Today was Ryan’s birthday celebrations at a tavern and craft beer brewery. It was great to catch up with all the mutual friends we have. What was unexpected was all the questions about the movie that I was peppered with. I didn’t expect there to be anywhere near as much interest, but people seemed genuinely pleased for us and genuinely interested in how it was all developing. The questions on the latter subject in particular were tinged with a bit of confusion – people didn’t understand what was taking so long. What was the hold up? Why didn’t we even know when we would be shooting yet?
The questions, good natured as they were, took me back a bit. The reason for this, I think, is that we found out we had been selected pretty early in the year. It was June already – and I had no concept of just how much time had actually passed in between. I do now. Yeah, I guess four months of pre-pre is a long time. I mean, I guess – but what do I have to compare that time to? Nothing. And even if I did, so what? I know enough to know that every film is different. There are no rules. You have a list of things that are needed, and you get them done. While you’re working through the list, the things that you need to get done often changes. Sometimes the things on that list that you thought were completed are suddenly incomplete again, or completely redundant.
One of the highlights of the night for me was getting into a really enjoyable discussion with Chris, an incredibly smart psychologist and complete film buff, and Thomas Rouch, the intimidatingly talented film composer who had worked on Waterborne the short with us.
We talked film favourites, genre expectations, film music, and everything in between. We had debates about one film over another, and recommended obscure titles for each other to check out when we had the chance. It was a lot of fun, and I was able to ask Tom to send me a link for his music reel. We absolutely want to put him forward for consideration to score Contained. After a quick discussion about what projects he has coming up on his slate, I quickly realised that this was a man with a career that was fast heating up. It didn’t surprise me. When I first heard the score he did for the feature documentary The Will to Fly, it was playing over Ryan’s car stereo when he picked me up for a day of writing. I listened for about thirty seconds and then asked him if it was Hans Zimmer. Ryan laughed and said it was actually Tom, and I could not believe it. Amazing, beautiful work. I hope everything comes together and we can get him to work on the film. It will add so much to the production.
