Troll Bridge
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● Scripting
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● Film Shoot
● Terry's Visit
● Pickup Shoot
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Production Diary...

Terry's Visit

I've just slept for eleven hours straight.   My body (having been almost completely stripped of zeds over the past week), was of course very grateful for this event.   This lack of sleep and respect for my body, was of course brought about by the then soon to be arriving Terry Pratchett.   He's been and gone now.  But do let me tell you about the day.

It was Thursday the 11th of November, and Terry was coming to town.   His first stop was Angus & Robertsons in the city - and by 11:45 already a substantial line had formed.   Present in the line, I discovered an army of organisers for the Australian Discworld Convention in 2006 (www.ausdwcon.org), small children, the odd witches hat, and a large set of novelty boobs (don't ask).

Because we were armed with a camera we did the only sensible thing under the circumstances, and that was to go up and down the line harassing people.   And to those people who let us.   Thank you.   We've now decided to do a documental segment on Discworld Fandom.

We didn't stay till the end however, because we needed to dash off to the cinema theatrette and get everything prepared for his arrival.   Our screening plan was simple: show him the skeleton of the film (which currently runs for 22 minutes), show him some before and after shots, show him a 20 minute doco focused on the night shoot (by System Shock Productions), and then show him the pre-production work we had done.   We had him from 3:30 - 5:00 so we were damn sure we were going to make the best of our time with him.   We think we did.

Overall reaction from him?

I think he was pleasantly surprised.   I did hear him chuckle a couple of times - so that's always a good sign.   He had a few suggestions here and there, and was certain to tell us about the stuff he did like.   From Felix's illustrations, and the stand-in footage of the troll - he's very keen to see the completed Mica.   He'll also be scripting some very short dialogue for the guards to be speaking around the lake.   So I guess - all in all - it was a success.   Especially considering the screening of Troll Bridge we showed him, had a lot of stuff only half done (or not even done at all).   We also got about half an hour of impromptu interview with him, which is sure to hit the docos.

A huge thankyou goes out to the people who put an absurd amount of work in, with very little sleep in preparation for his arrival.   Jon Michaels, David Sander, Brendan Penny, Daniel Wong, Jared Morris, and Paul Potiki.   You all deserve big kisses.

And then, as quickly as he came.   He left.

But that's okay because we saw him again at his 6:30 book talk at Melbourne University.   He stood behind his podium, spoke a bit about what was happening in his world, and then took questions.   He even mentioned us twice, which was nice.

He did some more book signings, and I approached with a book to sign for a friend.   He left these parting words with me, “Remember me when your rich and famous, then I can get you to do all the Discworld books.”   Sure, it was all in jest, but it certainly made me smile.   And of course check with my companions that I did in fact hear it correctly.

Now I just have to figure out a quick way of getting rich and famous.

Daniel Knight