There’s a famous director I had the absolute pleasure meeting and working with on a project a few years back. Quite a huge fan of his work, even if he thought I was on drugs when I first started describing all the cool stuff I loved in his films. Think back to the Chris Farley sketches when he would ask someone if they remembered something they did and he said, “Yeah, that was awesome.” Pretty damn close to that exact scenario.
In the past couple years, he recut one of his earlier films and made some changes. I was stunned. Why would he do something like that? Not that he was spoiling or ruining the original work, but there’s a filmmaker’s curse where you reach a point of no return and say, “It’s done.” And walk away. He didn’t and..that was awesome.
I’ve had projects that I always wanted to fix a couple scenes, rescore a section or two, or maybe reshoot the whole damn thing. I completely understood why he did what he did and while it’s not a critique of his work mind you, it’s a realization that he wanted to make changes and he did it. Commendable on so many levels. Kinda jealous, too. Between time and budget (meaning having to make money and not spend it), I just walk away when I make the decision and it’s done.
And here I am about to tell you, I did it. Yep. I had something that just felt like I was chewing on aluminum foil and had to fix it. In my mind, it wasn’t an option and until I made the change, it just wasn’t good enough. So, I redid my opening scene.
I bounced a few ideas around, thought about what fit and what didn’t, and went over footage to see if I could do it. I made it happen using unseen footage to make it work. I can’t say enough about how much it made me feel better about my film. It seems fairly simple, but there’s layers to this change, e.g. color correction, sound editing, sound design, scoring, and mixing. But damn, it was so worth it.
New opening. Definitely a different setup. Can’t wait for you to see it.