A rather belated Happy New Year
to everyone! January seems to have whizzed by and Spring is
certainly just around the corner, unless you live in the many parts
of the world experiencing strange weather these days. We, in the UK,
have had a wet & windy time of late and there’s a good deal of
flooding still around. I also feel for my many friends in the USA &
Canada who have experienced some of the coldest weather in memory.
It hasn’t really had much impact on me as I’ve been pretty well
tied to my desk or edit suites since before Christmas.
The good news is that yesterday we ‘Picture-Locked’ IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN. It’s been more or less a 4 year journey so to finally say ‘That’s it! No more picture editing’ is a great moment. There is still a lot to do with grading, audio mixing, subtitling and credits but I do feel a mountain has been climbed. Am I happy with it? Yes, definitely. I guess I wouldn’t have stopped editing were I not. But more than that, I admit there were times when I struggled with Chopin – it seems strange to say (after life stories like Mozart & Beethoven) but there seemed to be endless hard choices about what not to include. As ever, summarising (in an entertaining, accessible way) someone’s full and significant life in only 110 minutes is always going to be a challenge. The first good news for me is that one eminent historian of the period and a key Polish Chopin Institute have all given a full thumbs up. The Chopin Museum in Warsaw want to be able to show it regularly in their (wonderful) gallery – and actually that’s the best recommendation I could have got. The film is not yet finished but that’s a good sign. A lot of time is also being spent on sorting out the film’s distribution….and that goes well too. We will be announcing officail release dates soon. So posters, press stills, social media and all that kind of thing are being worked on. What’s nice is those countries want to take the opportunity to reshow MOZART, HAYDN & BEETHOVEN. Well, we’ll see….let’s hope financially we can at least break even!
In a musical vein, I’ve been working on the other music film too which is the film about Beethoven’s 5 piano concertos – with Leif OveAndsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Having filmed (a 5-camera shoot) two more of the concertos in Brussels recently, we had a chunk more material to start playing with ideas in the edit suite. That’s always such an exciting, important and creative moment in any film’s life… This is a film that just has to avoid me messing up. I have the best music, performed by ‘the world’s best pianist’ `(The Irish Times) and a great orchestra. I’ve been hamstrung as always by the horrors of funding but I don’t think it’s impacted on the filming or the film…So I’m getting excited about that one too (which will be released in 2015). As for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN…we’re getting lots of requests for repeat screenings (To book a screening visit seventh-art.com). More on all that another time…. One last thing, if you’re in the UK, do try to see Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at Stratford – brilliant.
The good news is that yesterday we ‘Picture-Locked’ IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN. It’s been more or less a 4 year journey so to finally say ‘That’s it! No more picture editing’ is a great moment. There is still a lot to do with grading, audio mixing, subtitling and credits but I do feel a mountain has been climbed. Am I happy with it? Yes, definitely. I guess I wouldn’t have stopped editing were I not. But more than that, I admit there were times when I struggled with Chopin – it seems strange to say (after life stories like Mozart & Beethoven) but there seemed to be endless hard choices about what not to include. As ever, summarising (in an entertaining, accessible way) someone’s full and significant life in only 110 minutes is always going to be a challenge. The first good news for me is that one eminent historian of the period and a key Polish Chopin Institute have all given a full thumbs up. The Chopin Museum in Warsaw want to be able to show it regularly in their (wonderful) gallery – and actually that’s the best recommendation I could have got. The film is not yet finished but that’s a good sign. A lot of time is also being spent on sorting out the film’s distribution….and that goes well too. We will be announcing officail release dates soon. So posters, press stills, social media and all that kind of thing are being worked on. What’s nice is those countries want to take the opportunity to reshow MOZART, HAYDN & BEETHOVEN. Well, we’ll see….let’s hope financially we can at least break even!
In a musical vein, I’ve been working on the other music film too which is the film about Beethoven’s 5 piano concertos – with Leif OveAndsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Having filmed (a 5-camera shoot) two more of the concertos in Brussels recently, we had a chunk more material to start playing with ideas in the edit suite. That’s always such an exciting, important and creative moment in any film’s life… This is a film that just has to avoid me messing up. I have the best music, performed by ‘the world’s best pianist’ `(The Irish Times) and a great orchestra. I’ve been hamstrung as always by the horrors of funding but I don’t think it’s impacted on the filming or the film…So I’m getting excited about that one too (which will be released in 2015). As for EXHIBITION ON SCREEN…we’re getting lots of requests for repeat screenings (To book a screening visit seventh-art.com). More on all that another time…. One last thing, if you’re in the UK, do try to see Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies at Stratford – brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment