Work and days

I'm less than twenty tapes away from finishing the (exhausting) logging and capturing process into my fancy-schmancy "post-production suite" (i.e. laptop in my bedroom).

For better or worse, this film will be lengthy for a documentary, given Hollywood comedies now clock in at 2.5 hours and documentaries usually under 1.5...a swap in running times needed, methinks. I'm not going to L-cut as much as I thought I would (non-sync sound image/sound combination), but will instead go the route of long, single-take speeches and scenes. It's impossible for me to narrow everything I need down to McNugget sound-bytes, nor would I conceive of such a thing, given the time I've put into this thing. I'm hoping for strong enough "scenes" or shots to hold everything together. In other words, more Jean Eustache and less PBS.

It is Eustache and his remarkable The Mother and the Whore where I find inspiration right now, especially when David (in the above photo) speaks for long stretches of time, much like Jean-Pierre Leaud's character in the Eustache.

I realize, also, that I'm dealing with drastically different material from 2005 than 2006. Not only was I better trained behind the (somewhat) clunky DVX-100, but I was less interested in capturing "the moment" up-close, but reflecting on what was in front of me. The latter philosophy has been a guiding force for future projects.

I will be posting video/photos here soon, so please check back. Until then, the above photo is the first I've posted on this page.

Out of the blue

Well, it's definitely a no-go for the IFP Doc Labs. I've been very behind and somewhat lost, but at least able to decide what to keep and not to keep. Still logging tapes (yes, I shot quite a bit) and still spending too much time slackin'. But the end is near for The Drift, thankfully.

Not sure what to do when I finish this damn thing. I suppose a November date would seem apt, but I don't quite know which festivals happen at what time of year. But this project will be held together with bubble gum, make no mistake.

After all is said and done, when I can find a new project to spend nearly three years on...I should secure some kind of funding first. Either way, feeling good these days.

The struggle

Since I began production on this film, I've struggled with its form, how to piece it together, how to make something fresh, coherent, and bold. I've wondered how it could unfold, how to make each image and sound a surprise to the senses. How to resist the temptation to make an easily digested work.

Well, I've noticed throughout this process that I didn't quite know what I had. Last month I even shot a new beginning, thinking that the film needed to lunge into David's (this film's guiding force) world so to speak. Except of course that this film is a reflection on the filmmaking process at times and that David, who is also a filmmaker, might be directing me as much as I him. Having gone through over thirty tapes so far, logging minutes here and there, I finally found a coherent beginning, one that even matches some of the so-called "second unit" work I shot last month in and around the same neighborhood where this new beginning is. And they work together as a piece.

I've been working on and off, finding myself frustrated and scared at times, others content and wistful. For every few times I get discouraged, I am paid back by viewing sequences which remind me why I kept making this film in the first place. It's hard to say now where this film is going because I still have 60 or so hours left to log, but it's beginning to make more and more sense, filmically, now. To think that each tape could be in a plastic bin right now, or that I could've finished a year ago, is irrelevant. I am finally, finally, working.