Went to see my wonderful artist friend Jelena yesterday evening. I had a couple of wee gifts from New York’s Museum of Modern Art — bendy rubber people with magnetic hands and feet — and she was going to practice aura healing on me. What had I forgotten? That today, the fourth of the fourth, is her birthday! Doh. Well, lucky I had a gift, wasn’t it? We ended up drinking a LOT of wine and getting a really good Chinese takeaway. No healing but therapeutic nonetheless.

Now I have a hangover and am on the phone trying to get the last stages of Last Train sewn up…

Printing costs
I phone the labs for a quote on Last Train. It was shot on Super16. Ted, the friendly voice at this lab says, “Do you want a 16 millimetre or 35 millimetre blow up?” I say, “It will probably depend on the cost.” Ted: “Well, you do realise that a Super16 print is mute don’t you? There’s no room on the print for an optical sound track so it can only be shown on a double-headed projector with separate mag [magnetic] stock.”

Of course, I wasn’t aware of that. No one has mentioned that right up until this point. Why? I have no idea. So it looks like I have to get a 35mm print, which is doubtless going to be expensive. Or maybe it will be affordable. Ted says to email the running time across and he’ll send back a quote broken down into each stage that’s needed. Then I can call him again and we can go through it. I ring the graphics people but Martin is out, so I can’t get the end credits final running time. I ring the neg cutters but Andy is out, so I can’t get the final running time for the rest of Last Train.

I twiddle my thumbs and wait for my calls to be returned…

…

Getting an EDL
Simon the editor is back in the UK so I call him to sort out the Fate & Fortune edit decision list (EDL) which needs re-doing with just two title plates instead of seven. I get through. Hooray! He’s at the dentist and can’t talk. Boo!

And so it goes on…