a Stephen Follows. Without him, this film wouldn’t have happened.
So we, as a production, THANK YOU Stephen Follows!
Until the next hero folks!
Ed.
Director.
p.s. Last Tuesday Chasing Cotards was screened in the early hours to some extremely important people. David Heyman (Producer of Harry Potter), David Barron (Producer of Harry Potter), David Yates (Director of Harry Potter) and Peter Doyle (The best Grader in the world) all sat down and watched our little film at the BFI IMAX. They were unavailable for our Premiere, but luckily, I was able to organize this screening for them. That, my friends, is good news…
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Friday, 14th May 2010
IMAX Premiere Video Blog
Hello one and all on this beautiful and sunny day in the UK. Some of you may have noticed that Simon Clement was filming on the evening of the Premiere and he has put together a little video from the evening.
What’s really nice about it is that you get a great sense of the lovely and positive attitude from the evening. It’s short and sweet… so enjoy!
I have no other updates apart from the fact that we are due to have a festival strategy meeting this weekend or next week at some point.
We are also hoping to screen the 70mm print to some extremely important people in the next few coming days as well. Fate appears to be on our side on that one as they are going to be at the IMAX anyway for another meeting and have requested to screen Cotards as well. Super, jolly, spiffing, exciting!
As you can tell, I am in a good mood. I have to say that I have been ill and a little bit low for the middle of this week. This is common after such a HUGE event and I knew I had to just get through it. Now, I am back on happy street because I can only feel proud about what we have achieved. We pulled something off that many said we wouldn’t. That is something we can take to the grave with us. As Terry Gilliam always says:
“One day we will all be dust, but the films will live forever…”
Have a lovely weekend and I’ll speak to you soon.
Until next time you beautiful people!
Ed.
Director.
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Monday, 10th May 2010
The BFI IMAX Premiere of Chasing Cotards
We are now 2 days post-premiere for Chasing Cotards: The Biggest Short Film of All Time! Well, what can I say, apart from… wow. What a night. It was everything and more in terms of what I wanted from the evening. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and best of all, the film itself. I had people coming up to me all night telling me that the film had touched them, they cried, they didn’t expect it to be so good, etc, etc. I expected a good response, but jeez… this was crazy. To call the screening a success would be an understatement.
That being said, I realized beforehand that people were more than likely going to enjoy the film… the whole night was set up for them to enjoy it – but I didn’t expect that kind of response. Not in a million years did I dream that we, as a team, would receive so much support.
Here is the story of the day we premiered our short film at the BFI IMAX on a Saturday night to a packed crowd.
In the morning I awoke at 7am to head into town to see the 70mm print for the first time and test the rest of the digital presentations we had planned for the evening.
I watched ‘Sign Language’, a beautiful short film (Directed by Oscar Sharp and written by our Executive Producer Stephen Follows). Check! It looked great on the screen and was ok to be screened.
I then asked to watch the other short film ‘Lightness of Being’ (a short film directed by our making of Director Rob Garwood). To which the reply was “What other digital screenings? This is it”. Oh dear. After much deliberation we finally found the firewire drive that had all the other digital films on there… Antony Lane’s trailer for ‘Invasion of the Not Quite Dead’, ‘Lightness of Being’ and the behind the scenes documentary for Chasing Cotards: Making the biggest short film of all time. All good, all beautiful… all set. They then laced up the 70mm of Chasing Cotards and started playing my finished movie to me for the first time…
It was beautiful. Everything I thought it would be and that’s when I totally lost control and broke down; I was sat, in the IMAX theatre, by myself, a grown man, crying my eyes out. This was a big moment for me. It was done. It was ready. It was time to showcase my film in IMAX.
As I was leaving I wanted to make sure that we had everything else in place… little things like the gift bags and the Cotards information booklet for the evening (designed by Molly Morris from The Neon Hive - http://www.theneonhive.com/). To which the response was “What bags and information booklet?” Oh dear. So I then proceeded to spend the next 3 hours of my Saturday (which was scheduled for relaxation before the big night) searching for the missing gift bags and hopping into a taxi to go to the interlink depot to find the 450 booklets we had printed especially for the evening’s guests. I won’t bore you with the details, but the bags were accidently put in with the food section of the Imax and the booklets were incorrectly delivered to the wrong building. So… not a calming start to the day. But I thought there would be at least one fire before the day was out… because that’s the way it works.
