If the blogposts seem a little sporadic at present, it’s because the director and I are on holiday – currently holed up in bed late morning while she reads a novel and I update the blog. Luxury. But it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday. Yesterday we spent several hours working our way through the film and doing a paper edit. That means identifying things that need changing, noting the time code of them, and writing detailed notes on what needs to be done. In doing this we were drawing on a huge range of comments from a diverse group of people who have seen the rough cut.

From here the paper edit will be reviewed by the creative team before we get around to actually making any cuts. We made some radical decisions yesterday, resulting in some 5 minutes being cut from the film. We feel they will all tighten and enhance the story, and make it both clearer, more focussed and better paced. In reviewing the multitude of notes received, there’s always an editorial process goes on – a deep listening but also a strong sense of what the story is and what the essential elements are.

We’re wanting to keep the momentum up as we aim toward late June for the finished product. Many things need to happen to make that deadline, and they need to happen in the right order. Meanwhile, we’ll take it easy on a sunny day in Hawkes Bay…

Posted in news