My Sexy Fiance Veronica has been ill all night, making for little sleep. After the last month of various ills on my own behalf, I can now return the favor. Plans for chicken soup, bedtime stories, and the TLC enter my purview. COWTOWN has officially ended. I delayed the final screening for various reasons, not the least of which was my inability to walk at the originally designated time. Combine that with factors that contributed to the delays on the documentary, and we had a recipe for postponement.
I did finish the feature length 92 minute documentary. I felt rushed and disinterested. So much of anything relating to that movie feels like it is “of the past”. I am a different filmmaker now. I see so many things I would do differently now and the helplessness of being unable to change them just creates a pool of disappointment, even though there are many things I am still proud of.
After the screening, as sitting with an audience with a movie for the first time will do, I was bequeathed many ideas and concepts for improvement. I was little motivated to act on them, but My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has been, so she took over a massive re-edit of the documentary. So far, I would say it is greatly improved, but I had no intentions of screening this again. It was simply something I said I would do and I wanted to finish it. I keep my word. I promised to make this movie and it has less to do with anyone else’s expectations or interest as it was to placate my inner promise.
I do have the potential of releasing a DVD of the documentary, as more of an “educational” piece for indie filmmakers. It would be something I sell on the website or possible through AMAZON.COM. The idea of potentially sending it to a few small festivals has also been suggested. I’m not as enthused as I was, but the newer edit seems to have potential.
It’s amazing how you lose sight of things from your original intent to the final product. I had a “MAKING OF SCENE 6” documentary early in the film, even though it took place in post production, which is a major weakness of the overall documentary. We had little to no coverage of the post production process, so I threw together a small, short segment on it. I knew it was short changing the process, but My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™had the idea of placing in some of the educational Web Docs to tell more of the story of post production and I agree that it is a good idea, as long as we keep the running time around 90 minutes. That means major cuts to other aspects of the documentary, which generally is a good thing since the movie feels “long” and not in a good way.
The movie already has a massive re-ordering since the screening and the “B-Roll”, fly-on-the-wall segments are being chopped down to half the run time to avoid redundancies and a sense of being “boring”. All I wanted to capture was the sense of what it’s really like to be on set of an indie film and I think I achieved that, even in the “first draft” edit that screened.
I now feel free to move on though. I have a shoot this Thursday night for a new quick clip, something in the world I feel compelled to comment on. I need to get a few shots to finish off a short I started last March, although quite frankly, I’m disappointed in the footage shot, but it might be salvageable.
I’m writing a new book, I have several new small & large projects “in development”, meaning I really am working on creating a few shorts and planning the next year’s production schedule for what I want to get done. Now that I’m back on my feet (literally and figuratively), I want to get started on the next phase.
I met with an old Bank One buddy for lunch the other day. That sparked so many ideas. I realize that I don’t really know too many normal people anymore. Most people I spend time with are a bit Bohemian, not at all conducive to the writing about normalcy. To hear the names and remind myself of what the “normies” are like really help inspire me, both to write and tell stories about. Some people are made for mockery and others to be exalted.
And one last stain of vitriol to be addressed… I find it completely refreshing to see some of my worst enemies yet again palely following my footsteps. Nothing in life makes me feel more pleased than to see some of these people, who complain bitterly and loudly about how I do things, and then turn around and use these same methods of marketing and promotion for themselves. Sometimes my methods work, at least they work for me. For some to cry like babies that it’s shameless self promotion, and then do it themselves; perhaps they need to consult a mental health physician as the self loathing might be indicative of some real problems.
What can I say? Some people are followers no matter how original they think they are. It’s no wonder most people don’t waste any time taking them into any kind of consideration.
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