"Let's Go." "We can't." "Why not?" "Because, we're waiting for Godot."

Done.

I can officially call myself a film-maker. A director. An Editor. I was already a writer.

Yesterday afternoon around 2pm, I rendered and watched my first film "Godot (Rien a Faire)" with the hopes that when it was done that I would be able to say "Yes. That is good enough." They are never perfect.

George Lucas has been quoted as saying - films are never finished, they are abandoned. That is one point where he understands the medium very well.

Truth be told, by that point, any problems which presented themselves would have to be pretty major for me to have said 'no.' My producer was literally on his way to pick up the files so that we can move on to the next stage - the festival circuit. It's his job now. I had watched the film SO many times by that point that anything that big would have been patently obvious and could really only be explained by some button having accidentally been pressed before the render, causing a major effect to be disabled or some such thing. (I've seen it happen in other projects.)

All was well... Okay, all was acceptable. Naturally I noticed a few things on that pass that I'd like to change (and perhaps will before final delivery for presentation) notably one sound effect seems to need to have a hum filtered out that was not previously noted - how I don't know, but it went un-noticed until that screening. It'll take 20 minutes of actual work, plus the waiting of the render time, so it's not a big deal. But when it comes down to it, I am willing to (and have) send the version that currently exists to festivals as is. The film is finished.

I think part of the desire to abandon the film is that in order to fine tune it, you are assaulted with your un-fixable errors constantly in the post-production phase. In the process you become a better film-maker. Those mistakes are all ones you will be avoiding in the future, like the plague. In essence you are a better film-maker than the one who shot the film you are in the process of finishing. It rankles that the mistakes that have been left for you to deal with by the film-maker who shot the film are yours.

If I never have to see my film again, it will be too soon.

Time to move on to the next one.