Ah yes, here we are, almost a year since the shoot of Creak, a year since the planned super quick post production to show the film at the Halloween Son Of Movie Bar...then the last Son Of Movie Bar...then...then...then...
So much for the plan of not having a long post production period...
This episode began the night after the Creak shoot - Sheila phoned me and asked if I'd be interested in her partner Dave editing the film. Dave was a professional editor, done lots of TV, made his living editing but is also a film maker in his own right, having been involved in a high profile feature film earlier in the year. So the answer was hell yeah! As I was concerned about myself having the time to hit the deadline, having someone full time working on it should guarantee it being done on time.
Darren naturally had all the footage on my hard drive at his house in Brighton, which was about 10 minutes walk from Dave and Sheila's. I tried to get them both liaising to pass the footage on, to save me facing cross Brighton traffic and a 20 mile round trip but things still seemed slow getting the footage to Dave. Dave asked me to transfer the DAT audio to wav or aiff and get that to him. 22nd of October - "Deadline easy." Cool.
I was still a bit confused about how much or how little he would be prepared to do on the film - was he to grade it or would we need time to wing it back to Darren? Would he do a basic sound mix as he went along? I also needed time to get the film to my friend Paul to do the music...
Dave said "Can do as much or as little as ya like - I never cut without sound though...I get four weeks for an hour of exec approved drama usually so ten minutes is doable quickly and I can upload cuts for you to have a squiz at."
2 days later I was still unsure if Dave had the video footage, but I put the sound files into Dropbox for him and sent them over...
The next day I sent another text, checking that he had everything he needed and asked him to copy Paul in on any edits so he could start doing music for the film.
No reply...so the following day another text asking how it's going, then having to check an email address as Nick couldn't get the title sequence to him. Thankfully I get a different email address.
The next day I get a text telling me he's sent me an email - "small warning it's a bit frank mainly just about efficiency given the tight deadline." So I read the email, which I initially take to heart - he tells me how the clapper isn't in shot sometimes for the clap (which I had been concerned about during the shoot), the loudness of the clapper, the inadequate haphazard slating system...I do accept it was friendly advice, but I always presumed myself (and hopefully Terry) would be editing it, so the fact that the clapper was a shit show wasn't a massive issue, as we were there on the day and knew what we had. He was also concerned about the DAT sound not synching up correctly and it being very hissy, so asked for the source DAT tape so he could take a look at it. All in all, the messy production end was making headaches for him. He'd also just been doing some crazy long shifts on editing jobs, which was a surprise as I'd been told that he had no work lined up and could concentrate on Creak.
2 days later, now the 1st of November and a catch up text asking how things are. No reply.
Scuttle sideways to the 6th of November - still heard nothing back, infomr him I've forwarded some sound bits. Ask how the edit is coming along, whether the DAT was ny better...and any idea when I'll get to see anything?
9th of November - let him know I've sent some more sound stuff. Ask how things are going...
The next day I ask him if anything in particular is holding it up, not sure if he's up to his neck with other things...and say I'm just getting cranky in case it misses the final Son Of Movie Bar.
I get a reply the next day saying he'll call me tonight.
But it's the next night...
So Dave is having some trouble, big trouble involving legal issues over the feature film he was involved in, massive financial implications for him and his company - shit show all round due to someone in the production being useless. He basically has bigger fish to fry and I completely understand that he has to take any paying work to make up the financial shortfall over this idiot. I realise that the titles for Stranded are still on that hard drive that he has, so I need it back to have a version of Stranded to show at the final Son Of Movie Bar. I ask if finishing the film for the end of November is unfeasible...and that I look forward to seeing a cut.
17th I drop a quick text enquiring whether there is a cut of some description, as I was seeing Sara that night and wanted to give her some feedback.
22nd and I get a reply telling me to come over and get the hard drive that night. Tells me I'll see a cut this weekend, but film madness and his daughter needing a trip to hospital have understandably affected his communications back to me.
I went over that night and surprised Sheila when I knocked at the door. We chit chatted for a bit...then as it didn't seem forthcoming I asked if Dave was in. No, he was still in London and Sheila didn't know anything about a hard drive. While I was wondering if I'd made the journey for nothing she called Dave, who was on the train and audibly swore at forgetting about me coming round. Luckily the hard drive was there.
