Work is continuing on the new version of Sleepless Nights, and while considerable progress has been made in the past few months, there's still much more to be done...
When I first announced, back in the spring of this year, that a new, remastered edition of my 2003 film, Sleepless Nights was on the way, I estimated that all work could be completed by October of 2019. But as I've gone deeper into the reediting process, I've found many more opportunities to improve the film than I originally expected.
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| Jacqueline Anderson and Matt Thomas |
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At first I thought the scope of the work I could do would be limited by the materials I had at my disposal. I was still in possession of most of the footage that was used in the original cut of the film, and I assumed I would have to do the new version using just that footage. But Frank Cilla, the film's executive producer, was able to supply me with a complete set of tapes of all the footage that was shot for the film back in the period 1999 - 2002. And in reviewing that footage, I could see that my editing options had expanded considerably.
Whether casual viewers will be able to detect what has been changed from the original version, and whether those changes will be recognized as improvements, remains to be seen. But this is probably the last time I will be revisiting Sleepless Nights in my lifetime, so I see this as one last chance to fix longstanding technical problems, improve pace, performances and special effects, and in general bring the film closer to what I originally hoped it would be.
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| Sleepless Nights star, Jacqueline Anderson |
In looking at what has been done so far on the film – and I'm now a little more than halfway through the process – I'm confident the new edition will be a great improvement over the original release. But the work that remains to be done will take time, and I'm guessing Sleepless Nights Revamped won't be completed till late summer of 2019.
Frank and I had originally planned to raise money on Indiegogo to fund work on the film and its eventual release on Blu-ray and DVD. But crowdfunding is a laborious and time-consuming process (if it's done right) and I decided I'd rather put my time and effort into the work itself. So the Indiegogo campaign has been postponed for now. If anyone is interested in expressing their support for the work we're doing, please reach out to me and I'll be happy to tell you how you can help.
Frank and I extend our sincere thanks to all those who have assisted us in this project so far, most especially the film's producer, Howard Nash, whose cooperation and support have been essential.
Happy holidays to all. More Sleepless Nights news to come in 2019, so stay tuned : )
– William Hopkins
PS: About the accompanying photos... These are stills taken by executive producer Frank Cilla with a film camera (remember those?) of cast and crew on location during the production of Sleepless Nights, back in 1999. Hopefully they'll bring back a few pleasant memories for those who were there : )