A quick drink with my good friend Kingsley Cook… and then off to the Hotel to get changed for the big night.
While we were getting ready for the IMAX… our good friends Rob Garwood and Gemma Abbott came to drop by with some dress options for Samantha. Gemma owns a magnificent clothes store called Tyto (http://www.tytoboutique.co.uk/) and had offered to find our Producer a beautiful new dress for the event – and oh how she did! Samantha looked gorgeous and relaxed all night long. I slipped into my retro black suit and did up my tie and readied myself for my Premiere.
Because men generally take a shorter amount of time to get ready… I left before Sam and slowly walked over Waterloo Bridge with the BFI IMAX at the end of my journey staring at me like an old friend.
As I steadily got closer, and the IMAX became bigger in my vista, I started to see a queue in front of the building. This was a mixture of guests for the evening (eager and early) and a large amount of the press. That’s right – press! I think the tweet from Stephen Fry the day before the Premiere really made a huge impact on the profile of the project.
Oh yes, that’s right, I hadn’t mentioned that the one and only Stephen Fry tweeted about us, to his 1.5 million followers, 24 hours prior to our big night. To see his tweet, check out his twitter page here:
http://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/13545249362
Within 2 hours of his tweet 4000 people had hit our website. This was the biggest amount of publicity we had ever received and was perfectly timed before our big event.
So, back to the Premiere, I walked up the red carpet and had a quick look around the foyer to approve the final setting being made by Event By Event (http://www.eventbyevent.co.uk/ - who I have to say were perfect from start to finish) and gave permission to start letting our guests into the building and onto the red carpet.
As the crowds and press started flooding in I knew then that we were going to have a good night. All of a sudden nearly all the elements of what had made the film such a special thrill ride were all sipping on free champagne and discussing Chasing Cotards under one enormous roof; I realized then that I was going to be talking all night long. I wondered through the crowds trying my best to thank everyone for coming and to express how excited I was about seeing our film. The Vista Vision Camera was on display, as were Christine’s beautiful paintings, Andrew Scott was chatting to Christine Comyn, James Clarke was chatting to Carl Theakston, Simon Burley was chatting to Jack Hughes… all of a sudden most of the major players of Cotards were face to face for the first time! This totally blew my mind, as in my world, my brain, they all knew each other. It was strange to find out that they only knew each other by name and through the work.
The voice of the IMAX, Lucy Jennings (manager and a VIP member of the Chasing Cotards crew) announced that the audience should make their way into the auditorium for the evening’s entertainment.
I was really excited by this point. 3 years work we had been preparing for this – I wasn’t going to be nervous or worried at all. I promised myself to do all I could to enjoy it.
Richard Strudwick, our fantastic host for the night, stepped up to the microphone and said the words I had dreamt of…
“Ladies and Gentlemen… welcome to the Premiere of Chasing Cotards… the biggest short film of all time”.
Applause and some cheers. An exquisite feeling.
The teaser trailer for ‘Invasion of The Not Quite Dead’ played… it went down well and the audience appeared to enjoy the new take on the zombie movie. I’m personally extremely excited to see how that film progresses.
The making of documentary played and again seemed to really connect with the people watching. I had loads of compliments after the screening about this part of the evening. It seemed to really set everybody up for the main event. Because of this I have decided to post it on the blog here… so you can all have a looky-see with your face eyes.
A slight pause and Richard introduces the other two short films for the evening – The Lightness of Being and Sign Language. Again, these seemed to go down really well and both meant a lot to me in equal measure. Rob’s short is one that Samantha and I have loved for a long time. Seeing as it was shot on mini dv, I am also very excited by the fact that we put it on that MASSIVE screen. A small part of me got a huge kick out of that. I know the same can be said for Rob.
Sign Language was a strange experience for me before hand. It’s basically the best short film I’ve seen in months and I was concerned it may steal the show! But, to be honest, it’s not the same as Cotards and that isn’t what independent filmmaking is all about. We’re meant to all help each other out because, let’s face it, it’s hard enough already! That’s when I decided screw it… if it steals the show it steals the show. Luckily… they were seen as two completely different films and were both enjoyed in their own right… result!
