Friday 29th June

A busy week ends. We've been editing two super projects: PIANO NOTES - THE UTTERLY PARTIAL HISTORY OF THE PIANO WITH RONALD BRAUTIGAM (we're after the longest title award at the next BAFTAs) and the pilot for my film THE PIANIST AND BEETHOVEN (which stars Leif Ove Andsnes). What a thrill, to be working with two of the best pianists in the world. Ronald's series of shorts will eventually comprise of 26 shorts from Scarlati and Bach right up to the modern day. We've shot the first 13 epsiodes and, even if I do say so myself!, they look and sound great. It's not me that makes them work; it's the wonderful pianism of Ronald and the wonderful editing of my editor Phil Reynolds. I do have a personal way I like to shoot but it would be nothing without them. Above all, it's the genius (an over-used word but suitable at this juncture) of the composers themselves. Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schuman, Schubert and more. Really pleased with these films - and they'll be finished and on air later this year.

The project with Leif Ove is also one to get any music fan tingling... Leif Ove is playing and recording the five Beethoven piano concerti over the next three years and he is allowing me full access to follow his journey. Really, filming his performances with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra would be enough but to also look at how he approaches this works of great art, what does he discover about Beethoven and, at the same time, what can we learn about one of the top 10 pianists in the world as he travels from Japan to the USA to Germany to the UK, and so on. You don't often get to see behind-the-scenes in the kind of detail we are already capturing. If I can make it as fascinating to watch as it is to film, I'll be happy. I filmed him performing and recording in Prague and Bergen - it was a little strenuous but worth it when I watched the rushes with Phil the editor. We've put together a pilot and now we need to raise the budget....watch this space.

Edvard Munch 'The Girls on the Bridge', 1901
(c) National Museum, Oslo, Norway 2012

Another project to watch is TIM MARLOW ON… EDVARD MUNCH: THE MODERN EYE. We shoot it Tuesday for TX on SkyArts next Saturday (7th July). Ben Harding is directing and I know it's a great exhibition so it'll make a great film. Take a look.