No longer on the road.
In fact the film is done. Short of a final very expensive sound mix, the film that was in my head is now finished and sitting in Final Cut waiting for distribution.
This was a very long journey and the film I set out to make in January is not the film I actually made.
There are a number of reasons why this is so.
Firstly, no documentary film ever ends up being what you set out to make because docs are inherently driven by real life and reality and we don’t control those. Also, the premise you start with doesn’t always hold water as you get deeper into the interview and production process.
Secondly, as you learn things (which is the point of making a documentary) other avenues of story, events and ideas start to emerge which often leads you down some previously unconsidered paths.
For me, very early in the actual filming process, it started to become clear I was moving beyond my initial premise, but also it was becoming about my own personal journey making it. I didn’t realize it until I got home and off the road. Initially I had considered getting a narrator for this film to to set up story lines and scene transitions. At some point ( I think it was the Saturday morning in Charlottesville) I realized that I was the narrator and that it was my story and my questions that would fuel this film. This theory bore itself out once I started the edit.
So the film I thought I was making was not, the film I didn’t know I was making turned out to be the finished project. I honestly could not be happier. It is without a doubt the most important film of my career and it’s baring itself out based on the reactions and feedback from everyone who has watched it and is trying to help get it out there.
I will continue this blog as I navigate the chaotic waters of the distribution process.
And then onto the next project … whatever that is