I’m currently editing New Light Stir, a 30-ish-minute live action drama with the writer Mike Mallett, a tutor colleague from Trafford College. It’s looking pretty damn good. I’m declaring right now though that this is the last film I’ll make in standard definition DV. We shot it all on Sony PD170′s with the settings pushed as far towards ‘cinematic’ as we could – shallow depth of field, sharpness set to minimum, no gain etc . We ran a preview section of it back on a 40inch Sony Bravia and winced as it made mincemeat of our proudest shots. Still, it looks great on a CRT screen, and through a projector should be pretty good.
Mike’s sorted out actors, locations, props, wardrobe and direction, while I’ve been in charge of crew, cinematography, lighting, sound etc.
It’s been the most technically challenging live-action piece I’ve worked on to date and I’ve learnt loads along the way. At the last count there were 38 people who had contributed towards the film, giving up their time for free and generally being fantastic.
We’re pretty close to finished with the edit, with one last scene to shoot in two weeks’ time. I’m getting that familiar feeling, where you can’t view the piece for what it is, because all you can see are the little mistakes you can’t correct or ideas you had too late. But I still really, really like the way it’s looking.
