Today. I phone the editor. EDL copy made. On his desk. Please send. Okay. On the way. I phone graphics people. Can’t use TrueType fonts. Okay. How about ‘Amnesia’? Nice typeface for this. Do you have anything like it? We’ll look. Maybe you could send link? I’ll look. Phone sound re-recording mixer. Much longer conversation…

I love what you’ve done so far. We need to pull everything up to the standard of the best bits. Oh, and I really do need this Dolby 5.1 mix. Problem: we’ll need to re-lay all the tracks for 5.1. Problem: the music is in a narrow stereo mix. I bang head on wall. Well, that’s what’s needed. Okay. She’ll look at it. Problem: it could take three days just to re-do the track laying. Ugh. More banging head.

We chat for a bit about a few scenes and after all these months I realise how much easier it is to communicate directly with the person doing the work than via someone else. I think of shinynewgirl pushing monsters out the door. My monster seems to keep growing any time it gets near the lobby. It never gets anywhere near the door, although to people standing outside the growing monster looks as if it’s getting closer. I think of my mortgage and can I afford all this film monster malarky. It hurts my head.

I phone home and check messages. Ted at the lab has called and they have the DAT for Last Train audio (Dolby 5.1–how come it was so easy with that? Simpler film? Non-automated sound desk? More dedicated composer? Simpler music score? Questions without answers). Ted wonders where the negative is. I’ll call tomorrow when hopefully I have the EDL from Simon to give to Peter at the neg cutters so he can check what they’ve done. Then I’ll have to get the graphics from Martin so they can cut them in. Then I can get the neg to Ted.

Around and around and around the same voices on the phone and the same scenarios I go, week after week, month after month. I speak to these people more often than I talk to my mother. I keep remembering the assistant cameraman on the shoot saying, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” I remember smiling wanly at him while trying to stay focused back then. Can it really be a year and a half ago? I smile wanly at the memory.

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