From THE CONVERSATIONS

Murch: As I've gone through life, I've found that your chances for happiness are increased if you wind up doing something that is a reflection of what you loved most when you were somewhere between nine and eleven years old.

Ondaatje: Yes -- something that had and still has the feeling of a hobby, a curiosity.

Murch: At that age, you know enough of the world to have opinions about things, but you're not old enough yet to be overly influenced by the crowd or by what other people are doing or what you think you "should" be doing. If what you do later on ties into that reservoir in some way, then you are nurturing some essential part of yourself.

last days

The last few days have been non-stop cycle of editing, burning DVDs, watching it on the big screen, making notes back for more editing. It's pretty exhilerating actually. I am in the very final stages before I lock picture and send it off for sound. Then it will basically be out of my hands for a few weeks.

I'm trying to remember (Bresson?) who talked about a film being born three times: once while it's being written, once while it's being shot and once while it's being edited. That has been amazingly true for this movie and I would even go so far as to add a fourth birth: the sound re-recording and mixing.

There are a few more weeks to go overall, but I am definitely feeling a mixture of bittesweet emotions. I am so glad this thing is almost freaking finished. On the other hand I don't really want to let it go. Sometimes when I watch the movie all I can see is missed opportunities, things we couldn't pull off due to not having any money, technical errors etc. But the next time I watch it, I completely love it and I'm totally amazed at how good it looks, how much I love the characters and how amazing and transforming the process of making this movie was.

Be on the lookout for more sappy introspective postings in the days to come.

masami and cub