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One
of the coolest gags we did in REQUIEM was the falling cigarette shots
in the opening titles. Since there was no way to hold focus on the extreme
macro shot I had envisioned I built a ten times over scale prop cigarette
complete with real glowing embers. Because the prop was dropping over
fifteen feet my first assistant was able to pull focus to keep the shot
sharp.
Photographing the drops at high speed sold the scale but also was my biggest nightmare because by now I was down to shooting my short -- short ends. Some as short as fifty feet. We would get the prop burning then throw it just after the camera got up to speed. If we rolled out before the cigarette cleared the shot it was time to reload and do another take.
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.
“We
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.
