Well, both yes and no. The old adage used to be, ‘shit in, shit out’. And that’s still true. Kinda. I have been experimenting with a tool from Topaz Labs called Video Enhance AI. It takes in old footage, typically say Standard Definition video, and then up-scales it to HD, 2k, 4k, whatever you like. […]
Guest post by Eben Skilleter Ahead of the final Guerilla Filmmakers 2 Day Masterclass next month, I asked past delegates to share their post event experiences. Here’s what Eben Skilleter got up to… Inspiration, Then Perspiration – Pre-production Trudging across a Hampshire field, in full retreat from the merciless weather, I wonder if I’ve gone […]
One of the problems with presenting Gone Fishing out in the world is that the soundtrack is very dynamic. The loud bits are very loud, the quite bits are very quite. Great if you are in a cinema, not so great if you are in a noisy café in Cannes! To combat this, I have […]
Last Friday I collected the MO disk of the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for the 35mm prints of Gone Fishing. I had a brief glimpse into the Dolby transfer bay, which was a surprisingly compact room, looking more like a machine room at a small post production company than an audio lab. But then I […]
Today I went to Cinesite to meet with the legendary Mitch Mitchell, to discuss how we are going to get ‘Gone Fishing’ onto 35mm. Mitch is a very experienced digital post production guru, who has even written one of the best books on the subject – Visual Effects for Film and Television. Cinesite have worked […]
I spent most of yesterday working with an editor friend of mine, Laura Kettle, in a large post production facility in West London. We had a number of jobs to do on ‘Gone Fishing’, first of which, was re-laying the newly mixed soundtrack onto 2 HDCamSR tapes. After some messing around we managed this fairly […]
Since the premiere I have wanted to do a few very minor tweaks to the sound track. And I mean minor. When you see your film out in ‘the wild’ as it were, you always see something new that could be changed. This is the value of having the time to go back and make […]
So now we have tow major steps to complete for Gone Fishing. First is getting it out there, getting the film working for us, especially with regard to things like film festivals, awards, agents, managers, studio executives etc. More on that in the next few days. The other major step is to complete Gone Fishing […]
Six days to go…(blimey) And still the film is not complete! I spent this morning back at Midnight Transfer, completing the picture grade. Editor Eddie Hamilton came in to take a look and some very minor tweaks were made – one frame here, two frames there, shaved of shots – mainly because we could see […]
Now the final mix is complete, I wanted very much to listen to it in Dolby Digital at home, on my own 5.1 system, as well as start the process for making a DVD of the completed film once everything else is done. The only problem is that I left the final mix on Friday […]
In nearly peed in my pants with excitement as I heard the final mix for ‘Gone Fishing’ It is simply AWESOME! I have just spent the whole day with a team of audio wizards from Videosonics as all the final audio tracks are mixed into the single surround sound mix. Editor Eddie Hamilton popped in […]
Today was the first day of the final mix for the soundtrack to ‘Gone Fishing’. It took place at Videosonics, where on and off for the last six weeks, sound designer Bernard O’Reilly has been crafting a wonderful soundscape for the story. Today was the start of mixing all of those elements, along with the […]
Now I am more recovered from my ‘Xmas bashing’ food poisoning bout, I have been reflecting on the final grade for ‘Gone Fishing’. I have been amazed at how much effort and high-end technology goes into these final stages, and I am very pleased that I made every effort during script development to ensure that […]
We completed the grade on Friday, but it’s got to today to update the blog, Christmas day (!), as I left the grade and immediately fell ill with food poisoning! So no celebrations for me this year. The grade went well. Extremely well in fact. Everyone is delighted with the outcome. However, there are few […]
I spent today at Midnight Transfer, with senior colourist John Claude, and ‘Gone Fishing’ DP, Vernon Layton, conforming the movie and colour grading it. During the day we had a few visitors, other director and producer friends of mine, and some of the GF contributors – and everyone commented ‘Wow! It looks amazing!’ The first […]
I have been frantically dashing around, making sure everything is ready for the final picture conform / picture grade tomorrow at Midnight Transfer. Thankfully I have been pretty organised through the whole process, so while it’s a long haul, so far there have been very few unforeseen hitches. Let’s hope it stays that way. (pictured […]
Blimey! I really mean it. Blimey! How amazing is that!? Top right is the original image, shot by second unit director Simon Cox, and the image below is the final matte painting, Audrius Urbonavicius did for us, and comped into place. Above the new mountains are some whispy clouds which will be animated to enhance […]
I have just sent off the premiere invites to the printers, and hope to get them back before Xmas. We have all sorts of stuff planned for the evening, and I just hope we have the time and energy to get it all done! It’s staggering how much is involved. All the technical completion elements […]
I just spent a very enjoyable morning with sound designer Bernard O’Reilly at Videosonics. We booked the final mix (where everything is mixed into a single soundtrack) in on Jan 3rd and 4th, so it’s all guns blazing between now and then to track lay all the sound effects. It’s such a pleasure to work […]
So the final mastering stages of ‘Gone Fishing’ have begun. I popped into the Film Clinic today to have a look at some of the problems we have with a few rolls of the film negative. When it was processed, some of the chemicals turned out to be a little dirty, and all manner of […]
Russ Wharton, VFX whizz in Wales, has just completed three shots for Gone Fishing. Two were kind of image fixes, removing small cosmetic problems from the shot, but the third was a full blow VFX shot with a worm enlargement. In the story, Old Bill recounts the tale of how he needed the biggest worms […]
I asked Russ Wharton to detail exactly how he has gone about increasing the size of the worm in one shot from Gone Fishing. Here’s what he has said… Interesting if you are into digital VFX…Anyway, here are his words… If you know you need a bigger worm before you film, then film the actor […]
Today we spent a cold session back at Bury Hills Fisheries recording sound effects for the enormous killer pike in Gone Fishing. Senior sound designer Bernard O’Reilly and two of his team, Barnaby Smyth and the extremely brave Stuart Bagshow (seen here in the water) generally thrashed around in the water, stomped on wooden jetties […]
Sometimes, I reflect on what I do, and I really have to pinch myself. Most people have real jobs! Sure, what I do means I live in a famine and hope for a feast, but every day is different. And today, I was presented with the very serious question of ‘how big should the worm […]
Now that the picture edit has been locked, we have entered a waiting game for the final picture mastering, sound edit & mix, and the visual effects. We have got top people and companies working on all three aspects, but as they are all at the top of their game, and as we are not […]
