The Last Post is finished!In his wonderful book 'Making Movies' Sydney Lumet talk about the sound mix as being 'where you pay for all the fun you had making the film'. It is a time of endlessly seeing and hearing small segments of the film (which you are already fed up with!) repeated hundreds of time as you smooth out imbalances and agonise over whether the tiny sound of a tea spoon tinkling in a cup is ruining the film. But as soon as I met Andy I knew that it was actually going to be quite a pleasant 2 days. He had the manner of someone who knew what he was doing, enjoyed his work, and was easy going. What is more he was genuinely enthusiastic about the film - it was clearly a little project that he was relishing being involved in. What is actually rather wonderful about the mix is that it is another chance to raise the quality of the project and there are a myriad of ways in which sound can be used creatively to enhance the ideas you are trying to get across - and in a comedy to get more laughs. My composer Martin Thornton has been working feverishly away on the music for the film and like so many others he has risen magnificently to the challenge. He applied for the post through Shootingpeople.com (as did a very large number of other composers) and the sample he sent was the only one that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck - so it was a fairly easy decision. As well as being a good composer Martin is also a very talented musician and arranger, works as assistant to a busy composer of music for TV dramas (such as Ripper Street), is a consummate professional, passionate about making music for movies and knows many musicians that he can call upon at short notice. Consequently he was able to get a cornet player to record his wonderful pastiche of The Last Post tune that is heard every remembrance Sunday. Martin has created several original pieces of music for The Last Post and has come up with some startling and imaginative ways to heighten the intensity of certain key moments, convey the personality of the characters and to draw together the different elements of the film into a coherent smoothly unfolding whole. One pleasant task that had to be undertaken during the mix was to get the actor Mark Heap to re-record a single line of dialogue . Mark was fresh from his holiday in the Lake District and was such a joy to have in the sound booth that we got him to do a few more little things as well - all of which we were able to use. I have been so lucky to have this wonderful actor in my film. With the film now completed the task is now to manage the release. Samantha Waite, the producer, had great success with her last film - which went all the way to the Oscars - so I will be largely guided by her advice. If you are wondering if the film is any good I am too close to tell you but I can say this: I am very excited about showing this film to an audience and there is a bit of a buzz about it.. I think the film is a timely little satire about the effect of social media and the Internet on emotional development and I think we have a real chance of getting in to some of the big festivals. The cast and crew screening is taking place this Saturday at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road but the 80 or so invited guests probably know the project too well for it to be a 'pure' screening (and incidentally it is NOT the premiere - calling it that would ruin our chances of getting in to some big festivals..)
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