As
of Tuesday, we've finally wrapped production on our pick up scenes.
It's been a tough last month shooting intermittently around our regular
work schedules with a tiny crew in the heat that is Austin, TX. But
despite the fatigue, I think we all feel a sense of satisfaction for
going extra lengths to make "What's the Use?" a better film. It's going
to be nothing like what it was in December, when we decided that we
weren't completely happy with the way the film was playing out. I am at
point in my own creative evolution that I'm just not happy with straight
forward storytelling. I am aware I go through cycles between loving
gritty realism and visual circuses, but each film will demand the look
it wants for itself, if you don't force it, and if you listen to what it
wants. It takes time for these films to figure out their look and
"voice," but I truly believe, after having made two features now, that
you cannot know too much in advance what the look and tone is. You just
have to be open to what the film will whisper in your ear while you are
sound asleep.
There is now an extra level of narrative complexity, visual interest, and strangeness that did not exist. We shot some footage on the Lomokino 35mm and so integrating that in an interesting way should be truly interesting. I've been posting lots of stills from the scenes, and will be posting more in the future. Now we get to hunker down and shape this footage into it's finished form (Tag Simler and I will be editing), tweak the animations, send this off to the composer (Arles Estes) and color it. My hope is we will be done mid 2014. I'll be working on developing film number three while doing this, still not sure what story this one will be.
So thank you in advance to all the talent involved, and folks opening their doors to us, to allow us to shoot.
