FX work continues on the pilot. It will be next year before it’s all finished. That’s almost as long as Soul Searcher was in post.
Meanwhile, some casting has been persistently not happening. And I took a read of some professional feedback on the screenplay and started to think about the next draft. But that’s about all that’s happened of late. I saw the neighbour’s cat peering at a squirrel over the fence. Does that count?

Welcome to the new Dark Side of the Earth website. You’ll find plenty of new photos in the gallery, and a brand new cast and crew section. Apologies to those crew members I couldn’t fit in.
P.S. If the site runs sluggishly, it may be due to a lack of memory. Try relaunching your browser and making sure you have no other web pages open.

Carl and I met with Henning last week to go through the new layers of sound design which the latter has created. There are many great new touches which would never have crossed my mind. Henning has really blurred the line between the Swordsman and his mechanism and the ship itself, which adds a nice bit of extra magic and ambiguity to the wooden robot. Subtle vocalisations in the mix bring the puppet to life further – even animal noises, like a rattlesnake blended into the steam hiss of the mechanisms.

Film & Festivals magazine have printed an eight page article consisting of an abridged version of this journal in their August issue. You can view it online or order a print-on-demand copy. Thanks to Chris Patmore for this excellent coverage.

Aidan and Joe are still slaving away at the FX, Henning is busy with the audio track-laying, and Carl is making enquiries about a certain actor for the voice of the Swordsman. As for me, I’m working on a new Flash website (following a failed attempt at the same earlier in the year) and starting to think about writing a new draft of the script.

I locked the edit (again) today. A few more feet of film need scanning and all the sound effects need shifting about to fit the new picture arrangement. Henning will be adding a lot of new sounds to the mix over the coming months and hopefully giving it a lot more shape and definition.

Henning Knoepfel, a lecturer at SAE, has come on board to do the 5.1 surround sound mix. Meanwhile I’m fiddling with the edit to see if I can’t make the first scene just a little bit smoother.