LA Comedy Fest

Some good news just to hand.
We've just learned 'The Mind Job' has been selected for the LA Comedy Fest.
Great news! A perfect festival for this type of film. And hopefully one that will provide some opportunities for the future.
Being at a loose end, I thought I might head over and see how it goes down – it's very soon, the first week of November in fact.
I'll let you know how it all goes, and will keep you posted as more festival developments come to hand.

Done.

Well, the premiere has been and gone. What a turn out. What a night. Thanks so much to everyone who came along and made it such a memorable night. I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

I had a great night and received loads of really positive feedback about the film. Much of it seemed to be totally genuine. Not that awkward 'better say something positive' thing you have to do sometimes at those events. Well that's how it seemed to me anyway.

I've just arrived in New Zealand where, and I'm finally in front of a computer again. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Now it's all about getting the film out into the world. I'll be sending it off to the Sundance Film Festival in a few days and many others over the next few months. I'll keep you posted on how we go. Fingers crossed.

I'll be in New Zealand for the next six months. My plan is to really throw myself into some serious screenwriting. If it's alright with you, I might just keep you posted on how that goes too. And you thought it was over...

Lastly, I'd just like to say congratulations to the makers of the short film 'Kindred'. They have just successfully raised the funds to make the film through another IndieGoGo campaign. I wish them all the best with it, and look forward to seeing the end result. Even though they've reached their target, it's not too late to get involved and get yourself some booty: www.indiegogo.com/kindred

Official poster officially officialised

The poster for 'The Mind Job' is complete and ready for the back of your bathroom door. And right on time for our screening next Wednesday.
Big thanks to photographer Danny Eastwood from The Pool Collective for the shoot. Thanks also to Olivia Keros for wardrobe, Alexis Lynch for hair and makeup and of course our stars Matthew Moore, Krew Boylan and Lorna Lesley.
Proper!

IT'S FINISHED!!! The Mind Job is in the bag.

It's not often I use three exclamation marks in a row, but I've been saving those ones up since Christmas.

I am sitting at Fanatic Films where the final film files are being transferred to various drives in various formats for me to take away.
We just watched it all through and it looks and sounds great. The music has been added to the sound mix which has been put with the finally graded picture and layed down with the opening titles and end credits.
It's done. It's complete. What a feeling. I need a drink.

I have to say a massive thanks to the following companies for being less like companies and more like just an amazing bunch of incredible people:
Method Studios for the offline edit and grade.
Silencio for the original music score.
Sound Reservoir for the sound design and final sound mix.
Monogram for the awesome titles and end credit designs.
Jessica Nosworthy for bringing the credits to life with such flair.
And finally Fanatic Films for the online edit, the visual effects, compositing and the putting it all back together again.
Much love.

After-party. Sorted.

Folks,
we have the perfect venue lined up for our after party next Wednesday night. Just over the road from the Chauvel is the salubrious Imperial Hotel, and we have the entire second floor to ourselves.

It's about 100m door to door, so you have no excuses for taking a wrong turn and ending up in your slippers.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday night. And please feel free to bring your friends along.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Sydney Film Festival opening night

While you guys were all milling about in your lounge-rooms last Wednesday night, Krew Boylan, Matthew Moore and I were working our asses off on the red carpet. We were toiling to lay down a solid foundation of 'buzz' and 'hype' for the upcoming launch of our film... though we didn't actually have a film to show just yet.

You can catch a glimpse of our efforts here:

Go forward to 01:10 to skip the B-listers and get straight to the As.

We have a date for The Premiere

Some very good news.
We have a date for the premiere of ‘The Mind Job’.

It's going to be big. We have the main theatre of the Chauvel Cinema booked, and plans are afoot for a large after-party nearby.
We'll be sending out a proper invitation shortly, but I just wanted to make sure you block that night right out. And don't plan to operate any heavy machinery the next morning.

The details:
Chauvel Cinema
Wednesday, June 27, 7pm.

The film is in the final stages of development, and we're racing to get the last stages completed in time for the big screen.
I'm really pleased with how it's all come together – a true product of all the awesome peoples who've worked on it and supported it.

Stay tuned for the invite proper.

Picture is locked

I am very pleased to let you all know that we have completed the offline edit for the film.
This means that editing stage is completed and we can now begin the last stages of the process.

The editing has been a huge phase of the project, and I've been working very closely with Seth Lockwood from Method Studios in Melbourne. We've been working both remotely and together at Method's Sydney studio when Seth has been able to come up to Sydney. I can't praise him enough for his work, Seth's been a great companion on this part of the journey. He's been a rock of professionalism, a tower of editing knowledge, a pillar of wisdom and a mountain of story-telling strength – if you'll allow me to extend a metaphor that far.

I'm really pleased with how things are looking. We've had a few test screenings with people both inside and outside the industry, and with a mix of people who knew the project intimately and others I had never even met before. The responses have been awesome. I'm excited. I look forward to rolling out the red astro-turf for the premiere. The troubles we had with all the footage are now a distant memory. By some considerable amount of luck we have been able to cut together the film from the usable footage without ever having to use an inferior piece of footage.

Now begins the last phase: the final sound mix, adding in the visual effects, the music composition, colour grade and titles. And I'd better start looking a venues. You'd better start picking out frocks and socks.

Once again, I'll keep you posted on developments as we go, but we're definitely on the home stretch. Thanks to everyone for bearing with us – we're nearly there. I haven't forgotten all the goodies promised to those who have contributed to the film during our fund-raising phase. Stay tuned.

The Cannes Cut

First thing Monday morning a little package was picked up by international courier and whisked off to Cannes.
It should arrive in France on Wednesday, a day before the submission deadline.

Last week was crazy, a series of late nights of furious editing. We managed to get a rough cut finished just in time. It's pretty rough, which means our chance of being selected for the festival is somewhat reduced, but it's worth giving it a shot. Who knows? And if we do make the selection we will have the time to submit a finished version.

It's a huge relief to get it on its way. We can now concentrate on the finished version without such a hectic time-frame.

I'd like to thank Seth Lockwood, our editor, once again. He worked with me every night, despite having spent the day in the edit suite working on other jobs. Legend. For a while we thought we wouldn't get it finished, but fortunately we covered a lot of ground in the last couple of nights.

I'll keep you posted. Fingers crossed.

Time for an update

It's some time after 11 pm and I've just arrived home from the edit suite. That's when I thought: it's high time we had another one of those update things. The film is still very much underway, and we are getting closer by the minute. We've got another few nights of editing ahead of us. The plan is to get a working edit of the film off to the Cannes Film Festival by the end of the week. It'll be tight, but it's a good one to aim for.

I've got to say it's  a pretty big buzz to sit in front of a large telly and watch the scenes start to come alive and the characters come to life. Each step in the process now is about making it better and tighter and more awesomer.

Seth Lockwood, our editor, has been great. Editor by day, editor by night. Working into the night without a grumble. Seth's up from Melbourne this week so it's great to finally be able to sit in a room together and start to really refine the scenes. The Cannes short film duration maximum is 15 minutes, but thanks to everyone who contributed I've got about 14 minutes of credits to roll at the end. So yeah, thanks a lot contributors.

I'll try and keep you posted as the week goes on, and will let you know if we make our Cannes deadline... it'll be a squeeze. Once the working edit is sent off, we'll get back to finishing the film proper. And once we've done that we'll let you know. You might want to start to think about what you're going to wear.

Talk soon.