Soul Searcher: May 5th 2004

It is now two years since James and I finished the first draft of the Soul Searcher script. Things have certainly changed around here. This was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old Man Peabody owned all of it – had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees. But enough now. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, several ice ages have been and gone, and the only thing that’s stayed the same is that I’m still sat alone at a computer trying to make myself do work.

A couple of things have been happening in very vague ways, but to stick to the hard facts, all I’ve been doing is working on some FX shots and laying more sound effects for the test screening on Friday. As for the nightclub reshoot, we’ve hit a bit of an obstacle in that Bex says a good wig for Ray is going to cost a grand. I thought about having Joe have his hood up for the scene, but that could well be pretty daft. Also I fear we’re not going to get as long in the Marrs Bar as I’d like (familiar, huh?). I’m considering a compromise whereby we reshoot only certain shots that really jar – papering over the cracks rather than redecorating the whole room, if you will. The test audience may have something to say on the matter anyway.

It’s worth me recording here that in the last couple of weeks I’ve passed a certain defined point which I also recall passing during post on The Beacon. You’re never totally happy with anything, right? Your rushes suck, but as you start to cut, add visual FX, add sound FX, add music, it gets better and better. Whatever you can do to close the gap between the film you had in your head a year ago and the one that’s on your edit suite today. But as post goes on you’re able to see that some things have got pretty much as good as they’re ever going to get (unless you raise a million bucks and reshoot the whole goddamn thing). You realise at last that this film will never be perfect. So what do you do? The only thing you can do: you start writing another one, knowing that this one… THIS ONE will be the perfect film. And so on forever and ever. Disclaimer: (1) I haven’t started writing another script, though I have finally hit upon an idea that interests me. (2) I still ain’t making it unless someone up-ends a truck-load of greenbacks on me. (3) None of this means that I won’t keep trying to make Soul Searcher as good as it can possibly be, it just means that I’m now able to see it as part of a larger picture. (4) This sucker’s electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 jigawatts to power the Flux Capacitor.

Soul Searcher: May 5th 2004