ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

A 300 gigabyte external harddisk - by its very nature containing no cinematic value whatsoever, and in the days when noir greats like Robert Mitchum and Lana Turner prowled the celuloid landscape, had no practical use either. Yet, today a post on an independent film's blog headlined by a picture like the above can only mean one thing.

Post-production.

Yes, there comes a time in every films life when it gets cut up into a million little pieces and gets reconstructed into a cogent piece of work. This, it seems, would be that time. And upon my possession of said harddisk, the snipping can begin. Sure, it will not nearly be as hectic as running around like a bunch of thieves in the night, nonetheless, it will be a time of equal challenge, albeit for fewer folk.

While our first editor, Shokichi, ploughs away with the trailer and a rough cut, across town Mr Producer will be hard at work putting together a future for our Diner.

Yeah, you'll hear some RSD circles - unofficially spearheaded by my notoriously optimistic nocturnal alterego self - touting a cinematic release date as early as April 07. That may change yet, but a filmmaker needs tight deadlines, and the notoriously pessimistic diurnal self that is me right now shudders at the thought of a looming self-imposed deadline.

Not exactly the right time to have one's identity start fragmenting, but it is the season for cutting things up.