AGM

As promised, here is an official update on the documentary as of 20/03/16

The rough cut of the documentary is almost done. This would not have been possible without the editing talents of Callum Macdonald who was able to pick up the project and run with it. Despite it being in all sorts of pieces when he came on board and myself being a skittery wreck, he was able to take what I had and work with me to turn it into a coherent, watchable story.

There's still a way to go, we need to make opening titles, closing credits, do a colour grade, a proper audio mix, sign off on the music and insert the historic photos and video as they came to us. We're going to try to get as much of that done as possible in the next week, but it's no easy task. It may be that we don't get everything perfect, but I can now confidently say we will be releasing the documentary in one form or another before the Ice Blacks begin their tournament in Mexico on April 9.

Anyone who donated their time to the project or money to the PledgeMe campaign will be able to view documentary for free and before the rest of the world. Everyone else will be able to view the documentary for a small fee and we hope you will all share the link far and wide.

The reason we'll be charging a small fee is two-fold, firstly because it would be nice to get back some of the money I've ploughed into this project and secondly because if we make it freely available, no television broadcaster will then agree to show it. We don't have a broadcaster lined up yet, but we are going to try and find one so we can reach as many people as possible.

Eventually the documentary will freely available to everyone through the NZ Film Archive and nzonscreen. We will also donate the film to the hockey hall of fame to accompany the NZ exhibition.

The NZIHL AGM was yesterday and at the end of the day we showed a portion of the film to those in attendance, I am mighty relieved to say it was well received. Public screenings may be organised in the future and you should look out for them as a way to support both our sponsors and the ice hockey community.

As for the rest of the AGM, I glad to say Slapshot Productions will once again be carrying the live streaming of the NZIHL season and there will be more announcements about that soon. I tabled a discussion document about forming an NZIHL second division and we discussed a number of marketing, merchandising and entertainment objectives for this season. It all sounds great.

It may just be time to get excited.

Paekakariki

This week has seen some considerable progress on the rough cut despite having to work on an Irish religious instruction video and a dip in weather and traffic that means I'm writing this from a cafe in Paekakariki.

Act two and and three are taking real shape now, which is to say the middle and end of the documentary is becoming watchable in terms of story. There are still changes to make as we work to make it better and iron out the kinks, but it's as positive as I've felt about the project in years.

Act one on the other hand still falls well short and we're once again asking that you take a minute to think about ANYONE, anyone at all, who might have video footage or photos from any of the Ice Blacks matches against Australia in the past 30 years.

Please take a moment to think about Mum's, Dad's, dubious relatives, former players, people you know in another country, anyone who could possibly have anything we could use. We desperately need this content now. If you know of anything or have any leads, please contact us here vilja@slapshot.co.nz

We're trying as hard as we can to get the film done, but we really need your help!

Compromise

I haven't felt particularly useful this last week as I've wrestled with my bug, a fever and some sleepless nights. I needn't have worried though, for while I was out of it, Callum has been creaming the re-cut from Northern Ireland.

This past week has been all about compromise and with me out of commission, Callum has stepped up emphatically. First we had to compromise on the editing software, choosing to cut on Premiere instead of Avid because we just couldn't get the systems to talk to each other properly. Then we compromised on the workflow because I wasn't able to string two thoughts together, effectively doing a retrograde cut where Callum is pulling out the grabs from the interviews of his own choosing while I will fill in the narration afterwards.

These aren't ideal situations to be in, but we're making real headway for the first time in a long time and you just can't argue when there's progress right in front of you. We may hit some issues later on in regards to getting the grade and audio mixes done, but for now the offline cut is coming together.

Because we're on opposite sides of the world, Callum is finishing his day when I'm starting mine. This means I can look over his work when I get up, make a list of notes for him to review, then cut and supply any vision I need to from my end to send back to him so it's ready when he wakes up.

This process is slowed considerably by our inability to get the Avid's (editing computers) to communicate, we just have to go with what is working and if that means many more hours spent creating mixdowns, transcodes, exports, conforms then uploading/downloading the whole lot, so be it.

There's still an awful lot of extra bits and pieces to sort out, music, titles, graphics, stills, on top of the grade and audio mix I mentioned earlier. We're also still looking for old photos/videos of NZ playing Australia, so if you know ANYONE who might have such material, please contact them for us.

We would love to have something/anything from every time NZ and Australia have met on the ice since 1987.

Get down with the sickness

Have hit a few snags, one of which is that I'm now petulantly unwell. I suspect this is because I've been pushing myself a bit hard, but it is very unwelcome and very ill-timed. I spent this morning at the doctors and now have a myriad of medication I can down as part of a rainbow pill party three times a day.

We've also hit a technical snag with editing between countries. Despite being assured there would not be a problem, the bins from differing Mac and PC Avid systems just do not want to play nice. We have some functionality, but not everything we need and certainly not something workable.

I've had a couple of very late nights trying to find solutions to these problems, but come up stumped. The only real solution seems to be borrowing or buying another machine and neither is really feasible.

This is typical of what makes this project so hard, you feel like you're making progress and getting some momentum going, then wham! ..you hit another brick wall. I'm trying to be open and honest about this entire process without complaining, but these sorts of setbacks really do add up and take a big toll.

I'll give it a couple of days till I'm back on my feet and let you know what we are going to do.

Autumn

It's the first day of Autumn and we're working through the editing workflow on the documentary. That's right WE! I am not alone.

My good friend Callum Macdonald has joined me on the cut all the way from Belfast and we're hoping to tag team it day and night to get it done as soon as possible.

As you know, there's been a lot of reworking of the script. It hasn't been easy, but that's not to say we don't have a good story arc. It would have been great to see inside the locker rooms, but as Callum points out, it's time for me to let that go.

It was a busy February as I tackled tax returns, freelancing for TV3 and Maori TV as well negotiating with the NZIHL about streaming this year's upcoming season.

The NZIHL AGM is on March 20 and I hope to be able to give you a lot more insight on what's happening after that.

In the meantime we'll be hammering away on these Ice Blacks and following the Ice Fernz at their world championship in Spain. https://www.facebook.com/IceFernz/

Burning in timecode

Help with script changes is made easier by burned in timecode, but it has taken an entire day to create the clips and send them. Still, here's an insight into what I'm looking at every day.

February already

I've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, so have hardly made a dent in the documentary. Between applying for jobs, freelancing and having house guests for the holidays, I simply haven't been able to sit down at the computer for any measure of time.

I have been able to update some software however, check off some workflow issues that were slowing me down and send a copy of the raw video to Northern Ireland where hopefully an old friend can help me nut through some stuff.

Tonight I'm burning timecode into some of that raw vision so we can try and get the players interviews to make more sense in the context of the film. It's a lot easier to bounce the script around on paper rather than in the video editing software.