Texture
BY NICK MARSHALL, GILBERT, AZ- Rereading the script with two cups of joe and background music supplied by Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros. Nothing better than sitting down to a sweet, smooth drink, smooth music, and a smoother read. Going over it with a finer toothed comb this time. Really trying to get out those details and subtleties. I'm catching stuff I missed the first time, which is good. If you can reread something or rewatch something and discover something new, that little subtle nuance that character did with his face, with his hand, that adds to the richness and texture of the story.
I've decided to read the script every couple days just to keep things fresh in my mind. The more I live with the characters, the more I'll learn to understand them, and the more input I can contribute to the film. I've started to hear the characters speak now in their own voices. I've started to watch the scenes play out in my head. I'm getting an understanding of this world they live in. It's developing a texture for me. After a few more reads maybe I'll be able to smell this environment and taste it on the tip of my tongue. Then I'll already be in Zambia in my head and I'll understand it better when we touch down there.
I know soon the script will be dog-earred like an enjoyable book. I've aready started to make my mark on it, chicken scratchs of notes. Ideas for camera angles, colors, and just little subtleties. I know I'm not the director or even the main cinematographer, but I can suggest, no? I learned not to assume. If I notice something that somone else doesn't or interpret something in a different way I don't want to assume they have already thought of it. By suggesting my idea, if they don't like it they don't have to do it. I'm just throwing another idea out there, and if the wind catches it, so be it, but if it sticks and it sticks better than the other idea, we might just have something better. The more ideas thrown into the fan, the better, in my opinion.
There is no fear anymore of going to Africa, the only fear, or unconfortable feeling I sometimes get is of not making a good film. Diseases, people standing almost on top of your feet they're so close, being the minorities, being robbed, all those and others, those don't even enter my brain anymore. They don't concern me in the least. I'm only thinking about the film. It has bulged into my thoughts and thinking about anything else soon gets swamped by thoughts of the film. At work I think, "That person is poorly lit", thinking this as I stock shelves. And " That person should move, they're throwing off the whole composition of the shot". I struggle against the urge to ask this person, this perfct stranger to "slightly move to the right". If you wouldn't mind? Please?
My body is vibrating with energy, with excitement. I don't doubt that everyone in the crew is vibrating at the same frequency. With the same excitement. For the past few months this project has been Jabbes and Cyndi's life. They've eaten, slept and breathed this project and we're all getting caught up in their whirlpool of energy and excitement. I thank them deeply for doing this project and letting me be a part of it. We haven't shot a single frame of the feature yet, but I can already feel the success of it, feel the triumph of what we're enbarking to do. It's developing a texture.
I guess I lost the subtlety, huh?