There’s a press screening of ‘Prison Valley’ on 8^th April in Paris, then it goes out in w-w-w format on 22^nd April, and it’s broadcast Arte on 12^th June. How do I put this? The pressure’s mounting, stress has set in. Some of the team are on Rennies, others are on a diet of coffee and cigarettes, and the professional debuggers have sunk into the total silence. Other still, the ones we’re most concerned about, have given up everything: coffee, cigarettes, Rennies, Firefox.

At Upian headquarters it’s the rush for the finish line, the race against the lost URL, a XML fest, the HTML heavyweight clash, a Flash-crazed bash, the all-out icon blow-out and a translation mishmash. ‘Prison Valley’ is going to be released in three languages: French, English and German. Three languages means one helluva lot of texts, subtitles in battle order, bonuses to be checked, online access to be worked out. In short, one big mess.

To be quite honest – we’re swamped. We’re wallowing. We’re afraid. And we’re happy.

Ah yes, there’s Bertrand Toty, too. The musician. He’s pathologically obsessed with background sounds: prison sounds, traffic noise, navigation sounds (coming soon). Sound is essential on the Net.

Last Friday was the last dubbing recording at Yap studios with Benoît Héry, impeccable as ever, at the controls. Christian Stonner, a regular for Arte, did the vocals. It’s in the can. Jean-Laurent Feurra came along too to give us a hand. A big hand. His task was to get the (many) sections of the film and the (many) video bonuses ready. In three languages, remember. That’s what web documentaries are about too: lots of different stories, lots of different information.

Friday was also the last meeting with our partners for ‘Prison Valley’. Libération, France Inter and Yahoo! have now joined Arte and the CNC.

Where are the Rennies?
See you soon for more adventures…