There hasn't been many updates for a while and there will be a bunch of people who think that the film will have wrapped shooting just now. Sadly that isn't the case but I feel that the film will be better off from what has happened.
I decided to postpone the shoot of the film about two months ago because I felt that there was a certain number of elements that we needed to have in place and we didn't have enough of them to continue at that point in time. In summary this was mostly financing, cast, locations and crew. A few small things you might say! I also had a point where if I went back to work then I would have the opportunity to shoot the film within 6-9 months or if I kept going then I would have had to wait longer.
The other milestone that was hit was the moment that we were scheduled to take money from our investors and personally this means a lot to me that people are willing to put their hard earned cash on the line and if I don't feel that I can do the film justice then I wasn't going to carry on regardless.
So what is the plan now... well first of all I think it was a really good period to stop at. I had learnt a lot up until that point and I can now use this additional knowledge over a longer time frame as well as refocusing efforts to make the film as good as it can be.
The plan now is to shoot the film in mid-Feb next year with the hope to have a cut ready to approach film festivals with by Autumn next year. So essentially by this time next year I will be sitting down watching a final cut of my film! I should write another blog on this at some moment but the idea of sitting in a room with a few hundred people watching my film terrifies me!
With the replan there are also some major personnel changes. I have managed to attract a producer to the project who I believe has the energy and enthusiasm that the project deserves. I spoke to a number of other candidates for this role and was never entirely happy with them for one reason or another but I am really looking forward to working with Sam. Hopefully he will be writing updates and useful insights in the months ahead.
On the acting line we unfortunately are having to look for new actors for the roles of Jacob and Treacle as there is a clash of schedules during our shooting time with Gabriela and Mark. I would like to thank Mark and Gabriela for their efforts up to this point and wish them all the best in their future projects.
So I hope you keep tracking the progress of the film over the next few months. Myself and Sam are fully wound back up (not sure I wound down but anyway) so there will be lots of interesting information on our progress coming up shortly.