Forgot to tell you all about the weekend. On Saturday I left Johnathan cutting away so I could slip over the hill to lay down tracks for the Pegasus tune that may (or may not) make it onto the album. (The instrumental version subsequently appears as you hear Mr. Rochester & co. walk out onstage). The studio (Barry Paul Recording) is run by a guy named Barry Paul…life is full of co-incidences…who, for all you trivia hounds, used to be the guitar player in the Heavy Metal Kids. The rhythm section for the Pegasus track were my old band mates Cliff and Brian – the backbone of the Transatlantic Rhythm Kings and the name on the back of Buss’s tour jacket for ‘knuckle-down time.’ With some amazing guitar from Jeff Cardone and some BV’s from Julie, our music supervisor, we were ready for Doug to lay down his distinctive metal rapping style – watch out Fred Durst. I love the result – hope everyone else does too. I wonder if they’ll just be nice to me because I’m the director and pretend? (Woops – a moment of insecurity there.)

Meanwhile across the valley John, Julie’s husband, was producing a dance mix of U+Me=Us and Julie was watching over the recording of “You’re My Baby Girl” and another great song, a ballad, whose title I can’t remember in two SEPARATE studios miles apart! RESULT – a lot of tired children on Monday morning and DATs from all over town making their way to Julie’s place for inclusion in the album.

These are the things that need to happen so that dream I had in the Virgin Megastore on day 15 can come true.

At about 11 this morning Damon, our long suffering assistant editor, sent off the first proper assembly of the movie for all the big knobs to watch. What will they all think? Will I ever work in this town again? It was a tough job getting the assembly done in time and that was with an extra days grace kindly supplied to us by Maggie. Johnathan put in an absolutely Herculean effort last yesterday and worked for 20 hours straight on the cut. We left the edit at 530 this morning absolutely destroyed. I supplied moral support to Johnathan by reading Q magazine, playing Freecell on my laptop and dozing on the couch in the back of the edit room. Johnathan struggled gamely onwards while my ability to make any sensible decision was seriously affected by wanting desperately to go home and get some sleep. And all the while Damon slept on the couch in the edit room next door waiting for us to finish so he could slug it all together for us.

These guys are amazing, they have put their trust and loyalty in me so we can do the best possible job and have something on our resumé of which we are all proud. But the sight of us wandering through the dimly lit corridors of the editing rooms at 5am looking for sustenace was not a pretty sight.

Today we met the music editors, a happy couple, named Sienna and John. It will be their job to slug in various compositions and musical ideas so that we and Camara, our fine composer, can have a clear idea of the musical approach for each scene. I feel very strongly that the tone of the movie will be heralded by the music and hope that we can discover something that is both hip and funny. In my minds ear I imagine a combination of Y2K beats with tubas, accordians and kazoos playing over the top…

You might not believe this is possible but the concept of releasing a soundtrack album from a movie full of music has only just started to become a reality. I first brought up the idea of a soundtrack album in November and was quickly told: “Why don’t you just direct the film instead of meddling in something you know nothing about!” Well all of a sudden it seems we have at last found someone who wants to release a CD so this morning we all sat in a small office in West Hollywood and tried to stir up half a dozen new songs so we can transform an EP into a full length CD. If the album can be released in time for the movie’s appearance on your screen we have to start and finish another half album in the next seven days! Perhaps we can re-record this demo, perhaps we can borrow that song from there, perhaps we can fill out “You’re My Baby Girl”, perhaps I can come up with a bad metal tune for Pegasus (Doug’s defunct heavy metal outfit).

After a hard day in the editing room I raced home to pick up my guitar and start riffing. “When Medusa was slain by that greek guy Perseus / that’s when I was born and my name is Pegasus…” I needed ideas for some truly awful lyrics and an old Whitesnake album gave me just the inspiration I needed. Four hours later, and with my long suffering neighbours probably stuffing cotton wool in their ears, I think I’ve cracked it…

Technically speaking post production started at the end of our first day of shooting when the first cans of dailies were sent to the lab. Johnathan, the editor, started viewing dailies the minute they arrived in LA and has been working in a vacuum (i.e. without me) ever since. Despite pulling 12 hour days and 6 and 7 day weeks (3 days off to be with his family over the holiday) he is still assembling the last few scenes of the movie. A well known poster in post circles here in LA has a warning for all single people of a certain age. Underneath a picture of a tired editor hard at work is the salutary caption: NEVER MARRY AN EDITOR.

With the assembly complete we will sit back and look at the movie and start to make it work. Whatever we intended to acheive with the script we now have a new master to serve – the footage in the cans of film we have shot. Inside these cans is hidden the movie you will see on your screens in less than seven weeks time. We are already sending cuts out – the promo people in New York need something to vibe up the troops – but this baby is not even partially formed in the womb and I hope desperately that these people, whom I’ve never met, understand that we do know what we are doing and we know that our child is imperfectly formed and needs further gestation before we can push it into the world. Well they’ve trusted me so now I must return the favour.

