
The script for the final episode has been edited and accepted and has now gone out to the cast. So now the focus is on post-production. I'm rather glad that, despite some 'real' life things cropping up, the show seems to be on track.
Looking at the length of the scripts, Pendant is labelling this as an Original Feature, rather than a mini-series. It makes more sense as it is more of a 4-part arc than an episodic show. Also, I think Original Feature sounds rather cool.
The episodes look as if they'll end up at about 30 minutes long. It's hard to tell exactly, as I'm going to be trying for fairly tight dialogue mixing, but want to give some space for the atmosphere, too. I know in my head how I'd like it to sound, but whether that's going to be easy to translate into audio, I guess I'll soon discover. Looking forward to trying anyhow.
Anyway, all lines are in for episodes 1&2, bar a couple of redos, and so I'm hoping, if at all possible, to have finished all episodes before mid-July.
The one absolutely essential sound effect for setting is some seagulls, it being a seaside town. Obviously, all effects and music have to be royalty free creative commons, and I looked high and low for the kind of background seagulls that just do a few cries and set the scene. It was a trickier hunt than I'd thought. There's a real dearth of good quality seagull 'extras' out there. The only ones I could find sounded like they were tearing each others' heads off - really hamming it up.
In the end, I had to actually buy a set of seagulls' cries (pretty cheaply - and they'll get extremely good use). They may have charged a nominal fee, but these ones were proper pros, giving a much more subtle performance which is just ideal.
Birds! Hah! Never again... :-P