Hello all, it’s me again!

Yeah, I just can’t stay away from this blog thing … probably because I’ve got a lot of waiting around to do at the moment as people with far greater expertise than I could ever possess busy themselves finishing my film for me! I don’t know what day it is in post-production as I’ve completely lost track of time, but I’m gonna say we’re at Day 4 until I get a chance to look at the bit of paper I have back in my hotel room that has my post-production schedule in it.

So … Day 4 (I think) was all about preparing for the big finish. The low-resolution edit is all done and this morning it was rebuilt from scratch at full 4K resolution (that’s 4096×3072 screen resolution for you geeks out there – sharper than anything our mere mortal, home consumer, Blu-Ray or HDTVs can currently produce) and prepared for the color-grading process. Color-grading is an essential part of filmmaking during which every single shot in the film is compared to each other and all the colors are chemically (or in the modern world, digitally) manipulated to make everything look like it was all shot at the same time and not on separate days, weeks, months or continents. Color-grading can also help enhance the picture, in much the way that Photoshop does, and can imbue a scene in a movie with color and light elements that were not present on the day due to budgetary, time or practical restrictions. I wish I could show you some before and after shots from Blank Spaces, but that would be exceedingly naughty and somewhat impossible, but an excellent demonstration on color-grading during the making of The Fellowship Of The Ring can be found on the extended DVD of that movie.

Inside the colour grading suite at Park Road

Suffice to say that the color-grading process was absolutely magical and is one of my favorite parts of the post-production process. It is especially accentuated thanks to the RED Camera which shoots a RAW format which contains enormous latitude for preserving color and image information (translation: RED footage acts a bit like film and you can make the footage go in almost limitless directions just like 35mm film can). RED Camera RAW footage is dull, gray, bland and milky and looks like it was shot in a light fog, but once you get it into a color-grade suite you can practically turn an overcast day into brilliant blue sunshine if you know what you’re doing. And fortunately my Park Road Post Colorist Matt Wear has the expert ninja coloring skills to do just that (since my footage was sadly shot on one overcast day and one day of bright sunshine, and needs to be matched into one seamless moment in time). We did 4 straight hours of color-grading today and have another 2 hour session tomorrow to get it all finished and hopefully the final results will blow the audience away as much as it has me. I can’t say more except that the color-grade session has really brought our difficult-to-access location of Lake Alta to life and I think more than a few people will fall in love with it as much as we all did when we were filming there.

Raj sneaks a shot of one of Park Roads upstairs hallways

Apart from the grading session, I also had a spotting session with the Park Road Post sound team assigned to help me with my film – the gregarious and infectiously fun Tim Prebble (30 Days Of Night, Bridge To Terabithia, World’s Fastest Indian and Under The Mountain) and resident music and audio genius Dave Whitehead (The Lovely Bones, District 9, King Kong, The Lord Of The Rings). As you’ve no doubt heard Aya ranting about them, these two guys are not only utterly badass at their jobs, but their incredibly fun to boot and while Tim is sorting out Blank Spaces’ narratively important sound design, Dave is trying to save my sorry butt by producing a musical score that will outdo the temp tracks I’ve been using that I could never get clearances for! And as our friendly neighbourhood YBBC has reported, both of these guys are living up to their reputation. The music score for Blank Spaces is coming into shape wonderfully and perfectly underpins the comedy and emotional content of the film while homaging the tracks that inspired me while I was writing and editing the picture. I just can’t wait to see it all put together in one of the famous Park Road Post mixing stages!

Today I also bid farewell to my editor – the lovely Ken Sparks – who has left to go climb Mount Aspiring in the South Island, with his son. Yes folks, the New Zealand lifestyle is pretty incredible! Cut a short film in the most luxurious post-production house in the world one day, go climb a mountain in one of the most beautiful national parks in the world the next! And while I won’t be climbing another mountain in a while, I have to admit that today – like every day since this experience began – has been just as incredible and I still find it hard to believe that I’m doing all this!

Sunset over Wellington harbour as seen from the hotel

Will post again soon and hopefully I may have more photos to share of stuff as well!

– R