
We
named him Mr. Slippy

After
a long and fruitless search to find a great editor it
became apparent that if I wanted REQUIEM cut anytime soon
I would have to cut it myself. When my previously available
non-linear systems suddenly dried up I bit down and borrowed
an old dual deck VHS system like I had cut my teeth ten
years earlier at USC. Because of the innherent innacuracies
of this system we affectionately named him Mr. Slippy.
Being
forced to cut REQUIEM myself was the best thing I could
have done because it made me painfully aware of my own
directorial shortcomings.
After
a brutal month of editing and thirteen versions later
I had shaped the raw dailies into the most compelling
story I could tell. One hundred shots in four and a half
minutes, this baby moves.
I
learned two important lessons from the editing process.
The first is to remain flexible. Whatever ideas you had
writing the script or on the set don't count. You only
have the images you captured on film juxtaposed against
your soundtrack to tell your story. The second lesson
is that if it doesn't work -- cut it. If it works -- cut
it by two frames.
Shooting
a film is the act of one person willing their vision into
reality. No one else is going to make that personal vision
happen so you as the director have to will it into being
by sheer force of determination. All this being said,
I could not have brought REQUIEM to the big screen without
the amazing support of the Hollywood film Industry.
As
a veteran fresh out of the guerrilla filmmaking trenches
I've learned a number of hard won lessons. Always ask
for help assuming the best. Maybe means NO. Free means
two hundred dollars. Above all -- get your film in the
can no matter what it takes, especially when you're losing
the dark.
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