It's done!!

Next month it will be exactly eight years since I started this project... and yesterday (on my birthday, no less) I officially finished the festival version of The Insular Empire. (The PBS version, unfortunately, had some problems with the closed captioning, which will be fixed next week.)

The last few weeks have been a blur, but somehow it's all come together... with help from Force Four's amazing post supervisor Jackie Sidoni and online editor Mike Addison, and the amazing Sound Mixtress Erica Chard Landrock (who went way above & beyond last week, sliding in some last minute music for the end credits). And speaking of music... Cinta and Gus Kaipat found the PERFECT song, by JJ Concepcion, called Marianas Faluwei (thanks Guys!). We were having a hard time getting our hands on a high-quality copy of the song... but it turns out that JJ lives practically around the corner from my in-laws down in Washington, where I was at a family reunion last week -- so we just drove by and picked up a CD. (And we got to meet JJ and his lovely family in the process.) Small world!

So now... what's next? Finishing the film is like having a baby... the end of one long process, and the beginning of another. Now that the film is done, I need to make sure it has a long and happy life out in the world. Getting the film into some festivals and onto PBS is currently top priority. Plus developing a graphic identity for the film, and putting together a DVD (Hooray! Finally a chance to use all those fabulous clips that didn't fit into the film!), and then figuring out how to distribute the film to educational and home video markets.

But for now - starting tomorrow - I'm gonna go on a much-needed vacation. :)