The completion of a project is rarely accompanied by fireworks or applause but usually an email confirmation or the handing over of a piece of work to an administrator. The completion of a project is often weirdly anti-climatic, especially when the end takes so many tweaks and is all too often nearly-finished. I’ve been here before, anyone who has done a PhD knows it’s never finished until it’s finished finished (there should be a guide on this circulated to friends and family of PhD students). And so it is with the completion of PILI. On Friday I collected the DCP hard drives from Malcolm’s offices in Soho (shout out to Thank You Mam for all your post-production needs) only to find out this morning I need to take them back as Malcolm spotted a problem that is now fixed. But to all intents and purposes, PILI IS FINISHED!
My work on the project is of course not finished as we still need to secure a premiere and distribution but for me the hard bit is done: I have made a film.
When I started this blog I had no idea how unpleasant aspects of the process would be. How difficult it would be to secure a film permit, how many conversations about money I would have to have, or that I would be publicly threatened and blackmailed. I didn’t know the difference between a board and a moose bar, a foley artist from a focus puller. I now know how to produce a film from start to finish and how to deal with the 1000 wobbles along the way, and that with perseverance, a budget, good people, and a plan you can do it.
I also have a new appreciation of mum blogs. Being a child free woman I had discounted these as spaces in which women unfairly compare themselves to each other during an exhausting and emotionally crazy period of their life. I now understand that sometimes you need to write things down during exhausting and emotionally crazy periods of your life and having a blog to help get things off your chest and reflect on the process can be cathartic. To all Mum bloggers: sorry for discounting you, in solidarity.
On Wednesday we’ll celebrate finishing PILI with a closed screening in London for UK crew, sales agents, distributors and friends and family. I’m feeling nervous and excited about the prospect, but also looking forward to being the first time I can sit back and think ‘We did it.’
This will be my penultimate blog post before a very exciting, final goodbye. I could give you a hint but no-one likes to ruin a good ending.
Not Another AIDS Film 