TIFF approaches

This week is full of milestones. I just celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday and I am one-week away from finishing the final mix of This Beautiful City. I also just received my first Telefilm development grant for my next film, Three In The Back, Two In The Head (adapted from the play by Jason Sherman). Getting the Telefilm grant makes me feel like I've just been given an official seal of legitimacy as a producer (though one should think that completing a feature film and getting into TIFF would have done that already...but finally succeeding with Telefilm after a number of rejections somehow makes it feel all the more real).


(My current draft of a poster for This Beautiful City)

TIFF is right around the corner and the reality of what the festival can potentially entail is really starting to hit me. We're racing to get a 35mm film print ready in time. Also, TIFF selected TBC as one of a handful of films that would receive an official TIFF advance press screening. While this is awesome, it has definitely accelerated our post-production deadlines. But we are on schedule and while we won't be able to show the press a final 35mm print, we screen the film in HD on an awesome projector (so it should look great).

We are finishing the film with a DI (Digital Intermediate) where they scan the negative at very high resolution, do all of our colour correction, titles etc, and then digitally print the film to 35mm film. It has been an incredible process. What we once thought would look like a dirty little handmade film is suddenly looking rich and elegant (or at least like a dirty little handmade film in a nice fitting suit jacket). Technicolor has spent the past week digitally painting out all of the dirt and hairs that were on the negative...along with a couple of boom mics, some crew in a reflection, a couple of nipples that popped out in scenes where they weren't invited, and (horrifyingly) safety harnesses and cable that we THOUGHT were hidden until we watched the high res transfer on a bog screen and they stood out like an orange jumpsuit. But through the magic of the DI...POOF!...they're all gone.

I picked up and began re-reading Robert Rodriguez's book Rebel Without A Crew during downtime in the mix theatre and it has totally gotten me jazzed for the festival. Not that I expect to have major studios start a bidding war for the movie, but I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the festival and having an audience finally see the film.

And lastly...we now have a confirmed date for the premiere: Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 9:15pm. 3.5 weeks away!