I Hate This Project...Oh But Wait.

Well, the thing that I hoped would happen has not. I am now trapped until the end of the month working on the Fred Astaire/Giner Rogers project. No "World Trade Center" DVD for me. Uuugghhh!

This, an hour long featurette for the upcoming boxed set of all their movies, is such a long, prodding, and unwielding thing that's really hard to sort through sometimes. Stills, archival clips, interviews, props, behind the scenes studio footage from the 30's, blah, blah, blah, blah, fucking blah! Miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of it. The worst thing is my head is just not in this material. Yes I have a passing curiousity with these films, yet there is a lot that I am unfamiliar with and have to keep referring to this Warner Bros. musicals specialist and the producer for directions on what is correct and accurate to include and where in the piece to place it. Plus there's this whole legal thing with Fred Astaire's money grubbing widow about what stills and footage we can and cannot use. It's a real quagmire. Frankly I was sick of this project by the end of Day 1. Now it won't be ending until the last week in July.

The path towards doing "World Trade Center" slowly became longer and longer until it was literally out of sight. Three other editors are working on it now across the hall. The Astaire/Rogers project ended up starting later and later that there was no time for me to get a cut out then switch gears into Oliver Stone land. So due to the schedule I will have no part in "WTC". Have to say I'm pretty depressed about it. It's been really hard for me to focus on what's on my plate right now. I don't want to finish my meat, I just want the pudding!

Basically they decided to let me have a crack at it over this other editor who is a musical theatre fan because they wanted to have a fresh perspective. This could just be the usual dog and pony retrospective except they want it to have a unique visual style. Frankly, because of my limited knowledge and passion for this material, it probably will turn out very much like your basic retrospective. I feel strongly that the other editor could be putting a lot more warmth into this thing because of her interest as well as talent. They know she wanted to work on it and that I wanted "WTC". But again, the fresh editor concept. I tell you I'm not feeling very fresh and the moment. More like bread that's gone bad by about a week.

However...!

A week and half ago they wheeled in a cart that carried several boxes containing tapes for a new project. As the cart passed by one of the other editors she asked, 'what's that?'. The producer (who is working on the project) replied, 'oh it's "Face-Off"...for the special edition DVD'.

"FACE-OFF"??!!, I thought, half choking on that piece of chicken I had just put in my mouth at lunch. I love that movie! It's not one of my all time favorites, but definitely up there on my list of cool action flicks. I even have the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer that I love as well.

So immediately I went over the the producer and put a bug in his ear that I really liked the film and would love to work on the project. He was glad to hear that and said he'd see what he could do to get me on the schedule for it. A few days later, as I was passing by the big dry erase board, there it was...

"Face-Off"...scheduled for right after I finish with the Astaire/Rogers project. A really bright light at the end of the tunnel. God bless it!

It's funny because for the last few years I'd keep passing the DVD (which I own) in stores saying to myself, 'hey how about a special edition of that?'. Now, not only will my wishes come true, but that I'll be fulfilling them myself! Hey, this is becoming a hands on industry for me.