ENTRY NUMBER NINE: RESET

Yes, you should plan every shoot and every production. But you should also plan that that plan will go awry ...

Today I was supposed to shoot downtown with Anna. It was the only day she could give me. Unfortunately she called me this morning and I didn't have to be a doctor to know that she was ill. And she will be leaving the province by Friday. The shoot was off

So ..

This is the shit that happens when you are in to a production. YES should plan as much as possible but you must be able to bounce to the knees to the groin that the Production Gods love to throw at you.

I still had the contact info for Moniquea, another actress who had responded to my ad. I called her and quite remarkably, she is willing to work with me tomorrow.

But that wasn't the only reset. I was looking at the rules for the video contest once more and noticed something that I had missed; I was so thrilled to be able to edit to a Moby song and so inspired by the After track that I forgot that there was a theme for this competition, upon which 1/3rd of the judging will be based. The video will have to speak to the them of Hello Future ...

My response was, hell what? If you asked me to make a video based on that phrase I'd probably laugh and grab a beer. But I have a video started, I like my concept, I think it matches the song. But hell, I'm a writer and and editor so I edited .. my "script" a bit. It didn't take much to come up a way, by adding some new shots, to point my video in the direction of Hello Future.

Quite frankly, I wasn't going to go back to scratch; I'm not in this to win, I'm in this because I got inspired. But thinking about the theme made me think more about the video and in actuality it gave me a bit more concrete direction

My concept for the video is that of human isolation in the city so there you go .. that's the future .. ok it's the present but it's the future that we built for ourselves

I have a lot of B Roll of traffic, of crowds, of throngs of people shot from high angles, of the city. So I drive up the 400 to King City and about 10 minutes away from my big city I found country roads, old barns, rusted fences. I'm going to cut them with my city shots, one after another for contrast; the fancy snotty word is juxtaposition.

How will I fit my actress in this? I had envisioned shots of her sort of alone and lost in the city. I admit it was a vague idea but the theme of the contest actually gave me some focus. I'm going to put my character on a journey. As she walks downtown and takes the subway she will be lost, she will be seeking. As she progresses on her journey the city will grow around her, there will be images of what we've left behind. Her journey through the city will take her to Union City.

Most importantly the theme gave me something I did not have before: A final shot. As we keep moving, as the city keeps growing our actress stands inside Union Station staring up at a sign that says, at the same time, Arriving .. Departing.