Spent the afternoon transferring the dailies for the video. This process is called TELECINE and the guy who operates the equipment is called a COLORIST. Colorists drive luxury cars and live in comfortable houses but they have very pale skin and squint if they go outside. I have spent so much of my life in dark rooms with colorists that some of them are now my best friends. (My last band had not one but two colorists and a telecine engineer in it). Telecine involves threading the film through what is basically a very large and accurate projector that is tilted about 15 degrees off vertical in a climate controlled machine room. By twiddling a vast array of knobs in front of the most expensive TV monitor that money can buy the colorist can then adjust the look of the exposed film. He can make it darker, lighter, give it more contrast, change the skin tone of the actors, even adjust the colour of the sweater someone is wearing. As telecine machines have become more sophisticated so the look of the footage on MTV has become more exciting. Tomorrow Declan, who has edited loads of videos for me, will start viewing the dailies and inputtting them into the computer so he can start cutting. Dec will be working in the cutting room next to Johnathan – 2gether is gradually taking over a small building in Hollywood. The video has to be finished by next Friday. No time to lose…

I’m in a land far, far away and tomorrow I fly back to LA-LA land to finish the movie. My time in Vancouver has served me well – the rain and cold I’ve encountered on my trip seemed like nothing after the Canadian South-West.

Now the post-production begins in earnest – a big sprint to the finish line at the end of the month. We’ve got to hire a composer, cut and mix the movie in about 4 weeks. No sleep till Hammersmith…

The meeting between 2gether and another band in the truck stop had been a fly in the ointment since day one and we just couldn’t find a band who could get in synch with what we were trying to acheive or even 98% as excited as we were about the movie. Then QT came up with a germ of an idea that led to the replacement scene that finally landed on our desks on Thursday night. The answer, of course, was right under our noses all the time: 2gether needed to bump into Woah! All credit must go to Maggie who had singed her right ear off with the cell-phone talking to half of New York so we get the new scene approved.

In the corner of the Bannerman Convention Centre we had built a truck stop and we rehearsed the new scene over and over trying to get ten actors to hit their marks in the tiny space we had allowed ourselves. Swimming upstream against the holiday vibe that had pervaded the set Kev, Marc and I struggled to get everyone to focus and it wasn’t going that well then, suddenly on take 3, it gelled. Everyone got it and all we had to do was get the coverage.

At about 8pm the camera was shooting a bunch of stills of Buss with the Johnson Five, the Fifth Unit and 2 Cool 4 Skool. For the final time I yelled “Check The Gate” and it was all over. I hugged Marc who has become a firm friend and blubbed like a child.

As the day had progressed little packages started appearing on my desk – gifts from the crew and cast and every gesture moved me beyond words. The Wrap Party was a fine ending to our little adventure – everyone got a present and we all danced to QT’s latest CD and raved like crazy to 2gether (the song). Having staggered from my bed at 6am to go to work I couldn’t believe I was still frugging at 3am. Within hours our party will be separated forever. Some of us will be journeying to Europe some are going to Mexico (not Tony still recovering in hospital) and Abraham, who first guided me to every location, will not be going to Venezuela as planned because of the terrible flooding there and must find a new destination for his Christmas break. I feel for him as he had been looking forward to the trip for months.

As I soaked in the bath before the wrap party I remembered a quote from Robert Bolt the screenwriter who wrote Lawrence Of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Man For All Seasons and Ryan’s Duaghter. He said “At a pinch all directors without exception think in all sincerity that if they put their minds to it they could write, act, design and photograph the film better than their actual colleagues.” At times I have been very guilty of that attitude, and today was no exception, but the truth of the matter is that any filmic undertaking is a team event and everybody deserves equal credit for completing the film on time and, as far as I know, on budget.

Unsung Heroes Of The Set Part Eight: The Editors. While we’ve been doing the glamorous bit up here in Vancouver Johnathan and his crew have been cutting away in a small room in Hollywood. Everyday a new batch of rushes has arrived in the office down there and one of his assistants has worked through the night inputting the footage into the Avid so that Johnathan can come in in the morning and start viewing and cutting. I’ll be sitting beside him on Monday morning and we’ll see what it looks like – I can’t wait. Principal Photography is over – we’re now officially in Post Production.

It’s dawning on me that it’s nearly all over and I’m heartsick. I’ve never seen so many happy faces on a set and a party mood has taken a hold of all of us – I’ve tried manfully to keep myself concentrated all day but it’s been hard and like the cast and crew I’m feeling light headed – Robert and Troy were wearing funny hats today and I wished I had one too. Sensing our joy the sun came out and stayed out all day – and it NEVER rained once.

We finally got to shoot Jerry and Buss driving to New York as we wrapped tonight. This scene has been hanging over us for two weeks – an unfinished piece that we tried to slot in a number of times. Some kind man in Vancouver loaned us his car as the Buss-mobile and he has been expecting it back for days. Finally the Cadillac will make its way back home. Today was also the last day the Indian was around in all its glory. It is being de-commisioned and returned to the dealer we rented it from. Some innocent couple will purchase it and take it on a trip across the country unawares of the hours of fun and drama that took place inside its walls. I can see the sign now: “For Sale, Winnebago 90,000 miles, Good runner, star of MTV movie 2gether!”