28th of November I bit the bullet and send a text saying I'm going to take over and try to do a cut of Creak so I have to something to show the following Tuesday. I state I was really looking forward to collaborating, but the reality is that he has much more important matters than my daft disposable film, so no hard feelings and hopefully we can work together again in the future. I also enquire about the DAT tape and its whereabouts.
So despite saying forget about it, I get an odd text the next day - "So Tuesday the 7th? That's what I thought. That's cool. I'll have a cut before that." Then it turns out Sheila has been ill (she was feeling rough when I saw her several nights ago) but tells me "so best you do a versaion as well as me for sure"
???
The oddest thing was to come next - "BTW it's important to me that Sheila signs off on any cut that's made public as she is in line for future stuff that we need to consider someone viewing by idle search (maybe alter her name etc.)"
Which was weird. I'd always been straight with Sheila over the production values/ level of the film and that it was supposed to be a bit of fun. So I sent a bit of an epic reply as I was still confused about where he felt he stood and what completeness his cut was going to be...
"Hi Dave. Bit confused and concerned so got a lot of questions - if you do get a cut done for next Tuesday when will I be able to see it? How soon will I knwo to let cast and crew know it is definitely screening? Is it supposed to be the final cut or just a cut? Is it realistically going to have time to go back to the composer? Have you used any of his bits that I forward by email? Does it need anymore music aspects? Have you contacted Nick about the titles? Have you approved the credit I've give you?
I think I've always been very celar with Sheila regarding what to expect from the film, it was always supposed to be just a bit of fun. Her performance was great, so even if the film came out as garbage she would still be shown in a strong light, so this talk of signing the film off seems to have come out of nowhere. If she is that concerned about the quality of the final film I don't mind if she wants to go under a pseudonym. I just want to see the film finished and as I haven't seen any of the film it feels like I'm the one in the dark, so I can't answer if you have concerns of her appearing in something of such low quality.
I will work on my own cut as a back up which may not be ready for next Tuesday. When we spoke before on the night of the last Movie Bar you had said something would have been ready if you hadn't been so ill as you had only needed one more day. Was this version scrapped because having the DAT provided you with better sound?"
I added again that I was sympathetic to all the legal crap and family illness he'd been going through.
3rd of December - snow is causing havoc in the UK. I text Dave again asking if something will be showing at Son Of Movie Bar as Sara needs to book a baby sitter.
5th of December - once again ask for confirmation immediately if a version will be showing as Terry and I wanted to publish the final line up. He replies telling me he won't know until tonight - then asks "Aren't you doing a version fella?" As the internal hard drive of my Mac had failed I hadn't been able to do an edit and my priority was on getting Stranded ready to screen.
6th of December - two texts sent asking for any last minute news. No reply at all.
18th of December I ask about the whereabouts of the DAT tape...and also ask if Dave and Sheila will be joining us for our usual pre Christmas mulled wine extravaganza...
27th of December I once again chase up the DAT tape, stating I really want to get Creak finished as early as possible in the New Year. I get a reply back saying he's still in legal shitsville - planning to retrieve the tape from London this week, unless I fancied the trip up there...not really, and suggest that his people in London just whack it in a jiffy bag to me...
3rd of January, say I'll be in the vicinity of their house today and could swing by and get the DAT tape if it's there?
9th of January - still chasing the DAT tape, get a reply back saying he'll have it on Tuesday. I ask if it'll be there on the Wednesday morning as I can get it then?
12th of January - ask about Wednesday again, told they are both out early as Sheila has gone back to college. He tells me he'll get her to text me. She doesn't.
14th of January I ask if he's around this weekend and try to meet up to get this tape.
Luckily I finally did meet Sheila on the 19th and get the tape back.
The sad thing about all of this faff was that Sheila sent me a text saying that Dave was really excited about working on it. For sure I'm sure all the legal headaches got in the way, but I'd just got cheesed off with the lack of just a simple text back letting me know what was (and wasn't) happening.
Off of the back of all the talk about "final cut approval" I'd got myself into a stupid paranoid mess and was convinced they thought the film was SO bad that they figured the best thing to do would be to withhold the footage and make it as difficult as possible for me. I'm sure it wasn't anything like this, but that's where all this to-ing and fro-ing got my brain thinking. My brain is a strange place. If you visit it, there are odd flitting shadows flying over white walls just out of the corners of your eyes.
