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May 29, 2007
When It Rains...
I spent some extensive quality time in a darkened theater this holiday weekend, catching up with Once, Away From Her, Waitress, that really long pirate movie and Killer Of Sheep. More on that one later. I tried to squeeze Chalk and Bug in there as well, but in between vegan barbeques and chasing sunlight on the other side of the silver screen, I ran out of time. For the last week, I've been trying to shoot the climactic sequence to A Catalog Of Anticipations - an 4th of July picnic scene with fireworks and lots of golden hour light - but the torrents of rain that have swept North Texas all month long has made it a little bit tricky. I finally finished shooting yesterday, stitching together four locations and the rare cloudbreaks of three separate shooting days into one (hopefully) seamless scene.
On one of those days, in my car, halfway to the location, I had a bit of a panic attack; I all at once felt that I'd made a pretty grievous mistake, and that everything I'd shot was suddenly useless. I pulled off the highway and sat on the side of the road for a while, and then turned around and headed back towards home. Then I rethought things and turned around again. I went ahead and shot the scene, and it turned out exactly as I'd originally planned, and everything was fine, and I'm pretty sure that when it's all cut together and done, no one will ever notice the one intangible thing that's missing from it. Half the time I probably won't even notice myself.
Posted by David Lowery at May 29, 2007 03:05 AM
Comments
i'm sure it will be great, david.
man, i hate panic attacks. you can be assured that i will be poppin pills before the premiere on thursday...my heart will be pounding...
Posted by: frank at May 30, 2007 12:52 AM
those panic attacks are the worst, especially once you get past the point where you can't re-shoot what you think is wrong.
It can always be worse. i have a friend who got permission to shoot in this barn. they shot for like 3 days, thought they had everything, but a couple days later he realizes he needs to re-do something. so he goes back to the location and the barn is gone. The owner tore it down the day after they left and never once mentioned it when they were there.
Posted by: Lucas McNelly at May 30, 2007 10:53 AM
David, wishing you the relief of clarity during those panic attacks. I hate panic. Though, in a way, true to the word's source, it's a little visit from Pan, handservant to our favorite Dionysos. It might be time to read that E.M. Forster short story where the Victorian picnic receives an unexpected visit from Pan.
Posted by: Maya at June 4, 2007 12:01 PM