Update: 12-04-05: I edit the movie as I go along, because this opens the door to solving so many problems. If I screw in a scene, I know soon so I can schedule a reshoot. It also helps me get in the flow and pacing of the movie, and of course for sentimental reasons I love being around my movies so much. So anyway, I have edited all of these scenes already, but I want to speak in particular about scene 24.
This is supposed to be one of the funniest moments in the film. Jack and Kitsy go up to Kate, and hilarity ensues as Kitsy "helps" Jack speak to her. Kitsy helps a speechless Jack form his words, keeps him from running away, and ends up physically forcing him to ask her on a date. The result looks like insanity from Kates perspective. Physical and verbal humor flying a mile a minute until the audience is gasping for their breath. Only problem was I hated it. After editing the scene many times a day for about two weeks, I started realizing the problems. Too slow, poor composition, looked fake. I was coming to the conclusion that I was simply not a funny performer, and that it would probably take me years before I became funny. Jim Carrey went through years on stage before finding himself, same with Steve Martin. I figured I had a similar route to follow.
I showed the scene to my field production class. Only a couple mild chuckles. My theory was correct: I sucked and my movie sucked. I took a break from editing, didn't even watch the scenes for a few days. Then a funny thing happened; I showed the scenes to five people from my house and they LOVED it. Laughed at the right places, were caught up in the action and wanted to see more. Even I thought it was funny, and it came alive to me. I showed them the next scene, similar reactions. Suddenly my movie was great. It showed me that obsessing too much can take away the true vision. You start to see problems that may not exist and you can't feel the movie. From now on I'm going to make a concerted effort to give the movie enough room to breath, but not so much it hyperventelates. As far as I'm concerned, scene 24 is the best scene I've ever shot.

We had a very good day of shooting. Productive. We shot scenes 24, 55 and 73. All in all about 8 minutes of the movie. This was an important day for several reasons:
1. We were shooting potentially one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
2. We were shooting the end of the movie.
3. A reporter from The Barometer was coming.
We had Angie on hand today which is always nice. Always meaning both times we've had her. We also got a new crew member! Mirah. I don't know her last name though. Kaleen introduced her to us. We started setting up at 9:00am in some THICK fog. That was unexpected. The weather reports indicated sunny with 0% chance of rain. Alas, God had His thing going, and I have to say it added a little humor. So Praise Him for that. It was also cold as frick! Man was it cold! Ron came out of the fog like a ghost. A very Orson Wellesian ghost. Bruva looked just like the man! Ron is shooting an update of Shakespears 'King Lear' later this year and I'm going to play a role. Ron is evidently following in Welles' footsteps. He's a filmmaker, let me tell you!

So we started in scene 24, a scene where Jack tries to talk to Kate but Kitsy keeps getting in the way. Well, it's more complicated and funny than that, but I don't want to divulge TOO much! There was some physical comedy involved, some funny one liners, and some kung fu poses from Haj. We also shot the end of the movie, which we will probably end up reshooting. There's two ends I want to shoot, and depending on audience reaction I'll choose which one to use. One is not very traditional, but fits all the characters and ties the movie up well. It's the smarter ending. The other one is very funny, ties the movie kind of well, and fits the characters. It's the more exciting ending. Here's where the debate comes in: art over audience, or audience over art? I personally like both endings. If I was to watch a finished version of the film by myself, I would probably choose the smarter, somewhat more depressing ending. If I was to show it to an auditorium, I don't really know which one I would choose. The smart ending has potential to move audiences and critics alike. It also has potential to leave the audience frustrated. Here's how the smart ending goes: Jack tries to get Kate, but due to his ineptitude he can't. She shrugs it off, and Jack leaves totally unaware that he's even made a wrong move. He tries to apologize to Kitsy for his wrongs, but Kitsy disappears before he has a chance to. This is because:
1. Kate doesn't really like Jack. She can't; why would she? She's amused by him, like one is amused with a dog.
2. I hate Jack. I hate him because he reminds me so much of me. I want to be mean to him. The thing is, he's screwed everything up with Kate but he's too stupid to even realize it! This eliminates the audiences ability to have sympathy for him, I think. Can you really sympathize for a poor man if he doesn't know he's poor?
3. If Jack walks off alone, he's walking into another adventure; another movie. And as much as I hate the character, I love playing him.

So I'm at a crossroads as far as the story goes. We have a month and a half off of shooting (for the most part, there is some classroom stuff left and we might shoot some more depending), so I have time to think of a lot of stuff.

We filmed a lot of the stuff coherently. Meaning the scenes actually feel like scenes without bizarre mistakes. Today was a turning point, because I don't think I've ever filmed this succesfully. There are still things wrong. The lighting was uncontrolled (wow, I had a dream a few months ago that I would be writing these things about my movie, I'm not kidding!) because we were shooting outside. I now wish I would have used reflectors more. A couple sounds problems, mostly caused by noisy cars, but that's cool. Some acting issues, but since when have their not be? Overall a productive student film day. Good but not totally satisfying. I'm turning 22 soon. That's so crazy to me. 22 seems so old.

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