Finding, Exploring, and Developing

I have come to learn that there is nothing enjoyable or creative about shooting.

I'm a terrible shooter.

I recognize this, and shoot accordingly - meaning I shoot fairly conservative: lots of mediums and close ups and the obligatory wide master.

I do go off sticks, because so much of doc making necessitates the "run and gun" style of shooting . None of this pleases me.

But somehow it all comes together in the editing process.

Editing is not just cutting - it is finding, exploring, and developing.

I found so much gold in my outtakes that I stopped looking at regular "scene" footage and focused all my attention on finding and logging "unintended" footage. So much so, it became the basis of my film.

I guess it is also seeing the footage with new eyes - not always possible when you are the shooter and editor, but less difficult when your project has dragged on for years like this one has. The stuff I shot in 2007 is such a distant memory that it seems like somebody else shot it - and that shooter wasn't bad!

-chris

Some perspective...

After rereading my last few posts it seems like I might be feeling a little bit sorry for myself , or throwing myself a pity party over how badly I feel I have been wronged over the last two years.

Nothing further from the truth.

I am so glad to be at the place that I now find myself - working on a doc I feel so fucking passionate about.

I committed to a project funded by the English Speaking Union and Rollins College, and I delivered it as promised. Everything else is on them.

Even when my editor, Fred, and I split ways on this project we did so knowing that it was the best thing for us to do. I'm so proud of us for handling a difficult situation like adults and like friends. Fred is a good guy, and a multi-talented filmmaker/editor/actor/ composer.

He will always be my friend.

And then, as if from Heaven, drops a young UCF student/ up and coming editor named Michael S. (thanks a million times over to Lisa Mills for this). In his first hours working on my film, Michael was cleaning up edits, fixing audio problems, and absorbing all that is FINAL CUT PRO like a sponge. I was floored by his attention to detail, and his willingness to work, work, work.

So, in no way, am I down about what has happened over the last two years. I am on fire.

Fire, mothefuckers.

-chris

What happens now...

Nearly two years ago, when I was a grad student at Rollins, I entered into a three person partnership for the purpose of making a film about King Lear and aging.

I didn't ask for anything in writing.

In my defense: I was approached by a major educational institution (of which I was a student) to make an educational film. I had no way of knowing that their word was meaningless.

I was paid three thousand dollars up front.

Granted (and that is a funny word in this case) whatever the productions budget was - it was not enough, and who in their right mind would agree to work on a massive project -- virtually alone -- and then spend 5 grand of their own money to finish it.

Me.

This wasn't a school project, I benefited zero for my efforts.

I tell this tale because it was a huge learning experience.

Now, they have their film and seem to be happy with it for whatever that is worth, and I have my own film. I also have an attorney.

As I write this the words are not coming easy to me, but the reason I turn to the blog is to put forth my desire to move forward - finish MY film - and have it all mean something in the end.

As I proceed with my film, and as I wrap up the messy details of their film, I will be using this blog to spill my guts. No more holding back.

Repeat: No more holding back.

Reinventing ...

The project, as it was, is now dead.

I’ve killed the Getting Lear website.

What happened (on a very long road to completion) is the film split into two pieces. These pieces are as separate and as distinct from one another as two films cut from the same footage can be.

There have been many delays, hang ups, shut downs, and frustrations with this film - many of my own making, but perhaps the biggest block was trying to make one cohesive film out of two separate ideas.

It took the gentle, brilliant, and supportive Stu Omans to show me the way on this. He looked at my forty minute cut of “Getting Lear” – a cut that focused more on dolls than actors, that focused more on directing than acting, and that focused very little on Shakespeare’s King Lear and more on Stu trying to make a movie about King Lear – and said to me “how do we make this work for the grant people.”

I could see in his eyes that my forty minute film was not what he thought we would be delivering to the English Speaking Union. And yet, he never flinched, HE NEVER SAID “NO.”

All along this has been my experience with this Stu Omans character: I bounce an idea off of him and he would commit one hundred percent to it -- “Hey Stu put on a speedo and let me film you swimming,” or “Hey Stu, can you do the scene in a hospital bed instead of a palace?”

Always, Stu said “YES.”

So, when he looked at me, with the glow of my FINAL CUT PRO program bouncing off his face, and said he would back me up “one hundred percent” I knew I owed him a huge debt of thanks – and a movie that would easily satisfy the English Speaking Union grant.

Out came a 60 minute educational doc about King Lear and aging. Employing everything I learned over the last three months editing GETTING LEAR, I am fairly impressed at how well this one hour film flows.

It is not a film that will play festivals, but it should play classrooms.

I cut the film together in five days – five ten hour days.

More important than anything, this is the film Stu was expecting.

The other film is my film: my film about my time with Stu Omans. It’s personal, quirky, and I love it and cannot wait to show it to the world.