The other sad thing was that I'd rekindled my friendship with Sheila over the previous years, we;d been to their kids birthday parties, Dave had been very supportive of our film efforts for myself and Terry, showing us his studio space in the heart of Brighton...and I think that they're sorta embarrassed by this whole thing, or embarrassed about the film, or something...as I've barely heard anything from them all year. I told them when Stranded was online as I'd like them to see it, I kept them informed of Creak to which I had no replies. Sad. I mean, I was hacked off at the time, but it feels it's business, not personal. I've kept the door open, but they seem to have forgotten where we live.
So, the edit came down to Terry and I. Hilariously, it took us about 3 nights, working a few hours at a time, to have an edit assembled together, which did make all of the wait for Dave's cuts look a bit strange. But putting it together wasn't that joyful - it just felt that it didn't work. Putting Paul's fun synth noises and string aspects together made a difference, but it just didn't have that creeping dread I wanted. The Pioneer felt too static and one inexplicable moment which I loved, where we see the Pioneer at the bottom of the stairs, then somehow being upstairs just behind Sara, had to be removed at the movement was far too human like and just not odd enough. And as Toby was coming down the stairs it wasn't possible for him to try and walk backwards (plus we had Sara in the same shot)
I also realised the end scream of Sara was too short and not very dramatic - she really needed to be screaming in slow motion or something for the creak to work, as all the screams were just too short.
It was a struggle, but I had to keep telling myself that I'd always planned this to be disposable - if it didn't work, don't worry, just move on. So after some tweaks that I did on my own, I decided that this was the final cut at around 5 minutes long.
I passed this back to Darren for him to grade and I went looking for a sound designer. I advertised on Shooting People, pushing the need for a quality sound designer to help bring the horror to the fore. I had 3 people whose work I really liked, all very keen and went with a guy called Justin.
Everything seemed fine on the emails with him and he was promising the sound mix pretty swiftly, which was good as Darren had said the grade shouldn't take too long. And Justin was quite accurate, he didn't take long. Because it seemed like he didn't do much at all.
He had already re-iterated what Dave had said regarding the audio, that there was some very strong hiss which was causing some real issues and there wasn't much he could do about that. But the sound mix he sent me didn't seem to have anything of any foley added to it, and if anything a horror film is really created by the sound design - wasn't that what my advert originally said?
The reason he hadn't done any of this was, simply, that it was too much work for an expenses only gig. Oh. I thought it had always been clear what I wanted and what to expect. What I didn't expect was a whole new soundtrack. Justin informed me that my soundtrack was, frankly, "not very good" so took it upon himself to record me a new score. Now, this is very generous, beyond the call of duty, but I really would have preferred him to have done the foley stuff instead of this. And I can see that some people may see Paul's music as being a bit basic, or a bit odd, but I really liked the John Carpenter/ Delia Derbyshire synthoid squelch about it. But, to be fair, I did give Justin's music a try and it felt far too generic, too I AM A HORROR FILM SCORE. I watched it with Justin's music and with Paul's music and the latter was simply better. Frankly.
So after a little bit back and forth and telling him that I wanted a sound mix with Paul's stuff and without, as a back up, he finally sent me that probably to get rid of me...
I still don't really know what to do with something like this etiquette wise. Yep, Justin did give his time for free and I understand the DAT wasn't very clear. But should I have gone back to one of those other two original sound designers and asked them to have a go? If I did that, would the credit be shared? Or if nothing remained of Justin's work, why credit him at all? If this was a paid gig, I think it would be much easier, but when it's expenses only...well, I just don't know. Perhaps I should have had the balls to just go and find someone else, to help MY film that I've already invested time and money in, but I guess I chickened out. Maybe they would have had the same problems as Justin and I would have ended up with a similar result.
That was at the end of March...it's not THAT long ago, but I can't figure out why things took so long now. I know I was pushing Darren to concentrate on Stranded more, as that was the film I was most keen to get done so that definitely took the focus off of Creak.
