Created a hasty previs this morning. I got rid of the library and integrated the research scene into the desert using the portable Memex device. I also added a voice over. It's amazing how much more sense it makes now with the narration. Duh. I guess that's why people use it to fix movies gone wrong. Plus, it's really similar to what I was doing in grad school—first person narratives. What I'm after now is shrinking this thing down to the bare bones. Make it work as a dramatic structure. Then I can mess it up and add weird stuff as needed. Already, it's down to 7 minutes from 12. Now that I can see the structure, it's helping me to articulate my goals for the project. The dramatic structure is OK. Devices and emotion-bludgeoning techniques and embellishements are not. I'm also seeing where the film lags for the first time. I'm realizing that you have to have mini goals, you can't just put in filler. Duh. So Ben walking through the desert as it stands is a little boring. He needs to encounter some clues or obstacles, or something to tell him he's on the right track. It's the mark of Arne Saknussemm! (OK, I just put Journey to the Center of the Earth-James Mason/Pat Boone version in my Netflix queue.)
I'm thinking that my approach to this is exactly like my students'. You start by working from the outside in. You start with the superficial and then eventually encounter the need for underlying structure. It's like making a design. If you have the basic composition figured out, you can add all kinds of textures and other things if you want—not to decorate the piece, but to make it richer.
Showed this version to Ben, Erik and Gene. They were generally favorable. Gene's only comment was that the address #s in one shot are so prominent that they seem to mean something. I told Ben that his Memex device would look like a portable Enigma machine, so that's why the image at the top of this post.
Also, last night Carlo emailed me think link. It's a music video with a bird attack scene! But it's more like a paranoid-delusional bird attack scene with the guy miming fighting the birds which are superimposed. It helped me to realize that in our film, I'm trying to keep the visuals mundane. The machines and situation are fantastic so the presentation needs to be grounded.
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