Tuesday and Wednesday were spent editing - hurrah! I love editing. I'm so glad being a director also means I get to keep working on the editing side of things, without having to know and worry about all the technical details that an actual editor has to take care of!
Marty is my editor on this project. We had never worked together previously, and I was worried because he is always so quiet and reserved - but as it turns out, I think he's wonderful! He is still quiet, but he's very patient, very competent, and a perfectionist. When I work with him I hardly ever have the urge to grab the mouse and do it myself, even though he does occasionally get a bit stuck with trimming. He's very easy-going too; this is a god-send because it means that if I want to I can sit with him and pour over every little frame with him, or I can leave him alone and he's perfectly happy to work on his own, and so far I have done both. As far as I can tell he has neither felt stifled or neglected, although now I am wondering whether that is just because he's quiet and isn't expressing those feelings... hmm. Interpersonally, the only problem I can actually pinpoint comes entirely from me. I can be very vocally critical of my own work, and sometimes I just flat-out complain about it. This is a problem because my work is never isolated - my work encompasses the work of everybody on the team. If I complain too much, it hurts other people because I make them feel that they have done a bad job. This may have happened yesterday with Marty... I'm not sure, but I hope not.
As for the actual material itself, it is awful. I'm rather ashamed. Although I have to say here that the film is still going to turn out MUCH better than I expected, because Marty (and I) have done a really good job in pulling together the best bits to make a good cut. I'm quite pleased.
Anyway, I have two major gripes at myself, and both come from not double-checking and being absolutely thorough. The first is that my planned side-on close up of Trevor was supposed to pan to a poster on the wall of the elevator when he exited the elevator, however when it came to capturing the shot I forgot about the poster and we just cut the shot once he exited. Dammit! I should have double-checked my shot list! I had it written on there. Secondly, I do not have any footage of the Courier holding Trevor's briefcase, and so the audience can't possibly tell that he has stolen it. All of my shots from the point of the steal are too tight to show the briefcase. This is such foolishness on my part, as I evidently completely lost track of capturing the basic plot of the scene, and therefore lost the punchline. What I am hoping to do now, to fill the hole, is to actually find a location on campus and shoot the little scene where the courier steals the briefcase, even though the original script says that this happens off screen. I always hated that.
Other smaller gripes include making the shot on Sarah before she enters the elevator a bit too tight, and not spending enough time on the floating two-shot that is basically the most important shot. If I could do it again I would definitely spend more time on that, although even now I cannot think what I would give up to do it, as we have used and needed everything. Wait, scrap that statement. The shot that I had planned to use as my opening shot was never going to work - that's the one I would scrap.
One problem that I can't really blame myself for is the way the art department let me down a bit. I think I chased them as much as anyone could expect me to, but the fact is, my shoot was the last of eight, and I think by that time they were tired and did not care very much. It's such a pity.
Other things this week:
I had a rehearsal with Chloe yesterday, and one for Gypsy today, for their scenes in New York. I say rehearsals, but actually I mean meetings for discussions. We focused on parts of the text that required research, and tried to draw conclusions about characters' backstories from the text. They were good sessions, but it's going to get harder from now. The next thing I plan to do with them is to have them tell me the results of their research, and tell me their backstories, not as actors but as characters, as though the facts are part of their own memories and experiences, rather than simply research. I hope I can keep up with all this - I'm still finding it very difficult to know how to work on these monologues, and I haven't found the hook that makes me fall in love with the play yet. I just need to work on it more I suppose, and soon I'll find that moment of magic. I'm rehearsing with Chloe tomorrow - perhaps I will find it then.
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