I completed filming "Strange Attractor" over the weekend and after pulling and all-nighter last night - I already have a rough edit in hand. As present-moment awareness should have it, the film in post-production is becoming something different that what I first imagined. But this is good because I'm using input from the two actors that deals with their creative perspectives and contribution to the project. Jim Ericksen's suggestion of filming a gas-stove burner igniting turned-out to be a fun creative exercise. Jim also suggested filming himself looking into a mirror and he exits the door from his study in the film. I put a sequence together from that filming exercise which added significantly to the films artistic value.
Also unexpectedly in the editing, I used footage of both Cindie Wolf and Jim Ericksen that really brought out both their characters and this helped add a nice cohesion to the film story. In other words, instead of rigidly following what was in my mind's eye for the film, I let the contribution of the actors shape both the 'content' and the 'feel' of the film. This is what present-moment filmmaking is all about. You have to recognize new information and let it assimulate itself into the film. Introducing these new elements broadened the artistic value of the piece.
I Also, the images in post-production are colorized black and white video run through a primitive video board installed in a vintage 1985 Commodore Amiga computer, using software developed at the time to create real-time digital colorization as the video is displayed on the monitor - really cool - essentially post-production became an excercise in 'performance' art.
So what happens now to the original movie concept of Strange Attractor? Well there very well may be another version of the film true to my original vision - we'll see.
Barton Santello
Arivaca, AZ
July 2005
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