The time came for our IMAX movie to play. Beforehand, the king of independent cinema, Chris Jones stepped up to introduce the movie. A speech that couldn’t have been more perfect if I had written it myself… it was wonderful in every way. I have to thank Chris for his support on the project and his well-said words. He built up the presentation even more and the crowd was ready to view the film…
I could hear the reels begin to roll on the projector behind me…
The titles came up…
The film has started…
Just looking at our short film being projected on 70mm to a room full of people made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But mostly proud. Samantha grabbed my hand and I could hear her crying to my side. She had been through so much and fought so many battles she deserved this. She deserved this moment.
The film finished and something happened that I never expected. I had only thought about screening it… not what was going to happen after we had finished the presentation. The audience stood up and gave Samantha and I a standing ovation.
Easily one of the best moments, if not the best moment, of my life. That’s when I started to cry again… for the first time since I had been sat in that same theatre 10 hours before, by myself, crying my eyes out. Only this time… I was surrounded by friends, peers and colleagues.
Thank you for that… thank you so much.
After the Premiere was an after-show party at Smollensky’s that consisted of interviews, drinks, hugs, congratulations and more drinks. The film went down extremely well and everyone had something good to say about the evening. More than anything, I just felt so proud of what we had all achieved. We said we were going to do it and we did it. It was hard work but we beat an old-school camera breaking, funding problems, crew members leaving the project, missing scans, sync issues, running out of film on the shooting days and a damn Volcano! Nothing was going to stop us getting that film onto that screen.
It was a huge success!
A few press things have started coming through the web world and we were also mentioned on XFM this morning! Check out the Premiere interviews from Leicester Square TV here:
We are also putting together a little video of the evening and I will post that as soon as I can.
So, what now? That was the question I kept being asked… it’s a simple question with a simple answer: festivals.
We are now going to enter into all the major film festivals and hope that it goes down as well it did on the evening to pick up some awards. That way we can be nominated for a BAFTA or an OSCAR. Please do try to do everything you can to support us on the next stage of our journey it’s another road littered with problems, excitement and adventure; nothing that we can’t handle.
Help us make the biggest short film of all time, the most successful short film of all time!
I will blog again when we have updates.
Thank you for helping us achieve our first massive IMAX dream.
Until next time folks,
Ed.
Director.
From Left to Right: Andrew Scott, Edward L Dark, Samantha Fazackerley, Christine Comyn & Yvan De Backer.
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Thursday, 6th May 2010
Chasing Cotards Vs The Volcano: Result In…
CHASING COTARDS BEATS THE VOLCANO VIA KNOCK OUT!
I am extremely proud to announce that we have officially beaten the Volcano. To summarize how much of an achievement this is, you’d have to read the blog further down the page from Thursday 22nd April 2010. But, in short, we hit massive complications with our grade conform, just about managed to meet our extremely tight deadline day… and then the volcano hit. Meaning that we probably wouldn’t have enough time to ship to America and back for the 70mm print.
I predicted the odds of screening at 70mm to be somewhere in the region of about 1% and I meant it. At that point in time, it wasn’t going to happen. Then some light came channeling from the skies as the Volcanic Ash Cloud began to slowly move away, the day after I had written the blog, creating a sense of hope within the Chasing Cotards camp. Our odds had increased. It was now somewhere between 20%-30%. We then had to make a decision on whether we were going to go for it. This also, had to be my call and my call only.
Now, I know what you’re all thinking; of course you go for it! But there were some very important issues to consider. First, and most importantly, was the fact that I would essentially be risking people’s invested money screening on film, when we could easily screen digital. I have to say that as long as there was a small glimmer of hope, I’m pretty certain I was going to go for it… but I needed to speak to Samantha Fazackerley (Producer), Simon Burley (IMAX Technical Supervisor and the man in charge of the 65mm neg development) and Glenn Newland (the man creating the 70mm print at CFI Technicolor). All three of these lovely and professionally perfect people assured me that there was time… but there would be no time for mistakes. So, if one mistake occurred, anywhere along the line… we wouldn’t have a 70mm print and I would have wasted a lot of people’s money.
My thoughts were… we have come this far… why let a Volcano beat us now? I took the risk.