A version was finished and up at the end of May which I passed on to Sheila for her final credit approval. Or disapproval. She came back to me and said she wanted to be credited as Sheila Stout. Yes, Sheila isn't her name. In fact, Sheila isn't the first pseudonym she gave me. I'm guessing Sheila was so impressed by Creak that she didn't even deem it worthy of her proper pseudonym. I never understood this pseudonym thing - it was never going to be put on Youtube as CREAK STARRING SHEILA STOUT, the credits would have probably only been on something like Shooting People, so I can't imagine that many people randomly coming across it. And as I said to Dave (also not his real name) her performance is good, so at least that aspect isn't anything to be embarrassed about. Oh well.
Again, I don't know where the next few months went - when Darren and I looked at the film we were both taken back by how ugly a particular shot in the lounge was, where the free standing lamp in Jim's lounge severs the frame into a 1/3rd and 2/3rds..neither of us could understand how we hadn't noticed it at the time. Darren was determined to fix this and spent ages trying to chroma it out to match the dark blue of the curtain, but after much effort the overspill of Sheila's out of focus hair made it an impossible task. He added a filter to help remove the grain from the darkest of shots too.
As he wanted to practive using sound studio software he asked if he could have a go at the sound mix too, which I was happy to let him have a go at.
In the meantime Nick had sent me a finished Sincerely, Psychopath ident which was great but there were some changes I wanted. Unfortunately, due to work commitments this still isn't done.
With the film pretty much done I asked Chris Regan, who had taken over the running of Movie Bar, if he'd be up for showing it. There was a desire to leave it for the Halloween screening, but I was concerned that the start of November would be getting closer to the birth of our 2nd child, so requested an October screening.
Will I ever learn not to book a frigging screening or premiere until I have a copy of the finished disc in my hands? Darren's focus was understandably elsewhere as he was having to pack up and move back home and I think we were both hanging on just another week, maybe another week in case Nick did finish the ident on time. Once Nick told me that it wasn't happening, I told Darren just export the film as it stood.
Nothing like leaving it close to the wire - he wasn't going to have the time to upload the film to Vimeo upfront, so I'd be getting the dvd on the afternoon of the screening, meaning Chris wouldn't have checked the film upfront...and possibly neither would I! Then around mid afternoon Darren contacted me with some bad news - I was assuming the disc had been burnt over the weekend, but it wasn't...and he'd just had a massive hard drive failure. He'd been able to reassemble most of the film, but only had the original titles with Sheila's original name on it. Due to the specifics of not wanting to be credited under her real name, I was reluctant to show the film with the wrong name. There was a chance the screening would have to be cancelled.
Luckily Nick still had the file to hand and managed to Dropbox it over to Darren...but then my plan of picking up the dvd late afternoon had to be abandoned due to a prior commitment. In the end we picked up the dvd from Darren's house from his housemate about 20 minutes before the screening.
Sara, Toby and Nick managed to make it along to the screening, which I was really chuffed about. Brilliantly the film was missing the Faster Productions ident and fo some reason the opening exterior shot of the house...not a great start.
I realised earlier that day that I probably hadn't watched the film in nearly half a year, so it was weird coming to it again. I sat there thinking it doesn't work and then the woman sat in front of us jumped at the Pioneer's kitchen reveal. As Paul had said he'd jumped at that bit when doing the music, it felt like maybe that was a succesful scare.
Despite my feelings about the film, the screening went well with several other people admitting they jumped at that moment. Chris and several others felt that I really should submit it to horror festivals, when I wasn't too sure...maybe I will.
Looking at it, I don't think it works, and for a fundamental reason which my wife spotted earlier on - the protagonist isn't scared, so neither are we. At least Sara joins Sheila halfway through the film, unlike the awful film I saw on Shooting People where it's just the man who isn't scared searching the house, but really it should have been Sheila refusing to get out of bed and making Sara the one who is already shaking with nerves and searches the house. Another reason I think it doesn't work is that I think it must be very hard to get a creeping sense of dread into a short horror - you need empathy with characters and I think it needs a slow burn build, something you don't have the running time for with a short film. It's possible to do a disturbing horror short, or a gorey repulsive one...but creepy? Maybe I'm wrong. I can also see why they say horror and comedy are the hardest genres to edit, as it's very hard to remain objective in the edit and be able to tell if something is actually working to scare the audience.
One great thing is that the screening really seems to have energised me, I've been thinking of the other Sincerely, Psychopath films and I'm now very keen to make those become a reality. Thank you Creak.
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