Crude Diaries

Star Wars alter-egos

Location Spanner office | Mood Confident | Date 31 March 2006
Crude structure in post-it notes on office wallHave spent the last five days with David The Editor and a huge pile of multi-coloured post-it notes working out Crude's overall structure, animation sequences and narrative arc

Signed-up snowboarding addict

Location Secret hut up mountain | Mood Ecstatic | Date 6 March 2006
Mountain Picnic with Fernand

Guarding a snowman to no avail

Location Morzine one bed | Mood Homesick | Date 5 March 2006
Lugging gear in the rain (again) Photograph: Charlotte Rushton  

Making a film shouldn't be all fun & easy

Location Four beds in a line in Monastery of St Bernard | Mood Happy, happy, happy | Date 28 February 2006
Got a bit of a running joke going with myself (sad, I know), to do something foolish every year on the 28 February. I set a very high standard last year, with an act of folly that couldn't possibly be printed. And this year seems to have come together at the last minute too.

Secret to being lucky?

Location Bar near apartment | Mood Jubilant | Date 26 February 2006
Lucky we had pro-skier & cameraman Tchouky on La Vallée Blanche

School trip in the morning

Location Apartment for six, party zone of Chamonix. Nothing else left. | Mood Scared | Date 25 February 2006
We're going to try and ski / film there?? Photograph: Charlotte Rushton  

Human race may as well destroy themselves

Location Train from Paris to St Gervais | Mood Human race may as well destroy themselves | Date 23 February 2006
Missed our night train to Chamonix after the Eurostar broke down and deposited us in Paris two hours late. So then we had four hours’ sleep in a dodgy hotel, the first train South, unfortunately full of what we are assuming are gonnabe soldiers. We'd been hoping to catch up on some sleep, but they put a stop to that. Then I cracked my tooth on, of all things, a crisp. Looks like the first job in Chamonix will be to find a dentist.    

McLibel hits the cinema nine years later

Location BBC Broadcasting House | Mood School reunion | Date 15 February 2006
Interviews all day for McLibel UK cinema release. Been signed up by very sweet distributors who are acting like it's the first ever screening. Helen, Dave and me are all jaded - has been nine yeas since our first ever screening, after all - but trying to be enthusiastic. Revelation (the distributors) seem to have got tonnes of press interest - press preview the other day was packed and none of the journos left till the end, which is apparently the best you can hope for.

Going into the sadness

Location Pub opposite De Lane Lea, Soho | Mood Strangely isolated, as though everyone is talking about someone else's film | Date 9 February 2006
Second funding evening tonight. Last time we were asking for 500 quid a punt, this time it was 5000. Which seems an enormous amount of money to me, but didn't seem to cause too many raised eyebrows. We slightly picked the number out of a hat - but then said people could also get a "half loan" – i.e. 2500. Played the trailer tonight. First time we've had Crude up on the big screen. Seemed pretty coherent to me. Everyone loved Fernand. Friendly Funder spoke again and was even better than last time.

"You'll be kissing goodbye to your cash..."

Location Chained to Avid in office making Crude trailer | Mood Spaced out | Date 2 February 2006
I've made trailers of other films and they take only a few days. But that's when you're making one from the finished film, I now realise. Whereas we've got 87 hours of footage and not much idea of what we're trying to do. Even watching all that would be more time than we have - 5 days of David The Editor.