This week was a week of finishing things… or at least getting things to a reasonably finished stage.

The music video is more-or-less done – there were some changes to be made on the first version, but that’s pretty normal, and the results look really good – especially considering the budget wasn’t massive.

I’ve also done – or more-or-less done a documentary intro sequence for another client – a zoom from deep space to the Earth. There’s still a bit more tidying up to do on this, and I’d like to add a few bells and whistles to give it some spice, but again, it’s looking good.

In addition, I’ve done a couple of illustrations for a book on interstellar flight by one of my interviewees from my last documentary (“How to colonise the stars”) and he seems happy with the results….

Finally, I’ve got the first draft of the fossil hunting documentary done – or more-or-less done. There’s still some balancing to do on the sound, and some tidying up, but this project has been going on since February, so having it in a watchable state is a massive deal.

I’ve learnt a lot on this project – most significantly about shaping a story you don’t have before you start and working with lots of material which you’ve shot reacting to events rather than as part of a plan…

Also, it’s really brought it home to me how important it is to create significant “moments” and then build the structure around them. Just telling a story full of interesting material isn’t enough. You need to pace it and create a kind of punctuation in which things are brought together.

Also, the places where I’ve managed to take out the narration and interviews and just let the visuals and music tell the story are the best bits of the film… Not having the shots to do that is the biggest frustration in the project… but a lot of that is down to the chaotic nature of the shoot.

I’m not saying I’ve succeeded in doing these things in this project – only that their importance has really come home to me!


All of which means I now have – or think I’m going to have some space in my working schedule – some time to think about the documentary project I’ve had on my mind for most of the year, but haven’t had time to do anything about.

This is the big one – a full length feature project that I think could be great –and a story I think needs telling in a popular form… but can I do it? do I have the nerve to take it on? and how can I make it happen given that it requires masses of interviews, a placebo controlled drug trial and the building of a battery farm for pixies….


Anyway, a couple of notes on the space documentary I finished earlier in the year: the distributors told me there’s a slight problem with the audio levels – they’re peaking at -6 rather than -8 – whatever that means… I think I’ve persuaded them to adjust them at their end rather than having to re-do the master tape which would be expensive and awkward.

More importantly, the documentary has been accepted by HD fest in New York – I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go (Lisa is expecting in October and the festival is in September, so we’ll see!), but It would be interesting.