I haven’t been posting public links to rough cuts, but I figure that few enough people read my blog that it would be worth the extra feedback I get.
So here is the newest rough cut of the film. I’ve cut out a lot of the Sierra Club interview, I’m going to move that into another piece. That’s what I have in mind right now, to make the feature much shorter (~45 min), focussing on dissent.
I am open to any and all suggestions regarding a complete change in focus, massive removals of footage, et cetera. In fact, as alluded to above, I am trying to make massive cuts. All of the material will be available in one way or another, either in topic-specific 10-minute pieces (environment, police/drug-war, et cetera) or just straight interviews. The only question is what will be in the feature.
Most of it is obvious, such as the interviews on the street, the critical mass incident, or when any interviewee comments on the protesters. My only dilemma is keeping celebrities to maintain the appeal of the feature.
Something else to mull over: sort of my main thing in the original cut is the media section at the end. I end the film with a somber, dramatic soliloquy from Amy Goodman, about how and why media needs to change in this country. This could make a perfectly good piece on its own. But I think that this is the most important material I have, after the dissent material. So tell me if I am crazy that it would be a good idea to have the first half of the feature be about dissent and the last half be about the media. It makes sense in John World but it’s probably conceptually jarring to most viewers.
Anyway I hope that made sense. If you don’t know what I am talking about because you haven’t seen any material yet, just watch the movie and give me any and all comments. Thanks!
24 January Rough Cut (Quicktime, 414MB)
film AT jjb DOT cc
I’m thinking of cutting out the entire section on the environment, and probably corporations too. Discuss.
Actually, maybe not environment/energy, but only corporations. My metric right now is how relevant the topic is to the republican party, and/or how popular the topic is. People talk about oil and the environment, but corporations are a more vague point, and it doesn’t relate to other things in the film really.`