it was a little later than originally planned, but it was bang on the hour of the new deadline: at twelve o'clock midnight on sunday 30th october 2011, to the day a year after we wrapped principal photography in london, fundaframe.org stopped accepting funding for frames. the hour of living is the first feature film to be funded entirely on a frame-by-frame basis. everyone who has contributed has made it possible and has written themselves into the history books in the process, and i am intensely grateful to each and everyone who has done so: without you, our film would not have been made, simple as that.

the reason framefunding ceased, of course, is that we are now getting ever closer to completing the picture. right now, colour grading and sound mix are still being worked on and we're even still tweaking one or two details in the edit, but they're tiny. and that means that the credits for the film are also now being finalised. since everyone who has funded one or several frames is entitled to a credit in the film, there has to be a cut off point, and i'm very glad to say, we've reached it: we are now polishing and tidying up, and then we're done.

it's been a tremendous experience in every way and i also want to thank everyone who has helped us in deed and in kind. every film is a collaboration, of course, but i feel genuinely blessed to have been working with such a committed, talented and spirited team. and the help and support we received from friends and strangers alike every step of the way has been overwhelming: i owe you all a great debt of gratitude.

it won't be long now before we can announce our first screenings, and as you can imagine, when we do, you'll hear it here and through our mailing list first...

we're still polishing picture and sound but today our film received its first 'official' press coverage, from the rhiiblatt, which is the local paper of the region in graubünden, switzerland, where we shot our mountain scenes. under the headline Safiental Makes Film History, the full page article explains our fundaframe scheme and points out the fact that the hour of living will be the first feature film in history to be financed purely on a frame-by-frame basis, before telling its readers how we found the safiental, one of the most remote and ruggedly beautiful valleys in switzerland, and why we chose it as our main location. it concludes with a short synopsis. 

if you understand german, you can read the whole article here.