the start
Took Jeff to see Synecdoche, New York tonight, for his first and my third time. It's still the best thing I've seen this year. It's too big and too good for me to really dig into. I don't know where to start. It's not easy, and in the best way. People who call it bleak are missing the point. People who call it indulgent and wanky are maybe right, but they are killjoys who will not go along for a ride if the train looks like it might jump its rails at any second, and probably you should avoid such people when possible -- except when they are evaluating trains and rollercoasters; then you should trust them implicitly. Synecdoche, New York is, in short, completely my kind of movie. Go see it and see for yourself that American cinema is not as dead as you thought.
Came home and tried to stay true to my word last night, that nothing short of actual dedication is acceptable, and frankly a little obsession wouldn't hurt. I opened up Open and really looked at it, for the first time in over six months, and I slowly reacquainted myself with just how many times I shot myself in the foot. My biggest weakness as a filmmaker, I can see, has to do with integrating the three hats I wear: Writer, Director, and Editor. The Writer tends to write the Director into a corner a little bit, and the Director tends to shoot the Editor into a corner as well. When I wrote Open I had so much to learn. When I shot it, the same. I have since written numerous better scripts, I'd like to think, and I have since learned some new skills (not enough) as a director. And as an Editor, I'm only as good as the tools I give myself. Still, I've already started chopping as brutally as I can afford to (it's not like there's a lot of dialogue here), and I've already killed an entire scene. Basically.
Even though I'm not really finished fine tuning -- the bedroom/naked scene needs a lot of work -- I think it's time to start thinking about music, foley, pacing, and titles. I need to find out how I'm going to glue all this together.
Anyway, the point of all this is, I'm editing again.
Fucking finally.
