Michael Caine asserts that if you're working too hard, you're not doing it right. Well, I think part of the problem I've had finishing films has had a lot to do with the what I've completed on set. I've long agonized on things coming together, having seen many projects languish over the years. Earlier on I missed a lot: I never slated shots, I didn't understand transistions and coverage, problems with sound, sound, sound. One of the biggest problems I had was with the writing. I tried to do too much with the story. I wasn't skilled enough to let it be simple. If you asked me what something was about, I gave a convoluted plot and thematic summary, rather than a simply stated premise. I've long heard that successful films are about one thing. My films were much deeper than that; I mean why say it simply when you can make it complicated? In terms of coverage, I either didn't know how to do it very well. Again, why take the time to understand film grammar? I'm way smarter than that. More notoriously, I held the arrogant opinion that I could forego coverage by letting the action play out in the master or, even worse, cut the film in the camera. Just about every filmmaker I know that cuts in the camera makes very wooden and mannered films. Too many of us have been seduced by the Robert Rodriquez mythos. The few filmmakers that let things play out in the master successfully are bona fide masters such as Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Andrei Tarkovsky and most masterfully of all, Hou Tsien Tsien. I'm not ready to make worthwhile attempts at that just yet.
Not a single film since my first film, Nora Mae, has cut together easily. Until now. With the new technology of P2 cards, logging and digitizing is a much more direct task. Especially when every shot is slated. Now all that has to be done is select the take I like for each shot, set in and out points and drop it in the timeline. Right on down the shot list. There's no anguish, because the story is elegantly simple and was pre-visualized well - storyboards and test shots. Transistions were well considered in pre-visualiztion, too. So I don't have to work too hard to get a rough cut. If I decide to get tricky later on, that will be a choice rather than a compromise. All this bluster isn't to say it's a perfect film. I'm no longer concerned with making a perfect film and what that could do for my vaunted career. Klepto is just a little exercise in making movies that I'm going to finish and let whomever sees it judge it for themselves.
One more thing saved me from a hellish post-production relationship with this project -- no sound. Klepto is a non-verbal film. There's a temp track of location sound for reference, but I plan to record and build a soundtrack after I have a cut. Come to think of it, Nora Mae was the same deal. I'm feeling a bit exposed and vulnerable to admit that after all these years I still can't make a sound-sync film without having to work too hard. Alack, I am who I am and I am where I'm at. Oh, the pain of getting ahead of oneself. Good thing it's never too late to start over. All the better since I have all the experience of failed past attempts at a number of projects beyond my abilities. Oh, the joy of being a human learning to make films.
Anyway, Klepto should be finished within the next week or two if I can continue to embrace its imperfections and enjoy the progress I've made as a filmmaker by being right-sized.
Humbly yours,
Signore Direttore
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