I spoke to a negative cutter today, and learned a few unpleasant things. For one thing, the process might take considerably longer than I'd thought--apparently it's a busy time for post-production in New York, and there aren't a huge number of negative cutters in town. For another thing, the first part of the job, which is to go through all my video dailies and negatives and make a database of the correspondences, could have been taking place while I was tinkering with the final cut. I've wasted a week or two by thinking that I had to be all wrapped up before starting to cut the negative.
All along I've been assuming that I could finish the film in the period between being accepted to a festival and the festival itself. I'm now concerned that I may not be able to get a print ready in time for the April festivals even if I do get into one of them. I'd better start cracking.
Click here to read the next diary entry, here to read the previous entry, and here to go back to the main menu.