Turn-out at the last test screening on Tuesday was poor again, despite Chris’s best efforts. There were however enough completed questionnaires to see that my recent cuts had been for the best. Everyone described the film as “good” or “very good” and everyone ticked the “just right” box in the pacing section. Bizarrely, several people complained that there’s too much panning in the film.

Now barely over 97 minutes, the movie is coming very close to a final cut, but I’m still paranoid that there are dodgy bits in there waiting to jump up and bite me in the ass months down the line when it’s too late to cut them. I’ve therefore decided to put off locking the edit for a few more days in order to get some more qualitative opinions.

Last night I went round to Colin’s house and shot some “rain” against black. I also got the flashing red light shot using a fireglow bulb and a wastepaper basket, which means the only non-miniature shot left to shoot is the pressure gauge.

It’s 4:30am and I’m writing a journal entry. It’s just like the old days. What isn’t like the old days is that we’ve all been wearing t-shirts all night.

“This is the most random night I’ve had in a long time,” observed Andrew, one of the runners, “apart from last Hallowe’en.” But we won’t go into that.

Our evening began with a quick bluescreen shot of AJ here chez Jigawatt, then after a pleasant cup of tea we moseyed down to the leisure pool, where we had the singular experience of taking off our shoes and socks in the changing room, rolling up our trousers and proceeding through the shower room carrying lights, cameras and flight cases. AJ was quite nervous by this time. We had a little trouble acquiring a lifeguard, but by the time we had set up the lights and were ready to roll, three had come along to watch the fun. You will be pleased to know that AJ was not killed upon leaping from the board into the watery depths below. In fact he rather enjoyed it and wanted to do it again.

We came back here, had another pleasant cup of tea, then moved outside to shoot a Pepsi can flying through the air and a scythe going into a scabbard. Not particularly taxing stuff.

Most of the crew then adjourned to Manhattan’s for a couple of hours, before reconvening for a third pleasant cup of tea and starting to move the gear round the corner to High Town. You will have gathered by the narrative thusfar described that the night’s work was of a somewhat laid-back character. At 3am (still t-shirt temperature) we were reunited with Phil the Street Sweeper Driver an astonishing eight months after we first employed his services, to shoot the crane shot. This didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped, but nevertheless it will help the production value of the opening.

The final shot of the evening involved AJ flinging Ezekiel’s scythe as far as he could. It had been a deliberate decision on my part to leave this shot until the very end of the shoot, and as expected it did not fare well. With every take another piece fell off.

A few quick sweeper sound effects and we were done. All in all, a night of Soul Searcher shooting completely unlike every other night in almost every conceivable way.

By montaging the training sequence and making some trims which James recommended, I got the film down to 99 minutes. The training sequence is much more interesting now. Funny, it was always written as a montage but for the last six months it’s just been sat in linear form on the timeline. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to go to the test screening in Cheltenham on Tuesday afternoon to witness firsthand how it goes down.

Everything is sorted for the shooting on Tuesday night. On Thursday I have to shoot some “rain” against black in Colin’s back garden, and I will still need to find a pressure gauge and red alarm light to shoot (I can see that not being shot until a week before the premiere), but I’m still on course for picture lock at the end of the week.

Duane is continuing to develop the umbilical cord effect. Suffice to say that I’m now very glad I didn’t pursue the string-in-a-fishtank approach. James Parkes, an animator based in Cornwall, has taken on the stop motion shots of the Moat of Souls and the creatures which dwell within.

The video playback machinery failed James on Friday and no further test screenings occurred. He then bumped into Chris Hatherall, who was busy putting up posters advertising the test screening next week (at the same university – a little miscommunication there, but never mind).

I’ve eeked another two minutes out of the film. This afternoon I began playing about with possible designs for the main title and wound up with one that looks a little too much like Aliens. Anyway, it gives me a real sense of progress to think that by the end of next week the picture will be locked.

What also gives me a good sense of progress is that I’ve finally found someone to do the spectral umbilical cords. After two or three false starts with other people, Duane Beckett is now working on the effect.

The Green Dragon Hotel are demolishing their car park, which causes a problem for me because I now have nowhere to keep the crane when we’re not using it. Still, with any luck that will be the last production challenge I have to face on this movie.

