After around six weeks of shooting, it’s sad to be wrapping and leaving the company of The Roundabout’s cast and crew. Lots of really nice and extremely amusing people, and it was a pleasure to go to work with them every day.

It’s a comedy pastiche of films like The Omen, and however it turns out, the shooting was frequently a hoot. Hope to see any and all of that crew on other jobs in the future; not a bad egg among them.

However, after long days, 6-day weeks and a tiring chunk of night shoots with big commutes, I’m going to be very happy to see the family in daylight hours for a while before I do any other long jobs. And I imagine the schoolfriend who put me up for a good few nights of the shooting will be glad to see the back of me too.

I recently inherited a voucher for a training course at the NFTS from a friend who couldn’t take advantage. Having had a couple of longer jobs lately, I thought that a week in Beaconsfield might be a nice career-useful leisure activity.

Apart from the Alan Partridge-like sensation of living in a service station hotel for a week, it was a great week. I studied Craft Editing - though I’ve been cutting in Final Cut Pro for quite a while (as well as other software), I’d never had formal training in the creative side of editing. Obviously, most people can happily learn that by trial and error, but that leaves you slightly set in your ways, I find. It’s invigorating to have your rationale for each cut challenged by an editor; to examine and justify your instincts, and see some of the ways on which you become attached to cuts, where you should really stay flexible and willing to change.

Also, the course tutor had edited lots of Peppa Pig, and as I have a three year old daughter, I felt able to say, with some confidence, that despite the amount she must have watched her shows while cutting them, I bet I’ve seen them more.

One of the school screenings while I was there was “Made in Dagenham” (very enjoyable), after which the film’s producers chatted to the students about the film in a way you’d never get at a public Q&A at a film festival. Also, as Stephen Woolley’s old producing partner Nick Powell founded the NFTS, it was a rare opportunity to see those producers of so many brilliant British films of the 80s talk candidly together about the industry.

I’m recovering from the wrap party of the feature film “Dimensions”. Just completed a month’s work on this HG Wells-style period sci-fi story, and had a lovely time doing it.

Lots of familiar faces on the crew, as Emily of mad&bad helped the production to crew up, so there was the pleasure of catching up with some old friends, plus the boys from Bruizer rolling up with the camera crane one day.

It’s been very nice to meet all the new cast and crew, too - from producer and director to runners from the local uni’s film course, it was a particularly nice group.

The main location was close enough to home (and the days so impeccably run by the first assistant) that I got to read bedtime stories to Alice, or play in the morning before leaving, almost every day. That’s extremely unusual, and highlights what a cushy and enjoyable job film would be, if only the locations and hours didn’t keep one away from family so often.

When I’m sound mixing on a production, there’s the problem of being sat in a moderately comfy chair at the sound cart all day, waiting for things to be set up. That’s a problem because a month in a chair with runners offering you tea and chocolate buttons is a little bit unhealthy, but it also makes one do antisocial things like reading books and generally disengaging temporarily from the film.

This time, having bought a new camera earlier in the year, I resolved to do something more constructive, and had unexpected amounts of fun taking loads of photos. I’ll have to wait until the film’s released to show them off, but I got quite into it, and my eye got some much-needed practise. As there are proper photographers to take the publicity stills, I tend to go for candid snaps of the crew working. On this film, as everyone was so easy to get along with, I got some nice memories to take away of old and new friends working and mucking about. Will upload when the film’s out.

In the mean time, I’m going to look in on the edit from time to time, as an excuse to see the guys - and the editor’s very cute baby, who was born during the shoot...

How lovely to see Ray Beckett winning a BAFTA for the sound on The Hurt Locker last night. He's often worked in the same studio in Cambridge where I also freelance, and after his last success (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, before it became that year's Palme D'Or winner) his anecdotes about the shoot largely involved the Irish mist getting into all the equipment and breaking it. When he got back from shooting The Hurt Locker in Jordan, his main remarks concerned the sand getting into all the equipment and breaking it. It's very nice to see such a modest and unpretentious chap get some more recognition for his experience and expertise. Even if the interviewer runs into a brick wall trying to flatter the sound department's work. She's impressed with the film's "sonicness". But I'd be just as screwed trying to think of something intelligent to say about everyone's awards night frocks, so...

BTW, update: he won the Oscar as well :)

To Notting Hill Gate today for some ADR at the PostFactory. First time there, though we've hired their RED cameras for jobs I've worked on before, and the DITs have been great. Nice people, anyway, and it was a pleasure to have one of those jobs in London that just requires a nice, quick train journey, instead of a car full of equipment and a parking headache.

An ambitious week in the old Young's Brewery in Wandsworth just wrapped. Over 60 pages of dialogue recorded with striking visuals in the huge old warehouse. A few friends involved, some by coincidence and some not, so very nice to see them again.
I stayed with a generous old chum (during a fairly tumultuous week in his career), saving hours of commuting over the week, and giving us an opportunity to catch up. Popped in to see another friend from college and her lovely tiny baby; that took the edge off missing my family for a bit - nothing like some baby conversation :)

Jo and I went to the Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Square for the cast & screw screening of Doghouse last night. It’s a feature I worked on late last summer, and it was great to see the crew again.

Apart from a Guardian review comparing it (I suspect rather inaccurately) with another recent spoof horror, I’d not read much about it. While we waited to go in, the make-up effects designer, Karl Derrick (who’s a jolly nice chap), told me that the reviews were “marmite”. Excellent expression. In any event, I laughed a lot during the film. It was lovely to see the people again, and a free drink or two took the edge off the stress of getting there in time during a tube strike...