I’m sorry if that upsets anyone… or if you think it was stupid for me to do so… but the simple truth is that I couldn’t back out. I couldn’t give up when there was still some hope. I simply couldn’t. This project has been in development for 3 years now and to let something as silly as a little Volcano beat us, after everything we have had to defeat, after every hurdle, every stumbling block, every problem we’ve somehow found a way to solve, I simply wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t go for it. I’m not the sort of man who likes to say “What if?” It isn’t in my nature. Therefore… we entered an emotional journey of stress and excitement. This is how it played out…
Simon Burley, at RPS Film Imaging, began making up and developing the 65mm neg from the graded scans that had been from Prime focus. In the meantime, he also created the DCP for the film, just in case we had to screen digitally. Simon Burley, somehow, someway, manages to defy all logic and the physical laws of time to create the 65mm neg and completes this on schedule. The 65mm neg is packed up securely and sent, via fedex, out to LA for Glenn Newland to work on the 70mm print.
In the meantime Samantha and I go to the BFI IMAX to watch the digital presentation of Chasing Cotards.
***At this point I have to step in and report how that screening went. It wasn’t good. Simon had done nothing wrong with his side of things… it’s just that my beautiful film, the one I had laboured over for so long, looked flat. The colours and the grade had no depth and the overall presentation wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Again, this isn’t Simon Burley, this is the nature of screening digital on a 2K projector, blown up to a massive screen. I felt as flat as the images. Our back up wasn’t good enough… but was going to have to do if something went wrong with the 70mm. I sighed a sad sigh for a few days after this***
Glenn Newland receives the 65mm neg and begins work on the 70mm print at CFI Technicolor. Somehow, someway, Glenn manages to make the print up without there being any hiccups. Glenn packs up the 70mm print and sends it, via fedex, to the BFI IMAX cinema in London. It arrives on Tuesday. Yes, that is two days ago.
***remember that no one has tech checked this print yet***
Dennis Laws, the man, the myth, the legend, that is one of the top men in the IMAX world and who has been a massive support to the Cotards project, receives the print and makes up the reel ready for presentation at 10am on Wednesday morning. Yes… that’s yesterday... Samantha Fazackerley, Dennis Laws and Lucy Jennings (the events manager at the BFI) sit down to watch the 70mm print.
I wait.
My phone rings.
It’s Samantha.
“It’s beautiful”.
My Producer then proceeds to cry down the phone and tell me how happy she is that we decided to take the risk because the colours are so stunning and the images are so big that she is delighted that we now have it on 70mm print.
So there you go people… we took a risk, we fought a volcano, and we have come out the other side smiling (and crying). I am happy to announce that our screening on Saturday, in two short days, will be presented on 70mm full IMAX film. Unless, of course, the Volcano decides to get revenge and erupts all over the IMAX cinema: Chasing Cotards Vs The Volcano 2: This time it’s really Ashy!
I know this has been a long blog, but it’s an important one, and, well, screw you… I’m extremely emotional right now writing this. Our film is officially finished. I honestly can’t wait to show it to you in all its glory.
Before I go, I just have to answer the two big questions I have been asked all week:
Dress Code: We are asking everyone to dress up, as it is a red carpet evening. However, you will not be turned away if you are on the guest list. So don’t make yourself uncomfortable. It would just be amazing if everyone were dressed up. I’ll be in a newly bought retro suit…
The plan for the evening:
7.30pm: Champagne Drinks Reception (get there early for a free one!).
8.30pm: The screenings begin. We have a teaser trailer, the making of Documentary, a couple of short films and Chasing Cotards (on 70mm print!!!) to show you.
9.30pm – 1am: The After-show party at a venue on The Strand. You will have received confirmation of the location in an email or you can simply wait until the night where we will confirm and hand out easy directions. It’s about 5-10 minutes away. Nice and easy!
*Ed Steelefox has just been confirmed to be our DJ for the evening. You are going to LOVE him*
So, that’s the end of this blog for now. I will try and write something before the Premiere, but if I don’t have time – at least you have the information here. If you haven’t RSVP’d to the Premiere – you still have time. If you know anyone who might want to attend, we have purposely held back some seats for such an occurrence. Just let me, Samantha or The Cult PR know.
I honestly can’t wait to show you Chasing Cotards on 70mm print.
Until Saturday folks!
Ed.
Director of the biggest short film of all time!
***WARNING… OUR WEBSITE MAY RUN A BIT SLOWLY OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH US. IT’S ALL FOR GOOD REASONS***
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Friday, 30th April 2010
Everything plus the Kitchen Sync!
A very quick Blog today to say that we completed the film this week.
