The bulk of the work on the DVD is now done. I burnt a prototype yesterday for testing. There’s more tweaking and clean-up to do on Going To Hell and one more featurette to edit, plus of course the surround sound mix. Neil and I are still on the vats scene, with our friend Rick O’Shay, due to us having to break off to mix the new trailer the other day. We’re starting to feel the pinch; we’ve only got three weeks left to finish it, but saying that, three weeks before the premiere we were only just starting the original mix.

Happy New Year.

Going to Hell has reached its target length of 90 minutes. The few people who have seen it, including Tom from Wysiwyg, say it’s thoroughly entertaining -“great viewing,” were Tom’s words – but have suggested that I should put some more stuff going right into the film, as it’s pretty much all things going wrong. Problem is, I don’t have any footage of stuff going right….

Apologies if any of you haven’t been able to access the site for the last few days. You’ve got the muppets at Telewest to thank for that.

Just a quick one to say that Neil and I have reached reel five of the surround mix, which is the fun bit with all the rumbling vats and Rick O’Shay sounds, Tom and I have recut a leaner, meaner Soul Searcher trailer, and Going to Hell is going just fine.

After peaking at a ridiculous three hours, Going to Hell is down to an almost-reasonable 102 minutes. I think it’s turning out pretty well. Tom Swanston and I caught up the other day to discuss progress on the DVD, which I have to have finished by January 23rd.

Neil and I spent Thursday and Friday on the 5.1 mix. We finally finished the stampede sequence after recording and laying some more Kurt Russells, stomping feet and breathing. Then we moved onto reel four, which we’re now about a third of the way through – that’s the end of the rain fight.

Neil and I spent all of yesterday working on the nightclub crowd surfer/stampede sequence – about two minutes of the film. It seemed very empty, so we layered up a lot more sounds. I wound up voicing a bunch more extras, including the (female) crowd surfer. The first attempting at pitch-shifting my voice sounded like TV funny-man Joe Pasquale.

Right, so Wysiwyg. Soon after completing Soul Searcher, I advertised it as a film seeking distribution on Mandy.com. Wysiwyg’s Tom Swanston got in touch a few months ago and, after seeing a screener, saw the film’s potential. We met up a month ago for a chat and I found Tom to be very open and straightforward. (Unlike the used car salesmen of the Cannes Film Market.) The company is relatively small and new at present, but that’s a good thing because it means they’ve got something to prove by getting the film out there. Coincidentally, Diary of a Bad Lad – of Cannes Director’s Journal Crossover and recent Finchely Shooting People screening fame – is also being released by Wysiwyg next year.