Thursday, 8:45 PM, NZ local time
Everybody loves to meet me. Well, partly that’s because I’m handsome and charming (and modest, and have such a disarming sense of humor), but actually it’s because they are impressed with Kristi and think it is such a cool story that I was able to come along for the journey. Everybody at Park Road Post is excited to see Kristi’s film come to fruition. These are all people that can “see” the story as they read it and so were really moved by the script. I’ve found that people who can “see” it while reading it are the ones most likely to exclaim “wow” when they get to the end. It’s even more impressive in living color. Park Road Post is incredible and so are all the people. Yeah, okay, I’m geeking out, get over it :-)
I was able to get over to PRP this afternoon. Kristi spent the morning with the sound and music teams (Tim, Chris and Dave) and really put everything together. Late in the afternoon, I got there and we watched the film with all the sound elements in place. It was AWESOME! These guys are great. Tomorrow she will goes into the finalization of all the sound elements – voice-over, music and foley (sound effects) then the final cut at 5 PM! Woot!
I met Aya today. She is in Wellington doing her post production. That means I have met four of the five finalists. I met Tim in Queenstown and saw him again here in Wellington. I met Rajneel in Queenstown and Aya in Wellington (she was out of the Queenstown office whenever I was dropping by so did not get to meet her there). Great people all and good luck to them! I won’t get to meet Andres, but I understand he’s incredibly sharp.
Kristi started a new trend for the finalists – during her third day of editing, she went out into the bulding to find people who had not seen the film yet (like the office manager and reception desk clerk) and invited them to view it to give her and Paul a fresh perspective. Allison at PRP has shared this with Aya, and Rajneel and Andres will benefit from it also.
I learned that last bit while Allison, Kristi, myself, Aya, Tony, Jono and Dave were sitting around a conference table having an impromptu hang together. (Jono is Aya’s editor.) That was really cool to just BS for a bit. I quipped that it’s “unfair” that the production teams learn the ropes from the earlier finalists (remember, Tim #1, Kristi #2, Aya #3, Rajneel #4 and Andres #5). Without missing a beat, Tony expressed the next half of that thought so I did no t have to say it – “Yeah, but we’re all more excited at the beginning and not as tired.” All the production people I’ve talked to have expressed being grateful to be part of this project, but they’ve also said it is the most compressed they’ve ever done any kind of film. Another tidbit I learned at the table is that most “short films” run 5 to 18 minutes, and sound and music typically get a combined 4 weeks, instead of 3 days. So things that normally get hammered out slowly and effectively are being hammered, gonged, molten, beaten, tempered and quenched. (Considering that editing was 3 days and grading was like one-half day, I can only guess how much time those normally get.)
Oh, oh, on a separate note I saw Guillermo del Toro at Park Road Post. Did not get to meet him or anything, just saw him. I think he's there doing pre-production on "The Hobbit" (but really I have no idea why he was there).
We got over to the Te Papa museum today and wandered the Pompeii exhibit. Incredible and staggering. It is amazing how the preserved artifacts and homes and murals, etc., were so well preserved. I can only imagine it forced modern archaeology to redefine their understanding of life in the Roman Empire. (Or maybe not, those Romans took great notes. Ha.)
Wow, it’s hard to believe this journey is almost over. It has been entirely surreal. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it (of course, I’m on holiday, so that helps!)
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