After a week to let our mix percolate, we returned to Things We Leave Behind for a few tweaks. The only problem was transferring the video file to me. Even at 3GB, we have 10mbps connections, file-sending services, and I've got unlimited webspace. How hard could it possibly be? And there's a 1.5GB version if uploading was taking too long. We had all of Saturday, after all. And you can do all this stuff very easily with these fast broadband connections.

So after four-hour uploads that the fileshare service then revealed I wasn't allowed to download without paying a joining fee, and various other attempts, I started in the evening. Finished at midnight. The new mix was uploaded by around 1-2am, though I'd flaked out by that point. Hope it all works for the online today!

Another edifying day at work today: a day of Tennyson readings at the Cambridge University English faculty building. The first reader of the morning was my Shakespeare supervisor when I was at college, and I'm currently enjoying a DJ doing "scratch Tennyson" - good in a KLF Chill Out way.
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Update: Just finished at 6.30pm - have been mixing with about four 5 minute breaks since 10am! A good day's work.

The last of this years UK Film Council/Screen East short films, Grace, shot last weekend in a freezing cold Cambridge. Turns out it was much of the same crew as Waving at Trains, so it was lovely to see the familiar faces again, and roll out the sound cart after a few weeks of editing and corporates. Unfortunately, amid some other bad luck, we lost the third day because the main actor got ill, so hopefully there'll be a remount soon.

Owing to a bit of brutal stabbing by my GP on the previous Friday, I wasn't feeling too good (and was trying to manage a dressing and a pharmathon of drug-taking around unpredictable mealtimes etc), so it was lucky that m'colleague Julian (who's booming for the film) had recovered his health well enough to provide some extra brains. We still froze outside for a couple of very long days, though.

What perked things up a lot for me was the most junior cast member - my friend Liz's youngest, Jamie. It was the first time I'd met him, and after missing my daughter entirely for a couple of days because of early starts and late finishes, it was very nice to have a sensible conversation with a baby amid all the adult gibbering.

Just finished shooting a part-time project for yoof drugs and alcohol awareness for my friend Pete. As with most worthy sources of funding, money's been a bit tight and so it's largely been the two of us plus brilliant youth workers, and the cast of teenagers.

I'm periodically reminded that stuff that seems like common sense to adults (punctuality, remembering your costume, not breaking your arm etc) is still untested theory for teens. I'm also reminded that you'll do some real and uninhibited acting, and risk looking a pillock, more readily when you're young. This is because, despite your self-consciousness, you think you're probably a genius. So some performances that would be hard to get from amateur adult actors. I think it'll be quite surprising.
The most dramatic bit so far has been shooting a car crash, aided by the real emergency services instead of some thesps dressed as rozzers. The ambulance crew, police and two fire and rescue crews were incredibly patient with the inevitable glacial pace of filming, and were actually pretty good at their lines! The Rescue Vehicle actually got called on a proper job halfway through, but we'd shot it arriving, so no problem.

Unlike filming an operation, which made me feel that I'd hate being in the anaesthetist's room beforehand etc, this was an oddly reassuring experience. Watching the crews cutting the actors out of a turned-over car, I was surprised by how slick, careful and compassionate they were.

Bloodythirsty, though. As the scene was at the end of the story, it had only definitely been decided in workshopping the script that the protagonist would survive, and that someone else should be killed in the accident. The emergency services chaps persuaded everyone that there should be lots of fatalities... I've seen a rough cut, though, and it looks great.
Looking forward to the premiere with the kids attending; hope they'll be chuffed at how good Pete's made them look.