Monday, December 10, 2007

The poet arrives




The narration by Nick Cave was recorded last month in Melbourne's Soundfirm studios, who kindly supported our film. It was a very exciting day for myself and producer Jessica Brentnall. The day ran very smoothly...well almost.

We arrived at the studios and then thought we'd go and have a coffee for the next hour before Nick arrived. This was a perfectly fine idea, except for the fact that my phone's clock was still set to Adelaide time not Melbourne time (a half hour behind). We only realised this when we arrived on time (we were actually 30 mins late) but Nick Cave had just arrived and so weren't in too much strife.

The session was recorded by Rob McKenzie who had set up two old style microphones in the style of the 1950s Kerouac beat poetry recordings we were trying to borrow from. With very little discussion we went straight into the recording.

It was great to hear Nick's voice immediately and know that we'd made the perfect choice. We did 6 takes of the poem. Some slow, some fast, some very straight and others very animated. I couldn't have asked for a better selection. It was great to witness such a great artist/performer doing his thing. After a nice chat with Nick about his kid's movie choices (They went to see 'Surf's Up' but ended up taking them to 'the Bourne Ultimatum'), both of our upcoming feature film projects and some other things we said goodbye and knew we had some great stuff to work with.

The next day in Melbourne both my laptop and digital camera were stolen when my girlfriend's father's place (where I was staying) got burgled. This was not good. BUT luckily the thieves didn't take the Cat Piano picture signed by Nick Cave (Thanks thieves...in case you happen to be reading this blog) I guess maybe they realised that some things can't be replaced.

We are currently cutting together the narration and we are trying to get the film to around a 5 to 6 minute duration. We will have much more to show you in the coming weeks so keep checking us.

1 comment:

nullandvoid said...

Its great seeing the progress of the project. Nick Cave is the perfect choice!

I can't wait to see how the film comes out. I get more excited about it with each update.