Double the fun…

…oh, yeah…who’s the big idiot today?

That’s right…I am!

Or rather, I’m the big idiot a week ago, because I wrote a new post but never published it.

I could blame it on technology, but I won’t.  I know, taking the responsibility for my failure…how incredibly un-American of me.

I jest…or do I?

So, then, tonight the world gets two posts on the HWIC blog.  Happy Father’s day to your Dad.

You can go read about the prologue to the film below, or you can stay here and listen to me ramble.

I recently finished the first draft to the screenplay which will no doubt be our next film: Swing Lowe Sweet Chariote, adapted from the novel by Stella Hall.  It’s my first official book adaptation, and it was an extremely interesting experience.  Usually I run on whatever my brain comes up with, or suggestions from friends and colleagues.   But this was something else entirely.  Everything was laid out for me already, but I had to pick, choose, and disseminate all of that information to convert it to another medium.  It was easy and difficult at the same time.  Obviously I can’t make a 4 hour film out of the book by including everything (well, I could, but who would want to watch it?!) so I had to decide what went and what stayed.  What bits were most important to further plot and character arcs and what could be thrown out.  What’s nice is having access to all those ideas.  It’s almost like having unlimited fuel to inform the script.  I could use anything or nothing and, in some cases, I attempted to distill things into new ideas of my own that would keep the same tone and feeling of the book.  I didn’t do this often but it was something I had to resort to occasionally to solve problems.

Would I do it again?  Sure!  Why not?

 

The Joyous Hell of Editing

In two days we will premiere Dark of Winter for a home town audience in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Since we last screened the film, I wrote and shot a prologue that was originally going to be a short film that we would screen separately from the feature, but has since become the new beginning of the picture.  We’ll see how it goes over and if it will stay as such…

Anyway, as it happened with my first film, The Quiet Arrangement, I continually go back and re-edit.  Not necessarily broad strokes, no, these edits are more minute, but still ever essential.  Technology is such that the ease and convenience of changing a shot or a line of dialogue has opened up a myriad of unlimited possibilities in the edit.  This, I think, is a blessing and a curse.

A blessing, yes, for I can continue to fine tune without worrying of destroying a negative or a print.  A curse, yes, because I can literally change everything, for as long as I see fit!

I have tried to complete the film and walk away.  But when we screened it in New York I already saw things that I was going to change.  I’m sure that I’ll see things again on Saturday.  Nothing is safe…

At some point and time, though, I’m going to have to just put it to bed and live with my choices.  I could, conceivably, edit this film for the rest of my days, but then that would rob me of exploring other work.  And why in hell would I want to do that?  Is it striving for perfection?  Is it my particular nature?

Or is it just because I can…?