Unfortunately, it happens even when footage is all within one, top level folder (though my primary experience of this has been with multiple fairly large files, so it could be that Premiere's got a bug related to their size...)

It fails pretty regularly on some ProRes files, and has on some Sony Camera files too. Probably others. There's always the chance that you've had this issue and didn't realise...

It's a real problem - and nothing to do with not understanding what's happening/ejecting cards full of footage etc.

If you're on a Mac and select a folder of footage in (on a hard drive) in Finder and drag it into Premiere, it quite regularly brings in some of the files within the folder and leaves some behind, or just as regularly brings in none at all. It's a bug - been around for ages, and it's a titanic pain in the ass. I can't remember if it happens when you import, rather than drag and drop - but if you're on a Mac there's loads of situations where you'll want to be able to bring stuff direct from the finder, and this bug really screws that up.

"Oh God."
.....
"Great!"

(Weekend At Bernie's, 1989).

Was this an advert for that slider...?

Not a big fan of unnecessary camera movements. Simplest solution, by far, is just to get the actor you're shooting over to keep their movements smaller/angled off slightly. You don't need to get them to be completely still, and you don't get weird performances. People have done this since the dawn of film... it's fine. And if people are paying more attention to the shoulder acting of your foreground actor than the face of the person you're looking at, you're in trouble for different reasons.

Hey Torben - thanks for the feedback!

I think if I'd known how long it was going to take, I probably would have thought twice about starting (began writing on January 1st 2013, shot most of it in August 2014... and then went into post... forever...). I knew I had to finish it, one way or the other, so I just kept plodding along, little by little. I can't pretend that I kept my enthusiasm levels up the whole time, and by the 500th late night doing roto or painting out a telephone pole, I was getting pretty bored, but you just keep telling yourself that the only way the project is going to be useful, is if it's finished.

I can't go into the budget at the moment, as we've got meetings and all sorts lined up - but hopefully further down the line. I blagged a LOT though.

I got the actors involved a few months before the shoot - after casting for aaaaages. Every week or two we'd meet up for a few hours and rehearse a scene, so that by the time the shoot came round they really knew their stuff and we could get a take pretty quick - but also have the time, familiarity and confidence to try out new things. The main shoot was around 3.5 weeks, and then there were a few days at other locations spread out over the next couple of months (probably nearly another week of shooting, total). All locations were free.

Let me know if you've got any other questions!

Cheers,

Alex.