Unsung Heroes Of The Set Part Seven: the Art Dogs. They build us sets before we arrive and can’t break them down till we wrap. They are expected to miraculously come up with dressing to cover up walls that Marc and I don’t like the look of, produce tiny props at a moments notice from Buss’s rolodex to bras and teddy bears that will be thrown at the stage. My ideas are always bigger than their budget and I could make their lives easier if only I could make up my mind. They are the first to be blamed and the last to be thanked and yet I can’t ever remember working with an art department person who didn’t have a smile on his / her face. They often have to stay up all through the night covered in paint. More than once in my life I have found the art department behind the set curled up like babies in paint-spattered overalls fast asleep on a stone cold floor, spent with exhaustion, just to make my reel look good. Is that selfless or what?

What did I tell you? 2gether made it to Jacksonville and they kicked Whoa! butt big-time. Bill, the movie’s producer, worked some magic with the numbers and we had a total of 270 extras (or thereabouts) and they ruled. They screamed their hearts out for hours and hours, learned the lyrics to three songs and the You+Me=Us arm routine. One of the girls asked me to write a letter to her boss because she was afraid he might think she was goofing off for the day. If you read this Jeff she wasn’t skiving and I hope you can find it in your heart to let her have the day off now and again to pursue her acting thing. It was a real buzz to hear all you girls singing the songs between shots. You know, I think that Bob Buss is onto something.

It was also a day of incredible ups and downs. Jerry was so sick we had to send him to the doc in the morning. Would 2gether make it? Well it takes more than a fever and exhaustion to keep Jerry O’Keefe from shaking his butt onstage – or maybe he just wanted to get back to the set in time for Mickey’s birthday cake. Happy Birthday Mickey P.

Unsung Heroes Of The Set Part Six: The Guys ‘n Gals in the production office. The two Alisons and Balazs, Richard and Suzie are the folk who receive the faxes, answer the phone calls, arrange the photocopying and so forth that keeps our day moving forward. What’s even worse is that they work in a vacuum separated from the set by half a city. Like Don, Laurie and Nancy in the accounts department we couldn’t survive without their work but when they come down to the set I’m sure most of the crew wonder who they are. Our crew is like a little city – there are people who toil away through the night and the day to keep our factory churning out film. Not everyone will get to be a star, a producer or whatever but everyone can contribute something worthy to the final film. It’s a bit like life isn’t it?

And on that note 2gether Industries wants to send best wishes to Tony, our production designer, who got very sick at the weekend and had to be rushed to hospital. The set looked great today, Tony, and your team has pulled 2gether hard in your absence. We miss you and hope you get well soon.

Oh, the delights of being inside! It rained hard all day long and we just sat and worked and stayed dry…of course we weren’t warm because the heating makes too much noise and that would ruin the sound-track, but you can’t have everything. We not only made good time, but we caught up on three scenes we’d been carrying over. We’re virtually back on schedule.

Unsung Heroes Of The Set Part Five: The caterers! When I get to the set at 7 tomorrow morning the catering truck will already be parked there in the big puddle. Cereals will be laid out on the table, fruit will be ready-cut in the bowls, six flavours of yogurt, various nuts, dried fruit and breads will be on offer and a huge range of breakfasts are available in less than five minutes…and they’re already cooking lunch. What time to these people have to get up in the morning to make sure I can consume my bacon & tomato sandwich at 645am? My only conclusion is that these guys must be already cooking while I’m still asleep. Phew!

2gether worked hard all day and under pressure too. Jerry had bronchitis and QT had the stomach flu. But the good news is we were inside all day and free from the vagaries of the weather. Each member of the band got to live out his fantasy: Jerry & Erin got married; Chad got to ride his SEA.DOO; Doug got to go back to Pegasus and play with a real guitar; Mickey got to box in a ring and QT spent time in his harem with a bunch of girls. He even took home some phone numbers!!! I guess he wasn’t THAT sick after all.

The MTV crew were here in full force. We had David with us who is Maggie’s boss and also the guys who’ll be creating the website. I played the part of my alter ego all day, Bif Rydberg, but failed miserably at keeping up the accent – I pity the poor editor who tries to cut that stuff together.

Unsung Heroes Of The Set Part 4: Extras. We sometimes call them background and that’s what they do – they fill out the background, walk through a shot, pretend to be having a drink at the bar or talking with a friend. On this film they’ve spent hours in the cold and wet and, even worse, I’m not allowed to talk to them. So if I wanted to say “Thank-you” at the end of a take and suggest they should go inside for a cup of coffee I’m breaching the rules. If they ask me a question I have to turn away as if they are some kind of Untouchable sect. But without them we’d be lost in empty cities or stranded in customer free diners. Next time you watch a movie or TV show count how many people you see in the background never saying a word as they run from Godzilla, eat in a restaurant or dance at the prom – and wardrobe has to find clothes for everyone of them and make-up and hair has to give them all a make-over.