Cracking the Whip

Starting a new year is always weird because you need to wind down after the previous one, the build-up of Xmas and New Year, the weather, the desire to hibernate and be lazy, but I really can't be this year. I have to hit the ground running, this is the busiest beginning to a year I've ever had.

For starters we've had near-confirmation of the release date of CrimeFighters at City Screen cinema, which if we want to show it on more than one day means we have to put the date forward by three weeks. This is great because it means several things, not least that we'll have shown it before we start filming Season 3 of Zomblog and I can focus on that, but also because Hannah will be able to see CrimeFighters when she visits in March. Awesome.

But there's nothing like a deadline to induce panic and terror.

So I'm having to crack the whip a bit, and email people lists of jobs which include working on FX shots, sound mixing (a third of which I'm doing), music mixing, even shooting additional shots to slot into the final cut.

In the meantime, Tony and I need to keep working on preparing Zomblog for filming in March, what FX we're going to need while Hannah's here, organising locations and extras and so on. It's a lot to do but it's also very exciting.

It's made me realise that one of the hardest things about making a feature film is finally accepting that you've got to finish it and screen it. It would be too easy to get tired and apathetic at this point but all the hard work is done, and a couple of dozen people's hard work and toil hangs in the balance, and it's the responsibility of myself and the post-production crew to finish the film off to the standard everyone deserves.

So it's my job to crack the whip, not just for everyone else but for myself. I'm just running a bit empty.