Almost there...

Hello!

Tim here. It's been quite a while, so I thought I'd write to say what we've been up to since we handed in the work-in-progress to Raindance and the BFI film festivals.

Well, it's been a mixed bag. We've been working hard and diligently alongside Ean Currie (for the sound mix and original score) and ONSIGHT (for the grade and visual effects) to ensure that we're producing the best end product possible.

For quite some time the creative process has been over and it's been more of a process of eliminating technical issues and ensuring that we get the highest quality of sound and visuals possible. The call of duty has been exceeded all-round as hours and days of effort have gone into meticulous details and it's been great that no-one was happy to rest until the highest possible standards were met.

My computer broke down in the midst of three more sets of visual effects, which put everything on hold for a couple of weeks. This coincided with a ripped muscle in my back that put me on the floor for over a week and got me used to sleeping on the floor. This may have had something to do with spending days with my eyes glued to a computer screen in a posture reminiscent of Gollum (as illustrated by a candid photo taken by the producer).

I cannot count the amount of times Miriam and I have watched the film from beginning to end, with eyes and ears focussed on any tiny anomalies that might have crept in.

Many lessons have been learnt about the sound process, the post-production process and the processes that computer repair shops use to extract money from you when they believe you to be ignorant.

Anyway, the news is that the final tweaks are now happening and the cast & crew screening will be appearing on the horizon soon!

Submitted!

Good day!

Tim here.

We haven't posted much recently as the past few weeks have been non-stop – working with Ean on the sound mix and music, and with the team at OnSight to get the online, grade and visual effects finalised.

However, with the deadline for the Raindance and BFI film festivals being at 6pm yesterday, with a couple of visual effects shots yet to complete and a little tidy to the sound, we were in a position to submit some almost-final work in progress.

We're very happy with how the film now looks and sounds and very relieved that we hit our target. Just that last little push to bring things to completion and we'll be eager to have the cast an crew screening!

"We'll sort it in post..."

...that's a phrase that I heard myself saying a few times on-set during the shoot of Selective Listening.

(Hi, Tim here)

I have heard from certain folks in post-production that people use the fact that things can get sorted in post as too much of a buffer. The fact is, that when the sun is going down or you're otherwise pressed for time, it is comforting to know that things can get sorted in post. However – note (from self Editor/Visual Effects Apprentice) to self (Director) – it can save a lot of time and effort to get it right on the day.

To be fair to myself I was aware of this, and the things that we are now having to do in terms of VFX were somewhat unavoidable. Still, I'm having a lot of time to sit and deliberate with myself, currently at 3am on a Sunday night / Monday morning, while ploughing through a few VFX shots.

We are very happy to once again be working with top-notch post-production house OnSight for the colour grade and majority of our visual effects. Miriam and I previously worked with them a few years ago on our short film The Special Effect (click here to view). 

The three visual effects I am working on are under my purview because it would have significantly increased the amount of days that we would have needed to be with OnSight and so I resolved to do them myself.

Unfortunately, I'm not au fait with moving visual effects packages such as After Effects (nor am I equipped with them) and so I am having to go through the painful process of altering frames one-by-one in Photoshop for re-importing back into the sequence later on.

To give an example, here is a shot that we had limited time with on the last day of principal photography. We were losing the light, had issues with traffic and I did see the problems that we would later encounter, but picturing how I would resolve it, the call was made to move on.

The issue we had was that our long-suffering puppeteers had to crouch and move at speed behind a hedge. Through no fault of their own, their heads occasionally popped into shot...

...I am therefore having to remove heads and puppets...

...and carefully put the puppet back into the frame...

With this shot and a couple of others with similar issues, I'm currently working my way through approximately 700 frames. 

Off to bed now – more to do tomorrow!