It’s been a rough few months for myself, illness has pretty much crippled me and meant I have only been able to keep a few things ticking over. I now have a massive backlog of work to catch up on, not only for Casimir Effect but all the other projects I’m involved with.

Now I’m back and fighting fit I can get back on with post production, I have been reviewing everything we need to do and it seems there is an awful lot more work than we first thought. So we are splitting the special effects into the ones needed to tell the story properly and everything else to make it look nice. This gives us a rough system to start prioritising things. However this doesn’t mean we’re going to do a rush job just to hit a festival date, as you only get one chance with a film so we want to be sure we have done the best we can.

So the release of the film will be delayed, provisionally until the end of the year so we can spend time on getting those finishing touches just right. The delay however has produced some good fruit, Clarky has completely reworked the music for the film the new songs he played me are awesome. With extra time we can put a lot more effort into everything and rework elements if needed.

Because of the delay I’m changing the fundraising deadlines and over the next few weeks will start getting the delayed action plan up and running. This means new merchandise, new stills and some new footage from the CGI tests and teasers. I have seen some of the work already, and have been working on the matte paintings for a few scenes, so you should start seeing things coming up soon.

We’re not for now, about £170 to go before the end of the year. And what an amazing year it has been, going through some of the past blog posts. It seems we have been on a fun and sometimes scary rollercoaster ride. To get to the point it has been fantastic and we couldn’t have done it without the help and support of the fanbase. We have seen the filming through, had clips and previews. Yet this is just a small part of the journey, we’re about half way there now. The edit is locked, the music is underway, and the sound is getting there and the CGI is being planned. Yet without you we couldn’t even be here without you, so a big thank you goes out to everyone who has helped, and always remember you are supporting independent film and creativity.

Yes there is still a journey left, once we have the post production underway, we need to start really digging into what festivals we can and need to enter. As we start looking around we will be looking out to fans to help research and promote at local festivals. We’re also hoping many of you can come to a festival, as we will keep a guest list for all those who have helped so you will get to see the film at a festival. Then as we have done each festival we can find independent cinemas for screenings, before we make Casimir Effect available for general release.

So in the New Year, we still have a fair amount to auction off, there is the soundtrack and the making of book. Also if we can get our head around any legal ramifications we may do pre orders on a limited run of the DVD, to be released after each countries premiere.

So for now let’s get that last £170 in the pot and move into the new year with big ambitions and the passion to carry them off.

Well I’m rendering Scene 15 now, it’s taking 2 hours for a minute of footage and my PC is no slouch. Once it’s done, it’ll be time to get it to a private part of Youtube until after Chicago TARDIS. Then once it has screened there we will activate it so you can all see it. BTW it looks fantastic and the sound and atmos for the scene is spot on, no music yet though.

The Edit

It’s been a long road I have one of the two versions of the edit, I’ll be locking one of them tomorrow and then getting it out to the right people. The reason this has been taking so long is a long story but I’ll tell it anyway. We wanted to make the beginning of the film faster, so we moved one of the scenes to a flash back. This worked so well, we went back to the drawing board on most of the edit, and reworked most of the first part of the film to add more suspense and pace. From what I have seen of the new edit it looks good, however tomorrow is crunch time and I have to pick one of them.

Day Six

I missed the mid week post for the Production Stills, so I’m doing it now. Here are the shots from day six, showing some more humorous moments from the cast and crew.

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We all know there are ups and downs of filmmaking, most of this is cleverly hidden behind a veneer of PR and marketing. Problems are covered up, smiles stuck on and all the time there are people at the back getting no sleep trying to find solutions to problems, they never knew could happen. It has always been our aim to show you the highs and lows of film making.

With this were letting you know were going towards a low. The edit is nearly locked and were about to start post-production, though we have cheap good quality solutions to this there is a financial cost. Our aim has always to have the film finished by May 2011 so we can have it at Cannes of that year. However due to unexpected delays we are running about two months behind schedule. Luckily the schedule was built with two month slack. Now we have used up all our slack and any delays jeopardise Casimir Effect. If we miss the May 2011 window we have to sit on the film for another year (we don’t want that to happen), as Cannes has to be our world premiere. I don’t want to delay the release as everyone who has helped and donated so far wants to see the film. Now we have a rough teaser out there you can see that things are moving forward and that you can reinvest your faith in the project.

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Now the rough edit of Casimir Effect is past the midpoint we’re looking further into the future, everything from music, to the special effects. We have a bunch more meetings before we really get dug in, but we have established our post production and marketing budget goals. We are looking to raise £12,000 to cover post production and marketing. However we have a bit more time to raise these funds. This new goal has been split into two, the first £6,000 needs to be raised by the 1st October 2010 and will be mostly used for post production, the last £6,000 by 1st February 2011 which will be used for the preparation for film festivals.

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Like reaching our other goals we will be auctioning off a number of items including more film props, costumes and set dressing, and all those donation that have gotten us this far. We are also putting together a selection of limited edition signed prints that will be put up for auction over the coming months. As always we will be adding more items to our store, including signed versions of our regular prints. I have a bag with some more Torchwood goodies to be signed, and a few of the audio books Gareth did.

We’re also thinking of making some costumes for cosplay if there is interest, CJS ID badges custom made with your picture and name on them. As always we’re open for new ideas and suggestions as to what you would like us to do and we will look into getting them.

Sound and Music

As mentioned before Blue Gillespie’s tracks Paradox and Time Knot are for the film. Once we have the rough edit we will be looking at getting the songs as stems (each instrument in its own track) so we can remix and rework the songs for the sound track. However before that we have ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) to get done, once we have the ADR sorted we can start looking at getting the first full trailer out. But before then we hope to get a second teaser out.

Once we have the ADR sorted, our sound guys Espen and Ewoud will be spending the summer collecting sound effect and building banks of sounds. To create everything that is important to the world of the film, everything from a sliding cup to the hums and crackles of the time machine. When they are off doing this we will be working on the music and reworking the songs we have to create all the character themes and incidental music, that will set the mood and tone for each sequence.

Special Effects

This is the hardest part of post production and will require a large team working many hours to get everything that is needed. Once we have a rough edit we will be going through each scene deciding what effects are needed and what we would like to do but hadn’t thought of. Then we need to prioritise them so we can create our workflow for the coming months. Also it will tell us which scenes we need to re-edit first and allow us to structure our path to the final edit.

Everything from Rotoscoping (cutting out actors from the background, and replacing markers), to rendering new elements for the time machine and the future. Everything takes time and we need to start the complex things now and leave the easy things till near the end. Of course these special effects are also where most of our post production budget will go.

Trailer

As mentioned above we will be working on a new teaser once we have a rough edit, this will give you a taster for what we have coming. Than after that and we have some of the sounds in and music ready we will do our first full trailer and look to doing a longer trailer later in the year with some of the completed effects.

Sex Wales and Anarchy 3

And finally we will be at Sex Wales and Anarchy 3 this year, hopefully we will have a few scenes close to completion for people to see. However we are also running the film side of SWA, called SWA Film, we’re turning this into a mini film festival, with a prize fund at the end of it. The details will be on the SWA3 site in the next few days and hopefully many of the filmmakers that are following us will submit something. We are still looking for our judges at the moment but we’re hoping we can get some interesting names to help out.

Anyway it proves to be an interesting day with lots of fun and creativity and some good local bands to boot.