MARCH 27 - YIP-$@%^#^- PEE

Well, it's official. Today, the boys from PANIC PICTURES locked the picture edit for "THE CHAIR". It was a long process with much debate and humour ... and patience on their part.

We watched the film several times thru these past few days. I finally REALLY got ruthless with the opening act and lost another 3-1/2 minutes from the first 22. We had some really good comments from a screening on Friday. One member of the audience actually started counting establishing shots. Truly NOT a good sign. Then writer Michael Capellupo counted them... there are over 120 shots of the house. Well not really, but there were TOO many. But what Darren, the audience memeber dude said, really struck chord, the establishers stop the flow of dread and release the tension. He was right.

There were also people in the audience that 'called' me on some of my tricks. The fancy post stuff is so easy these days. It's fun to mess around with the images to make them look 'cool'. But this audience was having none of the tom foolery. Just tell the story, and don't try to hide behind visual tricks,

It is something I learned as an editor and as an audience member as well. Sure there are MANY cool shots in many movies. But the MOMENT I say/think, "Wow cool shot", or effect I am drawn out of the story and reminded of the film making process. That's not a good thing. Now, as a director, editing his own film, I get lost in my own flashy visuals. But like the all powerful wizard behind the curtain, I was trying to distract the audience with trickery, when all along, the answer was right in front of me. Just tell the story.

And if any of the audience from Friday happens to read this, I doubt it, thanks for setting me straight. Except Elan Mastai.... everything he said was just wrong.... Of course I'm kidding. He was very vocal, and I appreciate it.