RIPFEST

This month I participated in RIPFEST, a short film festival where professional directors, producers, actors, DPs, editors, composers and everyone else who makes a film happen volunteered their time, equipment and sweat to create a 5-7 minute film in 16 days.  The screenings will take place this coming Monday 7/29 at Anthology Film Archives at 7:30pm and 9:00pm.  It's been a breathtaking experience.

 As the writer, I was told early on that the film would be created 3 times: first by the writer, a second time by the director and a final time by the editor.  In many cases, I was told, the vision of the film will drift significantly from what the writer intended.   And drift it did.   

Let me be clear: I do not know what the final version will look like; it is still coming together.   I have every reason to believe that it will look and sound great, with haunting and uplifting moments.  I worked with a team of professionals, and it is clear to me that they know their business.   But at the same time, I anticipate that the film will have a message which is almost, but not quite, the exact opposite of what I intended.   

I thought I was well prepared for this.  See my blog post on "Sending Your Script Off To College."  I am a believer that the writer needs to let go of a script for the creative process to work.  And yet -- I was surprised by the experience.  I am writing this blog post because I feel that I need to lay all this out as I invite people to come see the film.  It feels like the right thing to do.

 In the end, what I think I have contributed to this project is the broad strokes -- i.e., the world of the film, the nature of the conflict, the relationships among the characters, some of the imagery and some bits of dialogue.   If that interests you, then I hope you will come to RIPFEST this coming Monday.  I would love to see you there.

Here's more info about it:
http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=RIP22
https://www.facebook.com/events/357330317703933/
http://www.ripfestfilmproject.com/