Finally, we finished what could be called the "extended dance mix" - only there was no dancing, the mix was just extended. It seemed to take forever to get the audio right, but it's all good now, so I have a new premiere date later this month in LA and will play it up in the Bay Area in July. My relief in completing Claustrophobia is palpable, but in fact the turn of events was strangely anti-climactic: On Friday, May 30, my sound mixer and I completed the final fixes (which involved a couple of last-minute sound effects - picture me holding a microphone up to my stomach while punching myself to get a good "thud" noise) and then I ran home to get ready for a dinner date. The next day, my editor Marc Wade and I took the final audio and married it to the final picture, which took all of ten minutes to do. No champagne, no party, just two guys sitting in a house in Valencia saying, "Well, I guess that's it. Good job." Hopefully the premiere will involve some sort of actual celebrating.
Marc pointed out to me some interesting trivia: In terms of production and post-production, this film took exactly one year to make. June 1, 2002 was when we first started shooting, and May 31, 2003 was when we were finally done. Of course I'm not counting the several months of pre-production (scripting, casting, etc.). In any event, once the premiere is taken care of, and the final tape transfers are done, it's up to the good folks at Integration Entertainment - my producer's reps - to sell the film. And up to me to start working on something new. Already people are asking me "what's next?" Yikes.