JOIN US IF YOU CAN!  One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans hosts a night of piano virtuosity featuring a line up of New Orleans’ finest.

All proceeds will go to fund completion of See What I’m Saying.

Ticket prices are $10. Doors open at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:30pm. Excerpts from the film will be shown throughout the night.

One Eyed Jacks
615 Toulouse St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 569-8361

Very nice to be able to have a thoughtful listener (that'd be Sara) when you've been editing by yourself, having someone else who is genuinely invested and interested is a wonderful feeling; one of my favorite parts of editing is watching someone else get sparked about the possibilities of a moment or phrase, especially if I feel the same way about it. ;)

I do feel like this time around versus 2004 we're much better organized so it's pleasing to feel growth and, and, and have not blogged about getting the BAVC grant. Very exciting - yes, the grant I was blogging about submitting not so long ago. Really, in 2007 I was saying it would just be so amazing and unbelievable to get a grant and with some training and work it's been happening. Unbelievable and amazing and, yet doable. Huh.

I've always thought that I wasn't really a filmmaker till I finished this documentary, but it is really moving to be recognized as one for the work you've done up to this point. And when I see other films, it's a tremendous feeling to know that on some level there's a kinship between you and the person who created whatever it is you're watching.

I saw two films last night at a local Arab Film Festival. The short film was so great—just a small piece on a comic and it made me realize how effective short and simple can be. The longer piece had great ideas, but felt looooooong and not nearly as satisfying. Afterwards, the filmmaker spoke and he was really endearing, they had done this very ambitious piece with 60 odd actors in two countries for $20,000 and his partner the director/write/editor essentially taught herself to edit to get the film done...it was
interesting to admire something quite a bit, but not connect to the film.

Wonder what I'll wind up with.

During the summer, Alysha had gotten her first seeing eye dog, Hammar (yes correct odd spelling) and Hammar is definitely going to stick with me.  In addition to being extraordinarily cute, Hammar just reminded me of Alysha – FAST.  That dog could sprint, and did.  Poor Jose had to keep up with Hammar and Alysha on a 90 degree day running the length of a huge campus, backwards with camera.  He was a little irritated about that.  Sometimes camera will have a spotter, in this case me, running behind them, to guide their movements and keep them from hitting things.  Something to think about when you see someone walking quickly towards the camera in a documentary frame.

Things got interesting later when we were doing our sit down interview and Hammar wouldn’t stop licking Jose; eventually they bonded and when we went to film Alysha walking the following day it got even tougher as Hammar would walk twice to catch up with his new friend Jose who now had to run twice as fast to film.  A cautionary production tale in allowing licking.

When I started this project, the whole grant writing thing seemed like it took up too much time. The odds of getting the money seemed too small and it just seemed like the wrong direction cuz I wanted to get everything done RIGHT NOW. Cut to 4 years later. (:)) I think it’s good that I just jumped in and didn’t let lack of money stop me from starting, but I also now recognize how useful it is to be able to go through a grant application. Primarily to be clear in my own mind if someone asked me what is the film about, what’s my plan for distribution – to be able to have well-considered, engaging, short answers to these questions is powerful.

I find sitting down and doing the writing bit really challenging, but it definitely builds…I’ve taken thoughts from last year and been able to grow them.  I don’t know if they’ll get me grants, hope so obviously, but even if they don’t, the answers feel much more like authentic guideposts, especially getting into grant 5 &6.

In case you're wondering, I'm still logging. My favorite, most recent moment on tape was a frame from some B-Roll.  B-Roll is a term used to describe footage that gives you a sense of place, but isn't a part of the primary action. Like driving down the street in New Orleans or, if I had money, a helicopter shot of any city—that would be B-Roll. Or in this case of the footage I'm talking about—I was looking at some B-Roll of the outside of the Library of Congress where Henry was playing November 1st, opening for Allen Toussaint. The Library was showcasing original compositions by Jelly Roll Morton who had also played on the same stage as Henry; since Jelly Roll was a piano player from New Orleans, like Henry and Allen, it all seemed to make sense.

Anyway, for that shoot day, I was working with a veteran shooter named Michael Ford, an extremely cool
talented guy, who's been doing docs for 30 odd years. The day we were shooting Henry was running long on rehearsal so Michael had to wait outside of the Library for awhile in order to film Henry walking to his hotel (where we would do our interview).  So while he was waiting, Michael got some really pretty footage of the outside of the Library of Congress at sunset.  The frame that got me excited (I don't know if this makes me a video/photo appreciation geek or what) was a neat moment where Michael was focused on the Poseidon statue that is at street level in front of the Library. It takes up about half the frame—a very muscle-y, forged from stone, stern looking Poseidon and then in the background, softly filling out the rest of the frame, was a D.C. man in a business suit, balding, with a cell phone—I just loved the contrast of god and man...a very modern man.

Perhaps I've been logging too much? I couldn't agree more. ;)

I am at home, at my desk in room 1 of our one-bedroom apartment, in serious tape-logging hell.

Part of the editing process is looking at everything you've shot and reporting (or logging) everything, EVERYTHING—that means transcribing every interview word for word, noticing shot elements in a scene when they change, moving from a close-up, medium shot or wide shot for example, and then every few minutes listing time-code. So important, soooooo tedious, but worth it when you hear/see something that really strikes you.

Such as this thing I just heard Lucien say—we're at his home, in this room he uses to practice music in; it's just covered with instruments, family photos and clutter, and Lucien's on a couch (medium shot ;)), next to an amp tuning his bass and talking about different things, when he says:

"...the way I was taught, you always have goals, throw them all the way up to the space shuttle and go get ‘em."

I LOVVVVVVVE that, perhaps because I'm feeling about a space flight away from achieving my goals. Or wondering what were my goals??  Glad I have them written out, it does get hazy when I'm logging. Ok, off to channel my inner Lucien.