I’m going to leave that sentence there because, frankly, it means a lot to me. It has been a long time I’ve been dreaming about saying that and now that I have; it’s both exciting and depressing at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, I am more happy than you can possibly imagine about having sign off on everything, mainly because the last few weeks have been such a struggle, but I am also a little bit sad about the creative process being over. That’s the fun stuff, the exciting game you play building a film that you want to show to the world.
As soon as I had listened to Brian Eimer’s 5.1 final sound mix fade down, as the credits rolled away from my eyes, I knew. I knew it was over. It dawned on me, and I have to say I was in a slight state of shock at the realisation that, I had signed off on the last creative aspect of the movie. It stopped me. Literally stopped me because it was the first time in quite a while I wouldn’t have to think about the film from a parental point of view. I truly mean it when I say ‘parental’ because making this short film, as it is anything creative really, is a commitment to look after it, feed it and make sure it grows up into something that you can all be proud of. It brings me great pleasure to say that I am extremely proud of my little boy!
Onto the Premiere!
On that subject: all hell is breaking loose! In a good way. All the final preparations are falling into place and we are running around trying to get everything in place in time. I will watch our Digital projection tomorrow morning to make sure we have that to play to you all. WE are still fighting that damn volcano (well, the delay it caused) and we have hit all our back up deadlines. It is honestly in the lap of the gods now whether we screen the 70mm print… but lets be honest here: they were the same gods that erupted a volcano to try and stop us so I don’t trust them. I don’t trust them at all. I poke them with sticks in an angry way. That’s how much I don’t trust them.
Trust me… we are doing all we can and trying to make sure the night is as perfect as it can be. If it’s not as smooth as you may hope remember there are only two of us sorting all of this out. I’m not moaning, because lets face it – it was our decision! And we are getting A LOT of help from A LOT of wonderful people, but it all hangs on our heads. I just hope everyone has a good night and enjoys the entertainment. I honestly can’t wait to show you Chasing Cotards – it’s going to be a big moment for me. I hope it’s a big moment for all the people who helped us out as well… I want you to be proud of the movie that you helped make. It owes so much to all of you.
The great news is that our after show party will be held on The Strand which is a short 5-10 minute walk from the IMAX building. I’m very excited about seeing you all there and drinking the night away.
In final PR news… Radio 1 were in contact with us yesterday. It’ll probably come to nothing… but Radio 1 know about our film now. I will be keeping a close eye on that one for sure.
Until next time big short film lovers!
Ed.
Director.
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Thursday, 22nd April 2010
Chasing Cotards Vs The Volcano
First of all… a thousand apologies for not keeping you all up-to-date with everything Chasing Cotards… I am about to tell you the story of what have been 2 of the hardest weeks of my life. That's a strong statement from me, but I mean every word of it.
I'm not going to go in to great detail about every single little detail because, frankly, it's boring and I'm not sure I want to go through it again.
It all started with the grade conform…
Prime Focus ever so kindly offered to assist us getting everything in place to help the best grader in the world prepare for his grading sessions.
We proceeded to transfer all our 6K scans, edl's and ref QT's.
We then had problems with our 6K scans, our edl's and QT's.
6K Scans
Somehow, someway, we managed to lose huge chunks of scans from shots. This is a BIG deal. How it happened exactly is still a mystery to all of us, but that was the position we were in. We had an extremely tight deadline to hit, if we wanted to make the 70mm print in time, and huge chunks of the film were missing. This was before grading. We didn't have the option of re-editing the film. This is because the music / foley had already been scored to the movie length and, more importantly, I didn't want to change my film. It looked as though we had no time and no money to fix this and therefore the film was going to be derailed. With the help of Prime Focus we were able to find the missing scans and provided Cinesite Scanning and Recording a list of possible re-scans. You have to understand that our deal with them was a one time only, free of charge, scanning deal that they offer to nobody. Lorraine Johnson, god-bless her, agreed to re-scan for us and therefore saved the project. Unfortunately the information provided both confused her, Prime Focus and us. Cue a week of scratching my head, getting angry and not understanding how we fix this problem. It took for us to physically go in and see what was missing with our own eyes to realize what needed doing. After this… we were able to re-scan and redeliver to Prime Focus.
EDL
Due to the nature of Vista Vision and having complications with our TK – our EDL had to be manually created. Meaning that there were a few mistakes here and there that caused a few problems. Therefore Prime Focus had to do the labouring job of matching by eye to the QT.
