Wednesday, June 4, 2008

EVIL CAN BE CUTE

Did I tell you I'm editing a movie? I guess it's not actually a movie--it's more like a serial. It's around 16 episodes of a fairy tale about (you guessed it) Central Park. In the movie the park is filled with magical people who live there, including this girl, who is, for lack of a modern term, a Brownie, or perhaps a Pixie. This pixie does the evil bidding (mostly lurking, spying and message-carrying) for the main antagonist of the film, an old woman called The Grandmother.

Right now I'm looking for footage of the Pixie spying on the protagonist. Also--footage of the pixie running with messages all through the park. This is very entertaining because:

1) The pixie is extremely photogenic.
2) She runs in this way that is very pixie-like and makes me laugh every time.
3) The evil director (me) keeps forgetting to give her clear running directions. Sometimes when I just want her to run out of the frame, she keeps running full bore till she's a tiny dot on the horizon. Then the evil director tells her to do something else and she's totally out of earshot. Then then the evil director looks through the camera to find her. Then the Brownie-actor must run full bore back to make it to the next shot. No one is getting fat on my watch.
4) Then the evil Brownie (who is actually a super nice 15 year old kid named Johnnie Warfield) is panting and sweating. I guess that part's not funny if you're the super nice 15 year old kid, and I felt bad at the time, but man is it funny from here.

One thing that's not funny (as an editor) is watching yourself act on film. Let this be a lesson to would-be filmmakers: leave yourself out of it--you'll thank me later. I have edited out almost all of my own speaking parts so that I'm even more of a bit part then the script called for. Oh the terrible sound of your own voice! Every time I hear myself talk I start writhing around like those characters on old Star Trek.

You can see episode 1 here, btw. And soon you'll be able to see episode 5, which will act as a sort of a trailer.

2 comments:

Chrystye said...

You're so friggin creative. I should be your pixie. I'm getting fat. Can you make another episode in London about Hyde Park?

Souvenirs & Shiny Things Installation said...

Ha! I should do Pixie workout videos. Maybe Hyde Park is the perfect location...yes...brilliant!