'Pleasure Boat' Sets Sail

It is with utter relief and total pleasure that I announce the completion of my first short film (ever!) entitled 'Pleasure Boat'!! At 2pm today, I ceased making last-minute changes and burned it onto DVD, and am ready to show it at our official film screening this Thursday.

In a nutshell, 'Pleasure Boat' is a short portrait of Dave, skipper of the 'Twin Star', a Thames commuter ferry that transports passengers from the south side of the Thames in Rotherhithe (right outside of our house) to the north side in Canary Wharf (what you see when looking out of our living room windows). The ferry has a tiny journey time (3-4 minutes, including boarding and buying tickets!) and the film began by my wondering what it must be like to drive a boat such a short distance, over and over again, day in and day out.

For anyone who has been following this blog, by now you are surely aware that this project has consumed my life ever since I hit the editing room last Saturday morning. I have been putting in full days, sometimes from 8:45 am - 8pm, to ensure that I had enough time to learn the basics of a rather complex non-linear editing software and also guarantee that I had plenty of hassle/pressure-free computer time... which has been a bit of an issue in my program, since they increased the number of students this year but did not increase the number of editing stations by the same percentage.

That being said, in this case, I can honestly attest to the huge advantages of both being an early-riser and having enough self-motivation to start the editing EARLY. The computer lab was always relaxed between the hours of 9am and 12 noon and a core group of us enjoyed leisurely-paced mornings with background music by Billy Holiday, Jack Johnson and Royksopp, to name a few. After 1 or 2 pm, things would tend to pick up and the vibe became a bit more harried with the extra people trying to get on the computers or just beginning their projects, although even that only began 3 or 4 days ago.

On the whole, it is amazing to think that last week this time I didn't know anything about Final Cut Pro and right now I have a 6-minute film under my belt. As bad or as good as the film may be, the real value in this experience lies in the knowledge and skills I feel I have been fortunate enough to acquire in a mere 7 days. I know that this is a stepping stone and that there are many, many more tricks I need to master before I can claim to be well-versed in this software prgram.

But for today, as the winter sun moves lower and lower on the London horizon and light gives way to night yet again, I know that I can go to bed with a sure and steady heart. I gave this one my all, and boy does it feel GOOD!

xo