I can hardly believe it, but yes, it’s done.

We handed our tapes in with time to spare, after a particularly grueling post-production process. After my last post, I kept editing until about 8 a.m., finishing the rest of the rough edit, then Ginny came back in to do audio fixes, color correction, and cleanup, and then around noon we both worked on polishing things up. I’ll admit we were a bit nervous at not having some necessary graphics or music until Sunday afternoon, but once we got them, we couldn’t have been more ecstatic. The graphic design (by producer Geoff Long) was perfect, and the music was phenomenal — Scott Andrew LePera gave us not one but two tracks, which allowed us to incorporate a tension-inducing drumbeat underneath several scenes.

I’m slowly getting back up to speed again — a good thing given how much work I’ve got to catch up on. We were working almost literally up until the last minute (our final running time was 7:53, including credits), but we did it. And for me, the real test came when we showed it to a couple of “outsiders”; I’ll admit that I’m too close to the project to judge it objectively, but seeing their reactions made me realize that we’d really accomplished what we set out to do.

So where do we go from here? Well, the first step is obviously this Friday’s screening. We’ve started a sort of “viral marketing” strategy, pushing the tagline “Where”s the Schlimmer?” along with “Tohubohu Productions” (and the not-yet-up-and-running website, tohubohuproductions.com).

In related news, I’ve decided to include my last short, “Loose Ends,” under the Tohubohu umbrella. I’m doing this largely because I’d like to ensure that Tohubohu remains a viable entity going forward, and while “Schlimmer” was our first official production, I kind of like the idea of our having a “library” of material. It’s as if our made-up production company “Tohubohu” bought out my other made-up production company, “C Media.“

As for the future, we’re not finished yet. As far as I’m concerned, I can officially announce that we will be reuniting for next year’s 48-Hour Film Project, and if we’re up for it, I’d also like to propose working on the National Film Challenge — picture the 48-Hour Film Project on a national scale. Of course, that may depend on how we fare in this competition, but I can’t help but start thinking ahead.

Beyond that? We’ll just have to see. But for right now, it’s on to the screening!

Yes, you’re reading that time-stamp correctly. It’s three a.m., and I’m only now about to start my “shift” as editor on our little picture. Not that we haven’t done any editing yet — Ginny’s been cutting like mad since three this afternoon (after helping shoot since nine a.m.), and only just left to get some sleep about an hour ago. Right now, my workstation’s capturing all of our later footage (i.e., the tapes we made after Ginny started on the first set).

For those of you keeping track, the genre we drew was “Mystery,” and the three randomly selected requisite elements were a character named “S. Baxter, a professional photographer,” a “rubber duck” as our prop, and, “You know, I love the _______,” as our line of dialogue. I won’t go into any detail just yet (particularly since the machine just finished capturing the footage, and I’ve got to get back to work), but it’s entitled “Schlimmer.”

Want to know more? Be sure to pick up a ticket to next Friday’s screening...

The cast and crew are a complete as we’re gonna get ’em, Geoff’s got the production well in hand, we’ve got our equipment (thanks in no small part to a more-than-generous contribution from the Creative Solutions Group at the Corporate Executive Board), we’ve got a decent array of locations secured...

Now, all we can do is wait.

Just a little more than three hours to go...