The Art of the Edit - Part 2

My new feature, Detours, is a road-trip comedy. A newly single New Yorker must re-locate to Florida for her dream job; she drives south with her widowed dad, her mom's ashes in a coffee can, and a GPS with a mind of its own.

In addition to our wonderful lead actors Tara Westwood and Carlo Fiorletta, the terrific supporting cast includes Richard Kind, Michael Cerveris, Phyllis Somerville, and Paul Sorvino.

We shot the interiors in New Jersey and NYC, then went on the road to shoot exteriors through Myrtle Beach, SC; Savannah, GA; and Tampa, Florida. It was, to say the least, a daunting undertaking but an exciting one.

When we got a rough cut done, I reached out to a guy for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect - I'll leave him unnamed but he has a great deal of experience in many areas of the indie film world, ranging from micro-budget movies to some that are extremely well known. He graciously agreed to watch the cut with a group of us from the production team and give feedback.

I watched him watch the movie with my heart in my throat - would he love it? Hate it?

When it was done, he gave his verdict: great cast, awesome acting job across the board (yay!).

But the movie went like this

<<<<

While it should go like this

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I hyperventilated momentarily, then somehow sputtered out that I couldn't re-shoot:  there was no budget for that. He assured me that there was no need for that - it was all there. "Think of it like a puzzle, and re-arrange the pieces."

I started to breathe again, as I realized what he meant, and had a flash as to how to do it.

The next morning, we figured out a new approach: front-load the darker segments of the movie, and move the happier ones - pointing toward the eventual resolution - after the mid-point. Fortunately the segmented way that the movie was written - a series of scenes and interactions that CAN be moved around - allowed us to do this.

We chose this scene as the mid-point: it's where Jennifer Giraldi (played by Tara Westwood) begins to find her way to happier times as her dad (Carlo Fiorletta) still struggles to find his footing. And the scenery (Myrtle Beach, SC) is beautiful.

If there's a moral to this story, it's this: a fresh look at your movie can be invaluable. And always be open to a new approach. OK that's 2 morals - sue me :)