First Cut

I'm going to see the first cut of the short film I worked on last month. The director wants to cut about 10 minutes. Before I see a first cut, I'm always hoping the film will be close to being finished. Like, if you know you want to cut 10 minutes, cut 10 minutes then invite me to see it. :-) Seriously, for a filmmaker, the process of going through successive cuts can be overwhelming. You're watching the film everyday, you've already lived with the script and the actors for months and months (in this case way too many months) and now you've got to find cuts you didn't know existed.

I both love and hate this process. It's hard to watch the film and decide what you don't need, especially when you are seeing it with someone who has watched it for hours and hours before you got there. My favorite method is to watch it all the way through, make notes at the end, then re-watch it with a notepad, compare the two sets of notes and then watch it a third time with that compiled set of notes in hand to see if I agree or disagree. This way I have a couple of impressions: the average viewer impression -- I have ADD so that more than makes up for any "expertise" I might bring to my first viewing :-)~ -- the critical observer impression and, most important, the informed critique impression. Every cut is different, so from that point on it sort of tailors itself to the situation. I have a lot of experience with editing myself, so I really enjoy this process. It's not as frantic as production, and there's plenty of time for rational discussion.

The light posting is going to continue while I finish this freelance gig. I love to get paid, but then you have to do the work!!! Aargh!! I want to finish my spec!! OK, enough of the complaints. Suck it up and get back to work, lady!