Again, I will attempt to show (through an e-mail) how one of "Getting Lear's" most thematically important and poignant scenes happened.
For months I had been making a movie about daughters who didn't take care of their aged father, and right in front of me was a story unfolding about a daughter (Peg) who was taking care of her aged father.
Between takes the actors would talk about what was going on in their lives. These off camera conversations were better than the interviews I had conducted with them because these conversations were candid, natural, and very real.
This was a HUGE revelation to me. They were THEMSELVES when I wasn't rolling. Believe it or not this was when I started to think like a documentary filmmaker.
January 14, 2008
Peg,
Thanks for your continued support and involvement with our little Lear project.
Not only has the project evolved into something much tighter, and much richer (in the narrative sense) than I had first imagined, but I feel like I've evolved along with it (well, Lear and watching 300 docs has been a crash course in doc making!)
Anywhoo, your conversation, during Friday's lunch, about getting your dad into the assisted care facility (and out of the nursing home) struck me as something I would like to capture in the film. It seems like there is a series of (bureaucratic) hoops and maneuvers you and your brother need to do in order to make the deal go down. The good part of the story is that if all goes right, your dad will be in a much better situation than the nursing home. This is so relevant to the "Getting Lear" thesis.
Let me know if you (and your father and brother) would be OK documenting this process, and then we can start communicating on how to capture it on tape.
Let me know your thoughts.
All my best.
Chris
For months I had been making a movie about daughters who didn't take care of their aged father, and right in front of me was a story unfolding about a daughter (Peg) who was taking care of her aged father.
Between takes the actors would talk about what was going on in their lives. These off camera conversations were better than the interviews I had conducted with them because these conversations were candid, natural, and very real.
This was a HUGE revelation to me. They were THEMSELVES when I wasn't rolling. Believe it or not this was when I started to think like a documentary filmmaker.
January 14, 2008
Peg,
Thanks for your continued support and involvement with our little Lear project.
Not only has the project evolved into something much tighter, and much richer (in the narrative sense) than I had first imagined, but I feel like I've evolved along with it (well, Lear and watching 300 docs has been a crash course in doc making!)
Anywhoo, your conversation, during Friday's lunch, about getting your dad into the assisted care facility (and out of the nursing home) struck me as something I would like to capture in the film. It seems like there is a series of (bureaucratic) hoops and maneuvers you and your brother need to do in order to make the deal go down. The good part of the story is that if all goes right, your dad will be in a much better situation than the nursing home. This is so relevant to the "Getting Lear" thesis.
Let me know if you (and your father and brother) would be OK documenting this process, and then we can start communicating on how to capture it on tape.
Let me know your thoughts.
All my best.
Chris
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