So I am completely stuck. I don’t mean a little strain over the status of my film, it’s coming close to an entire meltdown. It’s 9 days until the deadline and I don’t have a film. I thought I was in the process of having a film until I had the final tutorial with my tutor and was told that my loose assembly was a perfect example as to how to ruin good rushes with editing, that watching my film was as boring as watching paint dry and that she was watching the clock the entire time waiting for the pain to end. If you’re going to get slated you might as well have it done properly.
Now I don’t mind the bashing, not one bit, it’s trying to step back from it and start again that’s my problem. Throughout this course I’ve fought at times with my tutor regarding my films and often I’ve taken the wrong advice and not fought enough to make the film I wanted to make. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this with this film. This was going to be my film come hell or high water. Today I nearly put together the most sensationalist version of my film I could make but just couldn’t do it. Now I don’t know whether I’m just trying to make a film that only I find interesting, this is a real possibility. My tutor did say my last cut was like an educational video and perhaps that’s a little bit of what I was going for. I’m not trying to make a campaign video for abolitionists and I’m not going to make the film far more dramatic than my original intention for the sake of drama. That goes against everything I believe in and certainly is not the route I want my career to go down.
I always knew my film wouldn’t change people’s lives purely by watching it but I hoped that perhaps it would make somebody think. I don’t know if I’ve just reached my limitations. The main criticisms I always get are for my choice of filming style, whereas I don’t really see it as a choice. I’m not a huge fan of moving, shaky observational filmmaking for the sake of it, never mind the fact that I can’t film handheld yet. I have used cameras for a while, I know I need a hell of a lot more practice but I’m just too shaky to even contemplate using it. So, I use a tripod for 99% of my shots. For some reason I really like talking heads too. I stupidly mentioned that I loved Errol Morris and now everything I do seems to be seen as a reflection of that. I suppose I should take it as a compliment, he’s an Oscar winning filmmaker who primarily shoots talking head and whose films I find incredibly captivating and fascinating.
Anyway tomorrow is day 8 and I have no idea as to how to even begin with the film. My tutor suggested only using the footage of Jim Willett. Jim is the ex-Warden of the Walls Unit in Huntsville, it’s a low security prison but it also is the home of the Texas execution chamber. One of his duties as warden was to give the signal to begin the execution. I am fascinated by Jim Willett and truly have a large amount of respect for him. As somebody who is against the Death Penalty perhaps I should see him as an evil man but I don’t. The one thing I learnt about the Death Penalty from the trip was that no one person has any control over whether this person is put to death or not, even the Governor of Texas can’t stop an execution. There are hundreds of people in a mammoth chain none of whom can singularly stop the execution. The Death Penalty is a major voting issue and a large percentage of the American people are in favour of the Death Penalty. Huntsville as a town comes under criticism as the ‘Death Capital of the World’ and people ask them if they feel guilty. In many ways Jim Willett faces the same ignorance. America is a democracy and they vote in favour of the Death Penalty. By attacking the town and the people who work at the prison you do not move any further in the right direction if the aim is to abolish the Death Penalty. Education and international pressure seem to be the only way the Death Penalty will be abolished. Creating propaganda films that are massively biased is also not the way to do it as the only audience will be those that agree already and is there any point preaching to the converted.
My aim was to make a film about the Death Penalty that would appeal to those that might not normally be interested. I am also fascinated by people’s lives that are different to mine. I wanted to combine both of these to create a portrait of a town and it’s residents that live every day in the place that executes people. I wanted to find out what it was like to live with that everyday and how they cope, what they’re view of the whole issue is. It is very easy to cast judgement from afar but what is it actually like when you live with it every day?
By cutting it down to just Jim Willett I create a bias as it is only one person’s perspective. Or do I change the film entirely to a portrait about him, my footage of him is really strong, but it is not the film I wanted to make. My tutor said to cut several people form the film and in many cases I do agree with the cuts but by limiting the contributors I also limit the perspective. So who to cut?
There is also the issue that perhaps I am downplaying the actual topic of the Death Penalty too much. Another tutor I had constantly stressed the use of the microcosm to show a greater picture. Was using the town as such a microcosm not a way to further the debate about the Death Penalty? Or because of the nature of the issue should I slap people in the face with it and make a dark and harrowing film even though that was not what I found the town to be like. My tutor constantly tells me that I need to put more authorship in the film and that my viewpoint doesn’t come through enough. I sent her a portion of the blog of my feelings after standing outside the first execution. I am told that that blog is more powerful than the entire film and that the film should be more like the account I sent her. However that blog was written after a few days of being there, like anything the more I learnt my viewpoint changed. I am not recanting on that fact that I was distraught or that I found it monumentally frustrating and disturbing, however what disturbed me most changed. I feel for the people that live in the town, yes they could live somewhere else, but a large majority of people are there for the university, never mind the fact that the prison system creates thousands of jobs. They have a complete love/hate relationship with the prison system.
The thing that I found most frustrating is how much of a non-event the executions are, there is nothing to indicate it’s happened and sometimes it doesn’t even make the front page of the local newspaper, whether it gets in the Houston newspaper is another matter. My misconception prior to going was that there would be many people and news crews covering each execution and that they would at least make the newspapers, after all this is happening in the name of the people that vote for it and want it to happen. Now you could easily criticise the town’s people for not paying attention to the fact that executions are happening but if it were happening in your town twice a month you would soon grow used to it. It’s a coping strategy.
That’s what I want to show, that is my authored version, but that isn’t the shocking, sensational film that I think I am supposed to make. The question now is do I make a version that will get me a better grade and then spend the following weeks making the film I want to make or do I push my film, mind you right now I don’t think I even remember what that is. A friend on the course was in my situation a few weeks ago and I gave her the advice to concentrate on getting the film in for the course but to make sure she came away with a film that she was happy with because that was more important. I need to follow that advice. Make the more sensationalist film to pass the course and then make the possibly more boring film for me.
But I need to start thinking how to even begin on either version so I need to go back to the beginning.
Why am I making this film?:
I’m making this film to try and further the debate on the issue of the Death Penalty by creating a film that will reach a wide audience by looking at people who have to live with it every day. What is it like to live in a town where executions happen on a regular basis?
What is the story?:
Now this is the part that I am most stuck on. I never meant it to have a story. It was supposed to be a glimpse into the people of the town’s lives. I struggled with this on the last film I made too but people tell me it has to have a beginning, a middle and an end, or an ‘arc’. Somehow I’ve got to figure this out but I just don’t know.
8 Days:
Day 8 (Wed 5th Sept): Start to compile a very rough cut, storyline
Day 7 (Thur 6th Sept): Polish the story and add in the cutaways, music and pacing of the story
Day 6 (Fri 7th Sept): Effects, transitions and colour grading
Day 5 (Sat 8th Sept): Sound, further cut and play out
Day 4 (Sun 9th Sept): Further cut and fine tuning
Day 3 (Mon 10th Sept): Essay – whole thing
Day 2 (Tue 11th Sept): Essay fine tuning and print out
Day 1 (Wed 12th Sept): Fine fine tuning and create copies for hand in
Day 0 (Thu 13th Sept): Hand it in
