Soul Searcher: January 27th 2005

It is good. I’ve decided. The film, that is. Not, I dunno, dark chocolate or something. Although that’s good too.

I showed Soul Searcher to Ed and my other flatmate, Paul. Ed wasn’t really paying attention, but Paul seemed riveted and made some really useful observations at the end. So why does Luca pull up in her car, get out, check the clip in one of her pistols, get back in the car and drive off? Funny how you can watch a film 27 gazillion times and not notice something like that.

And why don’t we see Joe kill that demon outside the Leftbank? Curiously, the answer, “because the stuntman sliced his arm open on the step and we had to wrap early,” didn’t seem to wash with Paul. He suggested filming a whole new section of the fight “with just their shadows on the wall, so you don’t have to get the real actors.” Call me lazy, but I didn’t think that was necessary. Instead, I went back to the rushes, dug out a shot of the scythe being picked up, dropped that in, then – in a highly Lucasesque move – superimposed the scythe onto an existing shot of Ray approaching the demon. A swish-splat sound effect over a reaction shot of some watching drunkards completed the cheat.

Armed with more of Paul’s suggestions, and those of David Gillam, and resigned to the fact that I would have to perform minor surgery on a couple of the music cues, I snipped another minute and a half out of the film.

Soul Searcher: January 27th 2005