Cccrrreeeeeeeaak...

is the sound my body is making as I reposition myself in front of the editing desk to begin the final cuts on 140 after 6 weeks absence. As you may or may not know, I'm sure the 140 filmmakers will, I had hoped to get the film finished by the end of November, and almost did. But alas it wasn't to be. With a baby due on December 6th I had more pressing things to attend to. And rather then rush 140 I thought it best to leave it to one side for a few weeks and give it the time it deserved.

That time is now. As I procrastinate by writing the blog entry the file sits open and waiting. There isn't too much left to do, really just bring it down in time. The cut for hatch fest was 85 minutes long, which ran really well, but then I added late clips, witch brought it up to 95 minutes for the directors guild screening, and that did feel too long. I still have 4 clips to add, the final 4, and I'm sure they'll push it over 100. From that I need to bring it down to 80 minutes, if not shorter.

I'm not going to cut for the sake of cutting, and I'm not hung up on a time for the sake of a time, but I do feel, for this kind of film, the audience may not endure much longer with purely visual clips, no narration and often no coherence between clips. It needs to flow, move quickly and be paced so it feels like a pleasurable journey, rather then a laboured hike - which it was beginning to feel like at the screening directors guild screening. I'm confident I can do it. The material and the quality is there. I just need to trim it a little.

As far as the screening goes, as mentioned before, 140 individual screenings would be great if people were still up for that - again, as large or small as the filmmaker wants. Me personally, I'll probably screen in a local gallery, with an audience of 50 or so.

I also plan to have the world premiere, as such, online, and perhaps have the film up for one day so anyone who wants to can view it. Then take it down to begin a festival run. Perhaps the same day as the 140 premieres? I will keep you all posted.

Thanks for baring with me. I know the steam can quickly dissipate from these things and excitement and energy wane. But hopefully we can get this train rolling again and get this film into the world, where it came from, where it deserves to be once more.

OK, enough procrastination, here we go... wish me luck!