QT
This one is boring, but we had playback issues with the Reference QT in terms of vari speeds, 24 fps vs 25fps, etc etc. I won't bore you with this, but it basically made the whole affair extremely time consuming for a lot of people helping us for free.
Therefore... everything we had delivered to Prime Focus was wrong.
And all of this before we even started grading!
Due to the fact that our Supervising Digital Colourist is the best in the world, I truly mean that, it added pressure on us to make sure everything was correct. He expects the best and we wanted to provide him with the best. What was happening was certainly not the best. It was pretty much all the worst you could expect to happen with a grade conform. For the first time on this project I felt like our standards had dropped and we were supplying a very low service to possibly the most established member of our team. This is something I certainly wasn't comfortable with.
It was a massive struggle, but we managed to get our infamous grader into the suite and he has performed a grade that has taken my breath away. Simply said… it is perfect. Better than perfect. He has done something with the final look of this film that I didn't think was possible. I can't wait for you all to see it. It was a pleasure to work with him and witness his work up close. More importantly, I feel honoured that he agreed to grade our little film. It's something I'll never understand or come to terms with. Remarkable.
It has to also be said that all the guys at Prime Focus were a great help through all of this and were extremely patient with us. Reuben, Dean and especially James (who stayed with Samantha and I until 1am on a Wednesday night making sure the film was how we wanted it to be) can also be described as saviours of the film. We will always appreciate their hard work.
So… grade done… it's been a massive struggle… but it's done. And it's beautiful. Phew!
Because of all our pains and teething problems with the grade conform – this hugely banged against our schedule like an unwanted drummer moving into the flat next door. We were in constant discussions with Stephen Follows (Executive Producer) and Simon Burley (IMAX Technical Supervisor) about how we could possibly create the 65mm neg in time to ship to LA for the 70mm process to be made with enough time to ship back to us here for the Premiere. We managed to deliver the first of the scans on the very last day of our deadline. Meaning we, potentially, had enough time to go through the whole process for the whole IMAX experience.
Then.
The.
Volcano.
Erupted.
(pause for dramatic silence)
Which now means we don't think we'll be able to screen at 70mm for the Premiere like I had hoped.
The delays in flights have hit our extremely tight schedule very hard. Meaning we are a few days late on our first delivery to America . A few days that we don't think we can make up.
It's extremely sad and unfortunate, but I want you all to know that it has taken a Volcano to potentially stop us. We managed to get past every other obstacle in our way… but a Volcano is just that step too far. I'm beginning to think that someone upstairs doesn't want this film to be on 70mm print. Bastard.
However, and this is a big MAYBE, there is a chance we may still be able to. The odds are against us, but there is a 1% chance we will be able to get it to America and back in time for May 8th. But, I am 99% sure that we will be presenting the film in digital format on the night. Not many of you will notice the difference, but screening on that 70mm meant a lot to me. Mainly to say that we had done it. After all our hard work, pain and commitment on this arduous journey I wanted to be able to present to all of you what I had promised. I will continue to fight that Volcano as best as I can because, as most of you know, I don't give up easily on things I believe in… but I expect to lose this battle.
With all that being said though… everything else is going swimmingly… we have an events team hard at work trying to find us an after-show venue (looking good at the moment) and another events team setting us up for the Premiere. The sound mix is being completed and Cult PR are hard at work promoting the film to all who would like to hear.
The BIG NEWS we had slap bang in the middle of the nightmare is that we are now officially FULLY FUNDED. We have now raised the amount we set out to at day 1. Not a figure I thought we would ever raise, but a figure that was worth aiming for. But, we made it! That is a huge achievement for Samantha and I as it is the figure everyone said wasn't possible for a short film. Well… we did it. That feels good… but it isn't something that we've had time to really think about or celebrate. We'll have to do that at the after-show party.
So… it has been the best of times and the worst of times but the short story to our short film is this… we are STILL on for the Premiere… we STILL have a film that looks beautiful and we are STILL going to showcase it on one of the biggest screens in the world in IMAX making it STILL The Biggest Short Film Of All Time!
I cannot wait to show you the finished product.
Lots of tired and emotional love,
Ed.
Director.
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Tuesday, 16th April 2010
The Hills are alive with the Sound and MusicWe have sign off on the Music and the Sound! Hoorah!
Let me tell you, in brief, the story of who, how and when.
