And so onto the next ADR sesh… This one was going to be way more tricky!  You see Craig Conway (Radgy) isn't based up here in the North East anymore, he's now permanently Darn Sarf.  He reckoned he could get into a studio in Soho and do his lines there, and as a veteran of TONS of films we knew we wouldn't have to worry about his ability to match his lines and performance. 

BUT…  There's always a bloody "but" isn't there? As regular readers of this blog know, we used three different sound recordists with three different sets of kit for the shoot!  Poor Aris' ears are bleeding with all of the sound irregularities.  Anyway, Craig has been rehearsing a theatre extravaganza at the CAST theatre in Doncaster - which is two hours south of Tha Toon. I decided it might be better for the ADR if we recorded it with Aris' special microphone which is what we're using for the rest of the sessions at Rich's East Wing Studio.

Aris was free, Craig was amenable - and so we booked in the session for Friday; Craig only had a short window but he was up for it and so we were all set. Until a pencil in Aris' diary became an official booking, and he suddenly was no longer available! Jeez this film feels cursed sometimes!!!  So some frantic rescheduling took place and finally at 9:30 on Wednesday night we were finally rebooked for Thursday lunchtime.

Aris and I set off for Sunny Donny first thing in the morning made it there on time, after nearly being run off the road by some awful drivers on the A1 and then being confused by changes to the Doncaster one way system that were not on the sat-nav.

What a beautiful theatre, the CAST is - a beautiful, modern, multi-purpose space with fancy fountains outside.  We hooked up with Craig, took over a meeting room and then Aris set up his portable ADR system - what a pro.

Craig was an absolute trooper - considering he's been rehearing dance numbers for 3 weeks… He even managed to wangle an extra half an hour to finish off his lines.  He said watching the clips made him remember how much the lads laughed their arses off throughout the filming.  We showed him a few other clips and the outtakes and then it was time to head back to Geordieland after a quick pitstop in Tesco for a sarnie and a bag of crisps.

I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to Craig and Aris for busting their balls to make sure we got the lines rerecorded and also to the staff of the CAST theatre and the people involved in Craig's show for helping us along the way. 

More ADR coming soon… Including - what do you do when one of actors had emigrated to Australia???

HELLOOOOO!

Sorry I’ve been gone for so long - 14 months or so I reckon… so what’s shaking people?  I really must apologise again for going radio silent for sooo long and I’d really struggle to explain what happened.  Safe to say, we ran out of money - came close to raising investment twice, only to be disappointed at the final minute - and then as John Lennon said “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”.  In other words while we’ve been scheming ways to get this film finished - 14 months went by and a shitload happened.

Anyway so sorry for being so crap people. We haven’t forgotten and we haven’t quit - it’s just that 2013 was a total clusterfuck of a year… We even discovered there’s a new Irish film (shot last year) - remarkably like ours called The Stag (I know - WTAF) that’s coming out in mid March.  All I can say is DON’T GO AND SEE IT, especially not thinking it’s ours… Remember ours is authentic Geordie cinema - not Irish. And really sweary. Really, really sweary in fact. These delays could help us out though - on February 24th, 2014 the BBFC’s new certification guidelines kicked in; meaning we might yet get a 15 certificate!

So enough preamble and daft slavvering on - let’s do an update of where we are up to:

The grade is just about there - thanks Fantomeline (Steve, you ARE a trooper).

The bits of VFX that The Kid (aka Chris Nicholls) was undertaking have been finessed by our DoP, Richy Reay - without the graft of Chris though we’d’ve been stuffed ages ago.

Richy Reay has also created a couple of other VFX spots for us AND a really FANTASTIC opening credits sequence - seriously he’s a man of many talents!

Next up: the man, the legend, Aris has undertaken the mammoth task of sound post-production.  Not an easy feat when you consider that we have 3 different sound recordists on the film!  Anyway GIVE THE MAN A MEDAL - he’s cracking on with it.  

Last Friday we had our first ADR session - with Sir Billy of Fellows (The Judge) at The East Wing Studio in Byker. It was a great success thanks to the skills of both Bill and ADR Supremo of the North East: Rich McCoull… Now how’s that for a cracking name???

FINALLY: I will be updating frequently over the next few weeks as we hurtle towards our release date (TBA ASAP) and the poster (created by the immensely talented Mark Jobson) will be available for your delectation shortly.

Thanks for not quitting on us.

Zahra, James and the Stagg Do team. x