As after every shoot, I was pretty high for a few days before I hit the brick wall and slept for a couple of days straight.
I usually get pretty depressed after the shoot is over, and this time wasn’t any different.
The immense sadness lasted for a few days. But once my gloomy mood was over, I was able to start planning my post-production timeline.
My schedule was very optimistic; at that time, I didn’t yet know how hard it was going to be. After all, it was the first time in my life that I would have to finish a film without having any post-production budget.
I spent two years and eight months editing the film.
At first, I was frustrated, then depressed, then angry that everything was taking such a long time, and I was unable to speed up the process in any way.
All this time, I had a strong fizzling desire to finish my film as soon as possible. However, at some point, I had to accept that certain aspects of my post-production process needed longer than I first anticipated.
In reality, I only had 15/20 hours a week that I could devote to this project. I had to divide my time between Anna & Modern Day Slavery, being a mum and paid projects.
Within six months from the day, we wrapped up the production I was the only person working on Anna & Modern Day Slavery. To be honest with you, it was a pretty lonely place to be at. The pressure at that time seemed to be taking over my life since nothing was going according to my post-production plan (back then, I still had one of those in place).
As a result, I made a hard decision to unplug from social media.
I needed to focus on finishing the film, and constant updates and long explanations why the editing progress was so slow worked against me.
At the start of the project, someone else offered to edit the movie. However, the attached editor pulled out, and in all fairness, I don’t blame him. It’s a huge commitment.
Editing a feature film for free requires love and passion for the project, and I was the only one that had both in abundance. Besides, I’m glad it worked out this way it allowed me to experiment with the footage and make changes that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
My first steps in editing were to sync up the sound with the footage as I mentioned before our RED camera had arrived a tiny bit faulty and unable to record audio.
Having at my disposal only my old MAC and the old version of the student Final Cut I wasn’t able to work on the footage right away.
Luckily, within the first few months after the production ended, thanks to one of my Executive Producers Marie Slaight and her Altaire Productions I was able to get a new computer and updated version of the Final Cut.
This was a perfect example of a fantastic commitment from many people that allowed me to see this project through.