As they say, all good things must come to an end. And so, after four weeks of filming, it's all over. After the 1st assistant director announced the film as finished in the early hours of this morning, everyone burst into cheer. There were hugs and kisses all round, everyone congratulating each other on a job well done, even a couple of tears were shed. Someone said they loved that moment at the end of a production because it always feels like New Year's, everyone celebrating the same thing together. I can't think of many jobs where when a project is finished, there's this spirit of camradarie between everyone. At the beginning of the film I knew one guy, my friend who'd called me in the first place; by the end, I felt like I knew the whole crew and had made good friends among them, some of which I'll hopefully work with again. This might all seem a bit sappy, probably because this is still new to me, but there really is something special about working with all these people and at the end of it having a finished product that everyone can be proud of.

Now begins the long process of post-production. Not only all the manipulation of the filmed material such as editing, sound mixing, image correction, etc. but also all the business side of things: distribution, publicity, marketing, and lots of other stuff I've yet to learn about. This means that it'll still be some time before I see the film onscreen (someone said about a year at least), but like Louis Armstrong said, we've got all the time in the world.

I've also got to get back to a normal lifestyle now. Filming night shoots these past two weeks has made me a bit of a nocturnal creature. Added to this is the fact that this last week the crew started going out together for some drinks after we finished filming at 3 or 4 in the morning, which has meant that I've pretty much been going to bed at sunrise and waking up at sunset. My biological clock doesn't know what time it is anymore. I've also got lots of people to catch up with since filming makes you a social recluse; the only people I've seen this last month have been at work. But all in good time, I'm going to take a week off now and do a little bit of travelling as a friend of mine from London is here in Brazil. Relaxing on a beach is all I want to think about now...

As a last little note, I remember having a conversation with one of the production assistants one day and being asked what film made me want to make films. Not necessarily what my favourite film was, but which one had inspired me to think "that's what I want to do with my life". I came to the conclusion that it has to be 'Cinema Paradiso' (picture above). It's a story about love of all kinds: between a man and a woman, between a father and son, between two friends and, most importantly, of films. Beautifully crafted and told, it's the kind of film that makes you realise the power cinema can have over you. Funnily enough I saw this film a lot later than I should have. Ever since my parents began to notice that I had a bigger interest in films than your average child, my mum insisted that I watch this film. For some reason, I always kept putting it off or saying I'd watch it later but never got round to it. It was until I was 16, when I was at my friend's house in the south of France, that I actually saw. I was looking through his films and saw it there, and I thought to myself "I might as well". I remember watching it and being absolutely transfixed to the screen, oblivious to whatever else was happening around in the house. When it finished, I felt like a different person; any dreams or ideas about being a filmmaker became concrete. I didn't have any idea what I was going to do or how I was going to get there, but I knew that I wanted to be part of something that had that effect on people. And for any cynics out there who think this is all sentimental drivel (Harper, I'm looking at you), I dare you to watch it and not a shed a single tear at the end of it.