Segment submitted, the third of three in a series of three and at wrap now Da Boss has taken a break, watching movies late into the night and not looking at dailies and new cuts of new scenes to be edited in the movie we’re supposed to be working on together. But he needed a break, still looks really tired though… no! Actually he’s been feeling better. But he looks worse? As our movie’s epigraph says, “Time waits for no one.”
The current segment on the chopping block is the title one, “Saturnine.” All silver, and the dominant colors of the rest of the movie: purple, blue, pink, green. The opacity layers that have made the movie and saved our asses and feathers are hitting their ceiling in this segment—all of the footage carries the same color palette. It’s enough to get it off the ground, but we’re still less than 75 percent away from presenting this segment to anyone.
“Why don’t you go out and shoot some more stuff against a yellow or white background?” Da Boss looked at me with wide eyes, angry and confused. Did I offend somebody? Did I just ask someone to fuck a duck? I don’t think so. Yet life goes on. This is how I stay cool when everyone around me freaks out. “‘Go out and shoot some new stuff’?! Monica, I’m done! I finished shooting this movie nearly a year ago! Leave me alone!’” Wowwww…. Okay so I spur-clawed him and then he got out of the editing room, leaving me to find some new footage that would suit what we have of “Saturnine.”
Da Boss actually did have a bank of unused close-ups and inserts, and a lot of Christmas lights blown out with rhythmic racked focus—exactly what we needed. I plugged the footage in and made out like a bandit, finishing a second rough work mix before one a.m. on Tuesday. But, but, BUT! There was still more footage left to be shot. “WHAT?!” Da Boss was mad. “Are you kidding me?! Are you serious?!” Jesus Christ, calm down… I lit a Camel and looked him in the eye.
“Go home. You have Christmas lights there. Here’s a camera, here’s a memory card, bring me back 128 gigabytes of more Christmas lights and more mylar. I know you have more mylar in the closet to the basement. Shoot that with three or four PAR spotlights and turn the gain all the way up and balance the camera to something warm but not too-too, just to get that yolky yellow around the edge of the frame. And don’t worry about digital grain, that’s what we’re working with, that’s what we’re after.”
Mesmerized, he walked out the door yet again without saying a word, but this time he wasn’t mad, just amazed, and while I’m still waiting on that brand new extra special insert footage, I’m looking over my shoulder every now and then to see what’s playing on the Criterion Channel, or as they like to call it, “Criterion 24/7” (just call it the Criterion Channel, Jesus… [Napoleon Dynamite voice]).
I’m revealing too much of myself now. Da Boss, he has his movies. I have my columns, and I rarely write them tired. But lately? In moviemaking? Oh my god. Oh my god, no. NO. But it really is worth it in the end.
—Follow Monica Quibbits on Twitter: @MonicaQuibbits