Editing

In January 2012 we started editing FINALLY and 2 days ago we finished the first rough cut of Ahmed Magdy's segment "Amr". At the beginning we were planning to edit the film or the different segments ourselves but then we realized that it would be much better for the film to be edited by someone with fresh eyes; someone who hasn't been there since the beginning during screenwriting or preparation or shooting. We wanted to have only one person to edit the film but it was hard to find someone who is available all that long time. This is why we decided to have more than one editor working together. Right now Islam Kamal is working on 2 segments "Rawya" and then later "Maha", Nada Riyadh is working on 2 segments as well "Amr" and "Moussa" while Mark Lotfy is only editing "The Girl" so as Mohamed Zidan and "Dahlia". On February 7th, 2012 Nada finished the first rough cut for "Amr" so now she's working on "Moussa". 

Mohamed Zidan while editing Mayye's segment "Dahlia"

We are not 7 anymore !!

Unfortunately in January 2012 we had to take a hard decision which is to start the process of editing without "Hassan"; the segment written and directed by Mahmoud. Mahmoud was the 2nd one to shoot his segment in November 2010 but due to many obstacles he couldn't finish shooting it. We were planning to be done with shooting and start with editing or post production in general in July 2011 but due to the revolution and financial issues we were delayed to January 2012 so we decided that it's best for the film to start editing without Mahmoud even though we were sad to do so.

End of Shooting

On January 3rd, 2012 we finally finished shooting our film "The Mice Room" after 1 year, 4 months and 18 days and now we are working in post production. We really would like to thank all the people who helped us all the way. Without you we couldn't make it so THANK YOU :)

The 6th Segment "Amr"

On Friday, December 23rd, 2011 we started shooting the last segment "AMR" starring Zeyad Salem as Amr. Ahmed El Shazly was the Assistant Director but since he got a new job in Cairo he couldn't be available all the time of shooting so Ahmed Nabil became the Assistant Director. Mayye Zayed is still abroad. yet, she offered to work on this segment via Skype but no one believed that could work. All of us except Mayye for sure were there to help and this unfortunately costed Hend her new laptop. Someone came in to the hospital where they were shooting, took the laptop in front of everybody and just left. The people in the hospital thought he was one of the film's crew and whoever was there from the film's crew thought he was someone from the hospital !!

Sameh Nabil is enjoying what he's listening to

Sameh Nabil is wishing everybody a Merry Christmas

Finally there is a lady on set

Zeyad Salem is no longer Amr

The 5th Segment "Rawya"

Mohamed Zedan and Islam Kamal trying to find the perfect frame

The 5th segment was shot in August 2011. The great Hanan Youssef has agreed to play the main character "Rawya" in it. Hanan has met the 6 filmmakers in the independent filmmaking workshop in the Jesuits Centre and on location in Ibrahim's El Batout's feature "Hawi". One of the film's main rules was to have the main crew members like the DP, assistant director, .. etc from the 6 filmmakers themselves, in order to increase their chance of learning. However this rule was broken when Mayye Zayed has travelled abroad to study. She was supposed to be the DP for this segment as planned, but since she won't make it, Islam Kamal was chosen to do it.

Nada Riyadh is praying Islam Kamal won't fall

Sameh Nabil finds his perfect spot to record sound

The house where "Rawya" takes place is a very old house. Since the floor is really old and not stable enough for the dolly we have, we had to build a stable wooden floor ourselves for the dolly's rubber tracks. It was either this solution or buying a new dolly with steel tracks, not to mention we are borrowing this dolly from Ibrahim El Batout :) We also wanted to have a shot from outside the kitchen so we had to build another wooden thing for the camera to be fixed on. Ahmad Zayan and Islam El Tayeb were the great guys who did these two jobs, building the wooden tracks and the camera's stand from scratch. Thank you guys :)

Mohamed Zedan and Islam Kamal testing the new dolly tracks

The wooden camera's stand

You can check the video here :)

http://themiceroomfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/making-dolly.html

The 4th Segment "Dahlia"

On Sunday, July 21st, 2011 we started shooting the 4th segment "Dahlia" starring Noura Saafan as Dahlia the bride, Sherifa and Sahar as the hairdressers, Azza as the mother, Elie as the father, Batoul as the sister, Omar Elhamy as the groom, Heba Ayman and Isis Khalil as the friends of the bride. It was shot in five days; two days in Mohamed Zedan's house and three days in Sherifa's hairdresser "Bella Donna". We finished shooting today, July 29th, 2011. 

The 3rd Segmet "The Girl"

On Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 we started shooting the 3rd segment "The Girl" starring Malak Magdy as the girl, Nadia Abdel Salam as the grandmother, Nesreen Nour as the mother and Mosaad Salem as the uncle. We shot two days in a mosque, one day in a school, one day in the street and one day in a house. We finished shooting last Friday, June 17th, 2011. Here are some photos from behind the scenes taken by Mohamad El Hadidi.

Hend Bakr is watching the actors through the camera's LCD

Hend Bakr and Mayye Zayed are shooting from the minbar or the pulpit inside a mosque

Mohamed Zedan who is one of the co-directors worked on this segment as the production manager and he managed to shoot this segment with L.E2000 (around $330) only for 5 days of shooting, which is quite an achievement. Ahmed Ragab was supposed to be the sound engineer but since he had exams, he couldn't come all the time so Nermeen Salem who has just arrived from abroad took over. Sameh Nabil and Mohamad El Hadidi sometimes were also responsible for the sound when Ragab wasn't around.

Ahmed Ragab is explaining to Nermeen Salem what to do before going to the exam

Mohamed Zidan is fixing a neon lamp to the ceiling

Mayye Zayed to the left and Malak Magdy to the right as drawn by Malak in the last day of shooting