Sound / Foley:
The Foley work has been completed and delivered by an extremely talented man called Karl Mainzer at United Audio Project:
For those of you that don’t know what Foley is; it’s when you hear the sounds from within the scene. For example; the clinking of a glass or the brush of a cheek or a foreign sound that is added creatively to drive forward the emotions of a scene. The best example of this being in The Godfather just before Al Pacino performs his first mafia killing. In the toilet before hand, preparing to work himself up for the kill, the Foley artist added the sound of a train racing passed the restaurant. There was no train track outside, or a train even established in the scene, but it was added to help the intense feeling the leading man is going through. It’s that sort of thing that can really pick up the presentation of a film. It is essential and all-important when adding the final finishing touches of a movie. That is what it has done to Chasing Cotards. I have to say was completely blown away with the results. Karl has created an amazing soundtrack of clunks, clinks, bells and whistles for Chasing Cotards. Once again we are in awe of another fantastically talented artist working on our movie.
Music:
It has to be mentioned in this blog somewhere that it was Stephen Follows (Executive Producer) who set up all of the connections we have involved in the sound and music. It was especially the case when he introduced Samantha and myself to the one and only, legendary, Mark Lo from Air Edel. Air Edel are a company that George Martin himself (former Producer to The Beatles! Yes… THE Beatles. The best band of all time… don’t argue with me) and Mark Lo is one of the founding members of this illustrious and Oscar-winning company. Check their website out here:
What Mark is the best in the business at doing is setting up a Director with their perfect composer. Well, he has not failed on this project and has yet again been proved correct in every single way. Mark brought Paul Thomson to the project and the results have been spell bounding. Add on top of this that Paul was actually born in the same town as me, and lived on the same street 10 years prior to my existence, and you will start to believe that Mark has some sort of supernatural powers. But, lets not think about that too long just in case a lightning bolt hits us from the sky. Whether he is god or the devil, or Jacob and that other guy (John Lock), Mark has opened the door to a place that I never thought the music would go. Paul’s music hits a chord that has just made me fall in love with the project again – it actually makes me well up every time I watch it now. Seeing as I have watched the movie a lot of times, and I mean A LOT, that is really saying something! The piano resonates throughout and as for the cello, well… you’ll just have to hear it yourself. But lets just say that the cello has been performed by the wonderfully talented Caroline Dale who, I have been informed, is the best cellist in London, and by London – that essentially means Britain and, if we’re saying that, means she is a contender for one of the best in the world. It really shows on the soundtrack and I think it will give you all shivers up your spines. Check out Paul Thomson’s website here:
The only thing with having Paul as the composer was that, for many complicated and drawn out reasons, I wasn’t able to have Richard Clarke perform the soundtrack as originally thought. Rich is an extremely good friend and a very talented musician, but this wasn’t the project for him. Time and money were against us on that one, but I can confirm that Richard’s music will be playing on the Behind The Scenes Documentary of Chasing Cotards – so his voice will still be heard. However, I could not be happier with the music we have. It is stunning, beautiful, magically, spine tingling and, more importantly, perfect. I thank Paul and Mark for being two of my favourite people in the world.
The sound and music has now been delivered to the highly respected and experienced IMAX mixing guru Brian Eimer in Canada and he will create a perfect mix of all the elements together.
It’s exciting times because all we have left to do now is finish our last niggling VFX shot (that The Senate VFX have ever so kindly been working on), apply the grade, mix the Sound together and we’re done. We will then pack it up and Simon Burley will create a DCP, followed by the 65mm filmout. Then it will be shipped out to Tim Knapp at CFI Technicolor to perform the 70mm print. Oh my goodness this is all terribly exciting!
On a side note… we have now put our trailer on our opening ‘welcome’ page here:
However, you can STILL watch it on the Film4 website here:
http://www.film4.com/videos/article/chasing-cotards
AND… before I forget… you can now check out our IMDB page here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1625860/
I love it when a plan comes together.
Until next time folks!
Ed.
Director
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Tuesday, 30th March 2010
RPS Film Imaging and Simon Burley to the Rescue!
I haven’t blogged in a little while because I wanted to make sure that the Film 4 Teaser Trailer really sunk in to everyone’s mind brains. If you want to check it out again…. Please visit the Film4 website here:
http://www.film4.com/videos/article/chasing-cotards
Now onto what this blog is about… 65mm neg, RPS Film Imaging and the huge debt of gratitude we owe to the sensational Simon Burley.
