Apologies to anyone who tried the Insite link within the first day or so and found it didn’t work; there was a stray space in the address. It works now.

The test screening at the Art College is set for next Friday. I’m very sorry, but I’ve got some programme about Abba on the TV and the sparkly costumes and gaudy primary colours are distracting me.

I decided that the dreaded nightclub sequence was not up to scratch, and am making preparations to reshoot it at the bar of Br-Ian Marr. It’s not just that the locations don’t match. The fact that we were always rushed, tired and struggling for extras when we shot in the Crystal Rooms make the whole sequence weak. The special challenge for the reshoot (and of course there has to be one, this being Soul Searcher and all) is that Ray’s had his hair cut, so we’ve got to get a rug made for him. Still, no-one told me to feck off when I uttered the word “reshoot”, which is something to be grateful for.

How did it get to be summer? Wasn’t it the freezing depths of winter yesterday? Right, well, I’ve been plugging away at assorted low-tech FX shots, things involving small cardboard letters and other assorted miscellany. I’ve also had the Lego out again, shooting some extra videomatic shots for the third act, speaking of which…

Jonathan Hayes, noted Bristolian communications engineer and quick-carving saviour of the last weekend of principle photography, has begun work on the *****. I can’t tell you what the ***** is because it would give too much away, but suffice to say it is vehicular in nature and miniature in size, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing it built for the last two-and-a-half years. (My God, has it really been that long? – Name the film for a bonus point.)

I saw James the other night for the first time in months. Contrary to the rumours, he has not joined the priesthood, but has merely been living the life of the hermit for a little while. It was good to see him again, and we promptly made plans to start writing another script – ONE WHICH I’M NOT GOING TO MAKE UNLESS SOMEONE GIVES ME LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY.

Insitemag.net are running an interview with Yours Truly – it goes live tomorrow (Sat 24th).

I finished laying the temp music (recipe: 5 parts Batman, 1 part Back to the Future, 2 parts Attack of the Clones, plus a pinch of Broken Arrow ) and sent the application off to the Film Council yesterday morning. Should give them a laugh. Watching the whole film as I ran off the tapes, I was very pleased with the present cut, for what my opinion’s worth. Now I’m back on special effects.

Spent most of today working on a single FX shot, which involved a fishtank, a plastic funnel and several pints of milk. Problem with this kind of FX is I’m doing all the R&D at the same time, and I seem to waste large portions of the day trudging round town looking for some innocuous item (such as a plastic funnel) that I need to make the shot look right. Anyway, I still haven’t got it right, so I’ve given up for the evening and instead turned my attention to the UK Film Council application forms I downloaded today. The forms were mercifully short and can be dropped in the post along with a copy of the rough cut as soon as I’ve got round to laying some temp music on the movie. This last job is also needed for the forthcoming test screening at the art college (date as yet undetermined).

Again, little to report. as I’ve been working to pay off the credit card all this week. Post-production has been slow to get moving. Now that I’m the producer too, it takes me twice as long to get anything going. Summer approaches fast and the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the home page now reads “coming autumn 04”. I’d say late October at the earliest. I shudder at the memories of how post on The Beacon was rushed.

So what about those miniatures that are supposed to be getting built then, eh? What’s happening with those? Nothing just yet, but I should have more news next time I write.

I was just talking to Chris Mayall and he said, “Are you still updating your director’s journal?” Good job you reminded me, Chris.

Not that anything very interesting has happened since the last entry. I’ve mostly been holed up in the flat doing tedious effects work, and for the last six days doing audio clean-up and basic sound effects laying. I also got in touch with a local amateur orchestra about performing the score, but I haven’t heard anything back from them yet.

I feel very unproductive this week. I don’t seem to have achieved much. I took another pass at the edit yesterday and shaved two or three minutes out. Art imitated life as a certain couple’s cameo hit the cutting room floor. Colin came over this morning to get the background plates for the ghost ascension effects which he’s contributing. I’m still trying to firm up personnel for the various other effects.

I was watching one of AJ’s Hi-8 tapes (dominant content: actors sitting around boozing and smoking) and was highly entertained by one of the cast recounting a dream in which I appeared as a theatre director with a script written on the inside of a tobacco pouch. Other dreams were also recounted, but I can’t write them here otherwise I won’t have any blackmail material, should I need it later on.

Yesterday went very well. Thanks to everyone who came. There were some good questions from the audience, particularly Mike Jackon’s “How did you get everyone to work under such appalling conditions for no money?” Everyone really liked the documentary and said that I should use it as a promotional tool, which I hadn’t really thought about (too busy actually making it). The props display in the foyer kept blowing over every time the door opened, but nonetheless attracted a fair bit of attention.

For me the whole thing was something of a watershed. With the relatively short and easy “making-of doc” tunnel successfully navigated, it’s back to the big long “whole film” tunnel, and that light at the end is so very far away.

Fergus and I finally settled on twisting a redhead power cable for the umibilical cord. We need to come up with something better for the film itself, but for the trailer it does the job.

AJ came over yesterday to record his narration for the documentary and provide me with a few extra behind-the-scenes shots from his camcorder. No AJ, Hi-8 is not coming back.

This afternoon I set up the props display at The Courtyard (though unforunately I didn’t get time to do any touch-up work on the goods, ahem) before heading to Cinderford with AJ and Chris, where the three of us did a live interview on Forest of Dean Radio. It went very well and I hope to be able to put it on this site in a couple of weeks.

Well, I’d better go. I still have to paint out a tape glitch on Ray’s interview and master the documentary. Still, I will actually have time to go to bed tonight, which I wasn’t expecting a few days ago.

In The Making of Jurassic Park, physical effects meister Michael Lantieri recounts the trouble he had trying to find a way to make those now-infamous concentric ripples in the glass of water as the T-Rex approaches. Various methods were pursued, long conversations with wave tank specialists were engaged in and much furrowing of the brow was seen to occur. In the end he had a brainwave the night before they shot the scene: he placed the water on his guitar and plucked a string.

I’m reminded of this story as I’m about to begin my second evening with Fergus trying to work out how to make a string, cable or long thin object of any kind ripple in the serene, flowing fashion I want. Last night’s efforts included gently blasting some string with a hairdryer, attaching threads to our fingers and puppeteering a cord, and finally twisting an audio cable into a spiral and letting it unwind. This latter method currently holds the most promise, though it still has a trembling quality to it which gives away its small scale and destroys any illusion of ghostliness. The quest continues.

Saturday lurks nearer with trouser-browning stealth. I still have AJ’s narration to record for the documentary and a few shots from his camcorder to cut in. The trailer, of course, still lacks for some umbilical cord effects and whilst I got a great score through from Scott just now, it does need some changes making to it. But rest assured it will all be ready for Saturday. Don’t forget, folks – 12 noon at the Studio Theatre, The Courtyard, Edgar Street, Hereford, UK, The World, The Solar System, The Milky Way, The Universe,