I Love Luci

I Love Luci TRAILER is finally here...

2010-01-05T14:17:38Z

ADDENDUM: download issues are now completely solved, the trailer works like a dream.
You can see the trailer on the I Love Luci official site or Youtube

Enjoy!

LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

2010-01-05T12:07:39Z

SCREENING: FRIDAY 8TH JANUARY 2010

I Love Luci's UK premiere is this Friday at the ICA in London as part of the London Short Film Festival.

Tickets are still available via the festival site.

If you get a chance to see the film and feel like rating it we'd be delighted if you would pay our page on the festival site a visit and made your mark:

iloveluci.com

2009-12-08T10:27:27Z

I Love Luci is complete and we have a new site to celebrate:

iloveluci.com

The film is now finished!!!! I can hardly believe it. It seems like we've been working on this forever. Fortunately I have also been working on other things in the meantime so I have new projects to fill the gaping void that this could have left in it's wake.

I will continue to post here on an infrequent basis. It's very hard to think of things to say every day that aren't completely dull and inconsequential. But as and when things crop up I'll try and remember to continue plotting the journey here. All the main Luci news and less personal stuff will be on the main Luci site though.

A couple of years ago I posted that we were going to Clermont-Ferrand to do some research into making short films and see some of the best examples the world had to offer at their very fine festival. Not in my wildest dreams did I expect us to be returning with a film of our own. But low and behold the gods are smiling on us and our perseverance, I Love Luci has just been selected for International competition at Clermont.

This is truly the wholly grail for us and I cant begin to express my feelings about it. Apart from Brian and myself there are a whole team of people who have worked incredibly hard to make the film and it seems like such validation of their belief in the project for it to now be present at the world's most famous short film festival.

Pick Up

2009-09-01T13:14:11Z

Last Thursday we went on a not so secret mission to 'pick-up' some shots for the film. There are many reasons for doing this. Primarily in this instance there was an aspect of the script that had been heavily debated in the development stages and had become kind of diluted by the time we shot the film.

It was impossible to tell this at the time, but with hindsight (and a little blindness along the way) I felt that the potential for a couple of extra shots to help the movie along would greatly enhance the final outcome. The rushes (exposed film) arrived this morning. They will be mute until we can get our hands on an Avid but we'll be able to see what's going on soon enough and whether or not the shots will cut into the film.

Tense times.

(Subtitled):

2009-06-25T12:38:36Z

One post in over a month. Neglectful to say the least. Sorry.

What progress do I have to report. In truth, not a great deal. Things have slowed to an unbearable pace as we jockey for position in ever-increasingly congested schedules at post-facilities. The future is bright however, I am pleased to say.

The next step, subtitling parts of the film, is underway and following this we only have the title sequence to do before we are home and dry.

I have never done subtitling before so I am keen to see how the process unfolds. Unsurprisingly, we start with a transcription of the film. I decided to do this myself rather than allow anyone else to do it. I'm sure I'll have to do some tidying up but I want the dialogue to be as faithfully represented as possible. I'm sure I'll run into some timing issues but that bridge can be crossed as and when. For now it's transcription, that leaves room for change later on.

What next?

I am looking for exceptional short scripts as well as being in the throes of writing another short myself. If there is a salutary lesson to have been gained from this experience it is this: have your next project as close to 'go' as possible when you are getting ready to go into production. It takes a long time to set things up so the more projects you can have in a reasonable position to put into production the better.

It is now 8 months since I stood in the production office prepping I Love Luci and I have not been behind a camera since then. This is a difficult position to be in and I am still looking for my next project. For those of you following a similar path to mine that is the only warning I have - at this point!

On another note entirely I would like to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to David Mackenzie for SPREAD (Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche) a funny, sexy, confident, stylish and daring portrait of a peculiar and all too believable Los Angeles scene. Unmissable. Top work sir.

VUE cinema's big secret

2009-04-30T13:10:25Z

The Vue chain of cinemas are trying an interesting approach to marketing their new release. They're not telling you what it is. No poster, no spiel, no clue. Just an invitation to buy a ticket to the cinema for a surprise they guarantee will entertain.

I thought this sounded like a refreshing idea so I'm going to go along and see for myself. I'll let you know of it was worth not having the hype.

Tickets for all the performances can be purchased at www.myvue.com/mysterymovies/. They take place on the 5th of May across the UK.

Home Straight

2009-04-21T07:43:29Z

"I Love Luci" is getting closer and closer to completion.

We are currently working on the titles and credits, plus a couple of other experiments, before embarking on the final part of the process: going to print.

All the cards are approved so we just need to get a timing for the credits so that the sound for the end roller can be finished off. After that we will have very nearly completed the film.

In the meantime, here's an example of one of the title cards:

Of course, as ever, if there are any questions about this post or any other feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you, it may take a while but I do pretty much always reply.

First hurdle...

2009-03-25T14:16:43Z

...first fall.

