Week 4 post production...

Pic #1 Back at the airport -- this time LEGALLY.

Pic #2 Airport Security weren't happy with the size of Greg's lens. I can understand why. Told him it was a compliment. They were worried about punters thinking it was a Bazooka I think.


Hello friends,

Just watched the first complete rough cut of Summer Coda! OMG! We have a film and with a bit of fine tuning I believe a great one! So very exciting to see all the scenes come together. Probably the most surreal and rewarding moment so far. Watching all the characters come to life, for the first time I forget I was watching multiple scenes and sequences and just sat back and enjoyed. BLISS.

Julie Hodges from Mushroom Music has been helping me with the Summer Coda soundtrack for 5 years!! Was so happy to finally be able to show her some scenes. Music is a MAJOR component of our film and she's gathering some absolute CRACKER tracks.

Speaking of music, just about to catch up with our composer Alies and watch the film with her too. Her hard work starts now. Our score is just so crucial. Alies like so many others has been listening to me (at nauseam) rabbit on about Summer Coda (and her doing the score) for YEARS. So happy to finally hand it over.

We've had to delay our final shoot in the U.S. till March, but it's been a blessing as I couldn't have hacked leaving the edit suite at this stage. It's the best part!

Big shout out to VIRGIN for getting us on the tarmac at Melbourne Airport to film some awesome planes landing LEGITAMATELY. I remember way back to "17 days till shoot!" when we were sneaking around a back airport paddock to film some planes landing, standing amongst cows! Now we roll in style. Thank-you Mr Branson.

Thinking back to October last year amazes me. I was so excited, but equally scared. 4 months later I'm watching the film. UNBELIEVABLE.

Right-E-O, I'd best get back to it.

Much Love,

Ricky : )

Week 2 post production...

...Ahhhh, the memories. These were the best fruit pickers a director could have ever dreamed for.

Hello friends,

Yep, I've been slack. Where's Week 1 post production? Well on top of being slack I've been too busy getting fat. After 8 weeks in the hell fire heat of Mildura, Christmas and New Years was a sight for sore eyes! Ooops, pardon the pun, Jo. (Jo, our EPK producer almost lost an eye to a flaming cigarette on NYE! Seriously).

Now we're back in the saddle. Organising a few last shooting days here in Melbs: Close up tarmac shots of Heidi's plane landing (Rachael Taylor), which our lovely major sponsor VIRGIN have kindly helped us with. Heidi in a Taxi through Melbourne CBD. Helicopter shots for Mildura and the great Murray River, and of course, the BIGGIE: Michael's (Alex Dimitriades') scenes in the CALIFORNIAN DESERT!

So we're off the States to shoot the last scenes of Summer Coda and I gotta tell you, I'm rather PUMPED about that one!

Meanwhile, our main man Gaz (our editor) has been CUTTY CUTTY CUTTY and it's been awesome hanging in the edit suite with him. Having done so much short form, reality and doco over the last 4 years it's so bloody refreshing to sink my teeth into a long form drama. We just don't make many films in this country, so it kinda feels like a privilege to be doing what we're doing.

Gaz has of course been working from the day after we started shooting. Much to do: First you gotta SYNC all the footage, day by day. That's 2 hours of footage a day, shot by shot. Then you gotta lay it all down on the timeline and start blocking out all the scenes. There's 157 scenes in Summer Coda. AND THEN you can finally start to take a look at your best takes and start piecing your pride-and-joy together. And that's when lazy Ricky hops into the edit suite! And then let the good times roll!

Quite surreal seeing all the footage in front of you. Such a lot of hard work, but so much fun as well. Beautiful seeing all the actors again. I had forgotten just how much we'd done.

Next week, while the cutty cutty continues we head to our friends at Soundfirm to do some ADR. Meaning we gotta replace some slightly noisy dialogue we recorded on the Highway at high speeds with the window down, with some crystal clear dialogue recorded in a studio.

Memo to self: Never EVER write 5 pages of meaningful dialogue to be performed in an old truck, on a bumpy road, with the windows down. This may lead to average sound. Instead, pull the truck over, and have one actor to say to the other: "Let's go do this meaningful dialogue scene over there -- on the bench, in the quiet park near the lake, where the film crew can stand in the shade".

Oh well, next time for sure! Truth is 99.9% of our sound is bloody brilliant (BIG SHOUT OUT to our awesome soundo Deano!) and replacing a few lines was bound to happen regardless, so it's a blessing -- cause I get to hang with our two lead actors again. Ace.

...I wonder if they'd like to try my new Jelly Shot recipe: Lime Jelly with Tequila in a little plastic shot cup of goodness. It's very refreshing and is going down a treat with Gaz in the edit suite. It could make this ADR business that much more pleasurable.

More soon champions,

Ricky xo : )

PS. Join us on facebook, tweet and our Summer Coda website mailing list. U know u want to. Just click those lovely coloured words and I promise to reveal another refreshing Jelly Shot recipe in my next bloggy.