The last ever Friends… sniff, sob. Anyhoo, I’ve been making arrangements for the pick-ups day on the 8th. At one point it looked like it wasn’t going to happen because my PL insurance has lapsed and I was getting quoted ludicrous minimum premiums for one day’s cover. Then there’s the fact that Transco has several huge holes in the middle of High Town right now whilst they replace the gas main – something of a continuity nightmare (“There’s so many holes in Fifth Avenue, we didn’t think anyone would notice one more.”) – plus I managed to pick the one day of the year that they start setting up a giant marquee there in the early hours of the morning. However, I will have my crane shot, in this life or the next, and I seem to have gotten around these problems. Shooting People proved invaluable in tracking down a cheaper insurer.

James showed Soul Searcher to a few of his students at Gloucester Uni yesterday, and was hoping to show it to some more today. I don’t know how it went, but he was expecting a poor turn-out since their term is essentially over. One thing I was able to glean from yesterday’s results is that the Doodies scenes are a lot more popular now they’re shorter. Last night I cut another minute and a half out of the movie.

Today, whilst watching all the Friends repeats out of the corner of my eye, I’ve been working on the FX for the nightclub scene. I’d been holding off doing them in case the scene wound up getting reshot. I think when I grade that sequence I’m going to do something pretty extreme, maybe turn it really red like that scene from Aliens.

It just wouldn’t be a proper film without some incendiary effects filmed in Chris Jenkins’ massive garden in Malvern Wells. Jeff, he of the mono-appellation and small beard, took time out from his quest to learn every musical instrument known to man in order to assist Chris and myself in the detonation of sundry items. Those of you who’ve been blessed with the chance to see The Beacon will be familiar with the Jenkins Dell, it being the setting for John McLachlan’s final demise in said action fest. The explosions were shot against black for matting into plates of scattering demons and the like. We also made perpendicular use of a fountain firework, whose shower of sparks now constitutes the visual report of Luca’s rifle.

I’m aiming for picture lock on June 11th. It’s a little scary but it’s about time. I know there will be at least one more test screening before then (June 8th, Gloucester University) and am hoping to squeeze in a couple more.

Jon Hayes and I have been searching for model Mustangs to use for the miniature sequence. The closest we’ve found so far is a 1:18 scale ’71 Mach One perfect in every respect save for its hard top roof. If we can’t find a soft top one, Jon will have to butcher this. Work cannot truly get underway on the top secret vehicle without the Mustang, as we need ensure the scales match.

Other areas of FX work are not going anywhere very fast. I’ve been let down a couple of times and a lot of people have seemed interested but never got round to sending me their showreels.

AJ introduced me to a guy named Kevin McDonagh, who is keen to take on the marketing and publicity work for Soul Searcher as well as trying to raise further finance. We’ve met a couple of times and he’s currently busy putting together an investment proposal.

(Not his 24th, obviously)

I got another three and a half minutes out of the cut, bringing the total running time down to under 107 minutes. One of the many great things about the DVD format is that it makes it a lot easier to cut scenes, knowing that people will eventually see them on the disc release. It’s satisfying anyway to trim things down and make them work better.

With the nightclub reshoot off the cards, the only remaining live action photography is a mottley assortment of inserts, and a few extra shots of some of the leads, One of these is a high fall which AJ is keen on doing himself. At his suggestion I’m contacting Hereford Swimming Pool with a view to chucking Mr. Nicol off their top diving board.

It’s well past midnight and I’ve just called it a night on the edit, having managed to trim five minutes off the movie. I aim to lose another five before the weekend’s out. Yes, one inevitable finding of the test screening was that it’s too slow.

Here are some other choice statistics…

Favourite scenes: opening sequence in High Town (I was very pleased to see everyone jumping out of their skins when the Shifter popped up at the street sweeper window), and the climactic sequence with the vehicle that cannot be mentioned (even though it’s still in Legomation).

Least favourite scenes: the Doodies ones (snip snip).

Favourite character: Joe (mostly voted for by the ladies; Chris and AJ got all jealous).

Least favourite character: Luca (that took me by surprise; wish I’d asked them to say why).

And in the “tick any words/phrases you think describe this film” bit, the top four were “cheesy” (63%), “entertaining” (58%), “good storyline” (42%) and “humorous” (42%). To my surprise, a fair number of people also ticked the “too much action” box.

Oh, and it’s official: no-one gives a rat’s ass about the concert scene being shot in three different nightclubs.

The UK Film Council has elected not to fund Soul Searcher. Reading between the lines, part of the reason for this seems to be that it’s too mainstream, which is fair enough. I don’t think they’re big fans of genre movies. Certain other comments they made I just found downright strange. Time will tell whether they’re right or not.