There is no love for Luci at this years Oberhausen . This is, of course, disappointing. However, it's not all doom and gloom round theses parts as the fantastic Plane Days, directed and shot by Ben Kracun (DP on I Love Luci) & Ewan McNicol, is in competition there so we are very pleased that a close friend has secured a place.

If you would like to see Plane Days it is screening at the London International Documentary Festival (LIDF) on 29th March.

I recommend it, it's a gem:

CLICK HERE to see a trailer of PLANE DAYS

Font Finding Mission

2009-03-20T13:43:50Z

I am once again looking for help.

Top of the agenda at the moment is the title sequence for I Love Luci and I am trying to find out what the font used on prescription labels is.

Here's a photo of a label. If anyone can tell me what the font is I would be most grateful:

And the winner is...

2009-03-14T10:02:23Z

Big Ideas (don't get any)

Congratulations to James Houston.

We were disappointed not to win, of course, but we had a great night. The awards were held at the RSAMD and everyone got tore into the free booze laid on by the sponsors. We bumped into a good few old friends and chewed the fat before heading off for quick bite.

I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who worked on the vid, particularly Brian. I'd also like to thank my wife without whose patience I'd never have got it all done.

Back to the drawing board now.

messy blog

2009-03-12T14:20:22Z

The blog is looking a bit messy at the moment because I'm tinkering with it to get it to look semi-decent and be halfway navigable. Please bear with me while I continue to ferret around in the site's engine room, breaking things and then trying to mend them again.

I have appealed for help in this area before. If there are any experts out there who would like to answer some questions or could spare a moment to share some coding tips with me then please feel free to leave a comment and I'll get in touch immediately.

Trying to fathom this stuff myself is getting tiresome and I make very slow progress on my own - trial and error has never been the quickest route to getting results in my experience.

Pardon the mess.

King Creosote

2009-03-11T09:18:56Z

We are very near the end of the mix and it is a beautiful sounding thing indeed.

All that's left to do is make the track at the end sit nice and loud and clear and give everyone the feeling we want them to have as they leave the cinema.

We have the wonderful King Creosote and Domino Records to thank for our final track, I won't tell you which one it is suffice to say you should go out and buy everything KC have ever published. I am a fan for sure.

Their latest oeuvre is available via all the usual portals and some sample listening to treat your lugs to can be found on Myspace.

Click here to buy the album on iTunes

News travels far

2009-03-09T22:23:48Z

Here is an amusing thing, the nominees for the music video award at the weekend have been written up by a TV channel in LA with We Are The Physics topping the bill.

News travels far:

http://www.rtvchannel.tv/?p=5032

LIVE: Foley

2009-03-04T16:36:09Z

I am currently in Savalas doing the foley for I Love Luci. So I thought I'd do a live blog to cover the event a there is quite a bit of sitting about and just watching for me in this process.

I am away from my on computer so you'll have to do without photos for now I'm afraid. I'll try and describe what's going on:

I'm sitting in a booth with the sound recordist watching little snippets of the final cut pop up on the screen. We watch it back and forth and the foley artist decides on what kind of implement is best to match the sound of the picture.

Our booth has a huge window looking on to the foley artist in a studio that is not too dissimilar to most sound studios, but, it has pits in the floor with different types of road surface, floor surface and anything else you might find underfoot. There is a back room with bikes, cutlery, pots, different kinds of shoes, cloth, glass, metals etc etc. All necessary for replicating the rich tapestry of sounds that surround us every day as we wonder through the world, and of course for making sounds from other worlds too.

We will be spending the next few hours shaking old bike frames, rattling tea spoons and rubbing bits of leather against and an old shirt. We even have a dog we can record of necessary.

Three Beeps System

2009-03-04T11:25:33Z

"We use the three beeps system here at Savalas...", Iain's opening gambit to the start of each ADR session with an actor begins with a brief explanation of what they will hear in their 'cans'. Three beeps and then they begin talking, hopefully in sync with the picture on the screen.

Yesterday we had 3 of our cast in to re-do and in some cases re-invent some of their lines. We started with Sanjeev Kohli, a very well known Scottish actor and ADR veteran judging by the way things went.

As with all the cast we got some real gems but they didn't happen where I was expecting them.

Colin Harris was next up, followed by Camilla Rutherford. In both cases the covering of the original lines was a technical pursuit, trying to recreate the performance from the shoot and while interesting wasn't nearly as fun as discovering the stuff that we could add to enhance the shape of the film. This largely came in the form of laughs, breaths, sighs, coughs, audible shrugs and other minutae. This stuff was great fun to do and it was a real pleasure to be afforded the opportunity to do this level of detailed work.

Many thanks to all involved:

Cast:
Colin Harris, Sanjeev Kohli and Camilla Rutherford.

Technical:
Recordist: Iain Anderson; Sound Designer: Douglas MacDougall; Voice Coach: Ros Stein

The last person I would like to thank is Joe, the night security guard at Film City Glasgow, who very kindly allowed us to interrupt his rounds to come and do a line that I hadn't put in the script. The line covers a security guard at the end of the film - a nice authentic touch we thought, and a great voice.

NB There will be a few crap photos to follow, I promise.