Very Fulfilled, Tired

CD: G-Stoned by Kruder and Dorfmeister (thanks, Mo)

Just turned in my short film for Vidiocy 5 (vidiocy.org) and I haven't felt so good about filmmaking since high school. in college, i was a disenchanted film major. The film dept. was very strict about who could make films and who couldn't, a function of it being the largest university in the country no doubt. i was just very turned off to filmmaking by the time i barely graduated. but over the last month and particularly tonight, i have regained all the joy i got from it when it didn't matter and it was just some friends and a camera.

Vidiocy is a Chicago film project that doles out random titles to participants and gives them one month to make a film with their given title. All the films are exhibited a week later and a panel of judges picks 4 finalists and the audience votes on who the top three are. De Bebe and I got "The Candidate" as our random title. I'll have to admit I wasn't too excited about the title. I'm not into topical humor or political satire because it's usually cliche and dates itself easily. so, we tried to put spins on the idea of what a candidate could be. we couldn't come up with anything better than to just have a character who was running for president. it's a very easy character. he's misinformed, foolish, and not successful in the end. pretty standard character so it was easy to play. i was able to make him pretty real though, very funny, and a bit tragic (the best characters always are.)
De Bebe, however had a more difficult job as the host of a Canadian tv show that was following me and making a news magazine on my campaign. she had to be a fast talker and well-informed. very difficult considering the whole thing was improvised. she pulled it off very well i must say and the film came out really great. we also did a good job of keeping the material fresh and i think the film will still be good in ten years. in other words, it wasn't chock full of political gossip and cheap shot jokes that aren't going to make sense to your kids. it was more about the two main characters.

Unfortunately, for Vidiocy, there is a cap of ten minutes on each entrants length, which I can totally understand. the danger of getting some long-winded pile of pooh that's 30 minutes long is always an issue with a completely open film festival. i had a tough time cutting ours down to 10 minutes and by the end it was about 5 seconds over. but i'm sure they'll be a little loose on the time thing. the piece could have really been about twenty minutes and still been excellent.

My love for filmmaking was kind of unearthed by this whole experience but more specifically, my love for editing. I started at 1 this afternoon with two hours of raw footage and worked nonstop up to midnight, the deadline for submission. It felt great to be editing again. I think if I wasn't going on tour and making my living do improv (knock on buddha) i would be pursuing something in film/video editing. and if I wasn't doing that, i'd be a calligriphizing monk, hopefully in newfoundland.
i love the synthesis aspect of editing. it's like making a sculpture from a big chuck of marble. you start by just staring at a huge cube. but you can visualize what the final product is going to look like in your head and you work hard and fast to fulfill that image, trimming and placing. directing for the stage is the same way. good directors, sculptors, and editors can effectively fulfill that original inspiration in their work. i got pretty close to what i wanted tonight with "the candidate." and tomorrow, i'm going to go back and make it what it should be; a 20 minute short film with everything i know it can be. but for vidiocy, it's still a great film, and i know it will do well.

The show is this wednesday, so wish me luck, my faithful blogateer.
also wish me luck on my steppenwolf audition which is thursday. more on that after the break. stay tuned. you won't want to miss it.

sleepy time for edited bebe.
bl