When Soul Searcher bombs and I need a new career, I’m going to start up a coffee house and call it Accost A Coffee. But until then, if I want to accost a coffee I have to go to Hereford’s new Costa Coffee. It’s like the new Doodies, only without the soul. Yes, this is going somewhere. This is where James and I met up to talk about a new script. I brought the SS sequel outlines to the table (the more I think about them, the more I don’t want to make them), plus two other proto-ideas for features. We’re not planning to write any scripts for now, just treatments, so we’ve got something if people ask what’s next.

James said the college in Cheltenham where he teaches might be into having a Soul Searcher test screening.

I was at a bit of a loose end over the weekend, having expected to be re-editing as a result of the Hereford test screening. Instead I took the opportunity to sleep a lot, and went back and redid some of the first FX I did back in December. In the intervening five months I’ve learnt a bit more about what works and what doesn’t, and was able to considerably improve the scene. I used to really hate the opening scene but it’s gradually getting better. One of the FX involved blasting sugar out of a bowl with a hair dryer (to represent dust blowing out of the street sweeper brushes). Of course my vacuum cleaner chose that afternoon, with my living room plastered in new glucose decor, to pack up.

Jonny’s thinking of selling his Mustang, so I’m off to London tomorrow to record the sound of the engine (although I have a track on a sound effects CD called “Nuclear War” which sounds about the same).

The college has postponed the test screening until next week.

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.

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.