So, a couple of hours before I start travelling down to Cheltenham for the Fest (the Daughter has been there for the last couple of days as she's a runner).
I have burned a bunch of Monsters DVDs and printed out DVD labels and stuck them on. I have business cards. I have a copy of the Monsters scenes on a memory stick so people with a computer can watch directly.
I spent all yesterday on the website and then tried to get it up on to the server.
At which point everything went terribly wrong. It wouldn't work and then, in an effort to fix it, I managed to mess up my local version. Ten hours work wasted. Well, not entirely wasted, just mostly wasted. I shall have to rebuild it, better than it was before. I have the train journey for that and the hotel has WiFi so uploading shouldn't be an issue.
Now I have to pack which I appear to have forgotten how to do after all those weeks of weekly commutes. Strange.
See you the other side of the journey.
What's on the turntable? "Evacuee" by Enya from "Shepherd's Moon"
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Final cut (not the software)
My preparations for the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival hit a climax this evening.
The new business cards arrived, they look really good, and match the website perfectly (no, that's not a coincidence). And that was nice.
But then I began to download the two parts of the DVD image of the final cut of the Monsters scenes. This took some time, partly because the two parts are both rather large, but mostly because the free file service (filefactory.com) has download restrictions.
Now I don't blame them, they are in it to make money and kept pointing out that if I paid them money I'd be able to download right now, very fast. However I wasn't going to and as a result had to wait an hour before I could download the second part.
Various other things had to happen including moving to the Teacher's computer which has the Burn DVD capability and fetching some other specialised software. This all went smoothly.
So I burned the DVD.
Then I watched the DVD.
You know, it's not perfect ... but I thought it was bloody brilliant.
And that, I can tell you, was a huge relief. I knew it wasn't totally awful, the previous cut had been "OK". But I hadn't been overly excited about handing out copies or pointing people at it on the website. It would have been just "OK".
But the final work the team did, down in Coventry, pulled all the loose ends together, sorted all the little things that needed sorting and they came back with something that's really good.
Now I have no qualms whatsoever about handing out copies or having it playable from the website.
I am thrilled. Honestly I wanted to watch the rest of the story, I wanted to know what was going to happen. (Okay, I know what's going to happen but that's not the same as seeing it.)
I showed it to the Teacher, yes, I know she was never going to say anything bad, but she did say "Is that all? I was just settling in." Which I think is a good sign.
The Daughter tried not to watch the bits with her in - which is most of it. But even she admitted it was okay, at least the bits without her in. (She's one of those who doesn't like to watch themselves.)
It took 10 weeks and less than £500.
Not bad.
What's on the turntable? "Airborne, Part I" by Mike Oldfield from "Platinum"
The new business cards arrived, they look really good, and match the website perfectly (no, that's not a coincidence). And that was nice.
But then I began to download the two parts of the DVD image of the final cut of the Monsters scenes. This took some time, partly because the two parts are both rather large, but mostly because the free file service (filefactory.com) has download restrictions.
Now I don't blame them, they are in it to make money and kept pointing out that if I paid them money I'd be able to download right now, very fast. However I wasn't going to and as a result had to wait an hour before I could download the second part.
Various other things had to happen including moving to the Teacher's computer which has the Burn DVD capability and fetching some other specialised software. This all went smoothly.
So I burned the DVD.
Then I watched the DVD.
You know, it's not perfect ... but I thought it was bloody brilliant.
And that, I can tell you, was a huge relief. I knew it wasn't totally awful, the previous cut had been "OK". But I hadn't been overly excited about handing out copies or pointing people at it on the website. It would have been just "OK".
But the final work the team did, down in Coventry, pulled all the loose ends together, sorted all the little things that needed sorting and they came back with something that's really good.
Now I have no qualms whatsoever about handing out copies or having it playable from the website.
I am thrilled. Honestly I wanted to watch the rest of the story, I wanted to know what was going to happen. (Okay, I know what's going to happen but that's not the same as seeing it.)
I showed it to the Teacher, yes, I know she was never going to say anything bad, but she did say "Is that all? I was just settling in." Which I think is a good sign.
The Daughter tried not to watch the bits with her in - which is most of it. But even she admitted it was okay, at least the bits without her in. (She's one of those who doesn't like to watch themselves.)
It took 10 weeks and less than £500.
Not bad.
What's on the turntable? "Airborne, Part I" by Mike Oldfield from "Platinum"
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Good idea, Piers
The great Piers Beckley has referenced his 2008 posts about last year's Screenwriters Festival. I posted quite a lot too, so click to fetch it all to your screen.
Things are moving along, we have a final cut of Monsters so it will be available at Cheltenham - which is a bit scary, since I have to put the production where my pen is.
Or something.
Website is coming along, should wrap that up tomorrow.
Haven't seen hide nor hair of the business cards, I hope I don't have to use my old ones.
For those going along to the pre-event get together at the Queen's Hotel, I will be there, but I think so will about ten million screenwriters. We may have to just wave across the room.
Excited? Oh yes.
What's on the turntable? "Down South Camp Meetin'" by The Manhattan Transfer
Things are moving along, we have a final cut of Monsters so it will be available at Cheltenham - which is a bit scary, since I have to put the production where my pen is.
Or something.
Website is coming along, should wrap that up tomorrow.
Haven't seen hide nor hair of the business cards, I hope I don't have to use my old ones.
For those going along to the pre-event get together at the Queen's Hotel, I will be there, but I think so will about ten million screenwriters. We may have to just wave across the room.
Excited? Oh yes.
What's on the turntable? "Down South Camp Meetin'" by The Manhattan Transfer
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