A couple of weeks ago things looked a little bit scary. I won’t lie to you… we were a little bit worried about the state of the project because it seemed as though we didn’t have enough money or time to reach the finish line. There was no option of the project slipping away, but there was also no solution in sight. Thankfully, the money situation has just become slightly better, but we still had the horrible schedule.
That’s when, out of the magical forest that is RPS Film Imaging, Simon Burley, a hero, a saint, a man who stands head and shoulders above any other man who “thinks” he knows all there is to know about IMAX technology, jumped up to the plate. That man’s name is Simon Burley and he is a man I will love for the rest of my life. Fact.
What some of you may or may not know is that Simon is a man who has a long history in IMAX film presentation, working on countless films that have hit that massive screen – The Dark Knight being just one of them. He is also the man that the BFI IMAX chiefs themselves suggested, make that demanded, we have on the project because they knew that he was the man to help us achieve such a massive task.
Simon owns a company called RPS Film Imaging, who offer all kinds of services including traditional lab finishing, digital intermediate finishing, deliverables, compositing / vfx, titles and image enhancement/repair.
Check their website out here:
http://www.rpsfilmimaging.co.uk/
As I say, the schedule is tight, and we were beginning to worry. Basically, in the grand scheme of things… we weren’t going to hit our deadlines. Crikey! Samantha went and had a meeting with Simon to discuss the problem last week… apparently Simon opened the conversation with a line that instantly calmed Sam’s beating heart.
“I’ve worked out a solution…”
Sigh of relief.
Deep outburst of air from the mouth.
“How?” She returned.
That’s when Simon began to run through what it is he will have to undertake to hit the deadlines we have. Something which I can’t believe a man has offered to do for us… something that he is willing to do for a short film… a project that, yes has taken the hearts of many and taken up our lives for the last year and a half, but still, in the grand scheme of things: a short film. Simon has offered something remarkable.
Mr Burley will have to work for a solid 14 days straight, 24 hours a day, to have the 65mm neg created in time. This is because the rate for the scans and filming is 80 seconds per frame; meaning the film will run onto just under 5 x 1000ft reels, each reel taking 88 hours solid to create!
He will literally have to get up and go to work in the middle of the night to change the reels, so that the whole process doesn't stop at all, as we simply can't afford to lose one minute. On top of that – Simon doesn’t work in town, so he will have to travel into work at midnight to do this!
As soon as we have the first reels made up we'll be shipping them straight out to CFI Technicolor in order to give them enough time to create the 70mm prints and send them back so we can test screen the first part of the film; to make sure the process is working. We can only afford to do this once and if anyone makes a mistake it will be hugely costly and may mean we miss our Premiere. Double Crikey!!!
Further to that Simon is creating this ever essential DCP for us not just for future digital screenings and dvd release, but also so that we can have it playing on the Christie projector 10 seconds behind the film at the Premiere. The lens of the Christie will be covered and we will only open it if for some reason the 70mm print fails - this is our extremely essential back-up should anything go wrong with the print, it means the Premiere will not fall apart!
As well as doing ALL OF THIS Simon is helping us out with advising on our IMAX sound mix because this is something he has dealt with before.
So, everyone, please be aware that this film probably wouldn’t be possible with many of the wonderful people who have helped us out… but the film LITERALLY wouldn’t be possible without Simon Burley. He is stepping above and beyond the call of duty to make this film be possible.
So… all together now…
THANK YOU SIMON BURLEY!!!
It brings me to tears to think that someone would do this for us.
Until next time folks, when I promise I will have an update on the Sound and Music. The hills are alive with the…
Ed.
Director.
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Thursday, 18th March 2010
EXCLUSIVE TRAILER FOR CHASING COTARDS ON FILM 4 WEBSITE
These are truly exciting days on Chasing Cotards.
Thanks to our wonderfully talented PR company, The Cult PR (http://www.thecultpr.co.uk/), they have managed to secure a deal with Film 4 that they have the exclusive for the Chasing Cotards trailer. You can find it here:
http://www.film4.com/videos/article/chasing-cotards?-Clips
This is the never-before-seen teaser trailer for Chasing Cotards and it is exclusively on Film 4 thanks to the extremely wonderful Catherine Bray.
In a few days, after it has resonated on Film 4 for a little while, we will put the trailer itself on our website for all to see.
Exciting, exciting, EXCITING!
Until next time my Film 4 loving friends!
Ed
Director
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