Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Whew! Quite a flurry since my last post - and I don't just mean the fact there's been new snow the last couple of days. I think in normal circumstances I wouldn't mind the late appearance, but we have more footage to get for the screen and I need things to be green again before long so we're not cutting it too close to the opening! As we have to have video processed and synched up to music - which theoretically I could do myself but A) I'm not really hooked up to do that high-quality of HD video, and B) I'd really rather not have to do it - I don't want to be filming stuff into May if I can help it!

Anyway...lots of press releases to send out and lots of stuff to do to get auditions under way. I'm only in the last couple of days really able to put that aside and get back to work on finishing The Rewrite That Wouldn't Die. I'm reasonably certain this is the best one, though. If anything, I'm juiced by certain new things.

The irony of the whole thing is...well, you may recall in late '06 I wrote a reprise for Maud called Why Did I Say Farewell, which depicted Maud visiting her father's grave for the first time some 40 years after the last time she saw him. Months ago, I realized it just sort of sat there and didn't advance the story any. So we were going to pull it. Then we got the idea to bring her father into it as a ghost, using a shorter version of the song. And we were pretty settled on it. Then it was just a matter of setting up a shot in a graveyard while snow was gently drifting down to use as a backdrop. Easier said that done. Of course, as I write, the snow is doing almost exactly what I would have wanted it to do. Not so the few times I tried to film it while Leo was away in Toronto. Usually it was a matter of too much wind that was blowing really wispy snow right into the lens. You should have seen me stomping across this one graveyard, trying to get to the other side, accidentally bumping the tripod into headstones! Anyway, finally on a different day I got a halfway decent shot - not enough snow, but at least the wind wasn't howling. Then when Leo got back, we gave it another try - again in oppressive wind, but at least it wasn't right into the lens.

Then, as we went over the last version, we realized that the song still was kind of bringing things to a stop. So what ended up happening was, Leo suggested actually giving the fictional characters a song to help consolidate events of the period. Only some of the characters had sung so far, and usually duets with Maud. This would be just among themselves - or at least, the characters that were in existence at this point in time. We've had our struggles over certain ideas lately, but this wasn't one of them - and we said a final farewell to Farewell. Leo recorded this new song pretty well on the spot, and, as we speak, I am trying to put lyrics to it. Always harder to insert lyrics into a predetermined rhythm - the only song I did that for was An Epoch In My Life, and that was only because I was so in love with the tune. But, on this snowy day, it's formulating. Of course, I'm journaling now as sort of a stalling tactic! :)

And, oh, yes, the irony...all that fussing to try and get graveyard footage, and now we're not even going to use it! I did wonder through all that trouble if someone was trying to tell us something.

Double oh yes! I almost forgot to tell you...I'm really psyched, because today I heard Two-Timin' Timmy and Folly In Love in their proper form. Leo did his best on these Big Band numbers - which come up during the throes of Chester's affair - but, as he's in L.A. again, he took his scores to an actual Big Band band. I just got the MP3s of the mixes a few hours ago and WOW! Are you guys going to be surprised. In a good way!

Well, I'd best get back to it. In the meantime, here's a pic from our press conference on 10 March while we were at the podium, speaking to the press.

Also, a shout out to Tickled Orange, a resource site for all things Anne and Maud - they plugged us on their site, and one good deed deserves another! They have all kinds of great stuff I wish I had time to go through! :)

89 days and counting...

P.S. If you want to see the newspaper bits about us, check out our Press page on the 9LoLMM site...