On Saturday night, I hosted in Dallas the first of what should be numerous rough cut screenings of Life’s Waltz, which we’re now experimenting with a new title: The Mayor. It was a major milestone in the progression of the documentary project, because in order to have a film worth screening, I needed to edit the film to a point that it was worth seeing! This actually entailed editing all day on my birthday (January 28) and all night, getting only a few hours of sleep each night leading up to the screening It took me back to the good old days in film school, haha. At any rate, I had finished a first cut back at the end of October, which had clocked in at about 2:15 hours. While it had its own strengths and weaknesses, I suggested something radical, which may not sit well at first with some of y’all reading this: what if we focused this movie on just one character? For the longest time, we had been operating and filming under the assumption that we were making a documentary generally about “life in old age, inside of a retirement community”. But as we knew deep down, the strength of film lies in the characters and their stories. There was just so much material that had already been left out of the first cut, and it was still so long, that we decided to go in the opposite direction for the next cut. And voilà!

The second cut of the film, clocking in at 1:32 hours, was almost like a new first cut in terms of having to completely re-envision the approach, the story, and the narrative. Let me clarify: this doesn’t mean that there’s only one character in the film at this point; in truth, there is currently one main character, Sam (known as “The Mayor” of TVN), and two featured characters, Dorothy and Ceil. In addition, plenty of other people appear in the film, and going forward, I will work to incorporate other voices into the film. It has been the right approach to try to make the film very focused, about just one man, and then to build out from that core, rather than the original approach, which was to try to include everything and everyone. Moving forward, we will try adding more voices to the core of the film. In fact, this was the overwhelming demand during the discussion at the rough cut screening. We haven’t forgotten about the other characters, it’s just that there’s so much material at hand that it would be easy to make a really diluted, topical/conversational film. But if there’s one thing I learned in film school, it’s that film’s strength is in its emotional impact. In order to carry emotional weight, to reach out and touch an audience, you have to let the audience get to know a character, get involved in their life, and go through a journey with him/her. So this is the current plan. I will continue to refine the film, probably expand it out some to more voices, and I will post more later on specific directions, characters, and scenes.

I’ll aim to have a trailer done by the end of this month that everyone can enjoy and start getting excited about. I realize that it’s been a long journey and you haven’t gotten to see any of the actual film yet, but we thank you very much for sticking around. Because there’s so much amazing material that will inevitably not make it into the film itself, we are considering releasing a lot of content online and as DVD extras. We want to get as much of this material out as possible and tell as many stories as possible; we just need to take it one step at a time. Stay tuned!

P.S. If you are interested in participating in future rough cut screenings, be they in Dallas or LA, please let us know!

post-production, status update

In an article at Mashable, a social media news site, they reported that in 2009, whereas Millennials (Ashley and my generation) maintained the same levels of internet/social media (Facebook) site engagement, only increasing by 1% of the demographic, Baby Boomers and Seniors led the pack far and away, with a gigantic 47% of Baby Boomers now maintaining a social media web profile, 73% of those on Facebook. And, of all of the Seniors (older than baby boomers, and the subjects of our documentary) using social media on the internet, 90% are on Facebook. Check out the article for more here: http://mashable.com/2010/01/28/baby-boomers-social-media/.

Do you use any social media sites, such as Facebook? If you’re a Baby Boomer or at least older than us Millennials, how have you found the experience? If you’re a digital native (most Millennials pretty much are – we grew up with the internet for a good enough chunk of our lives for it to be a natural/native thing), how has it been having your family, parents, grandparents, etc. join Facebook and find you in the social media realm? Personally, I’ve discouraged my parents from joining, not because I would care if I were friends with them, but I don’t think they’d get anything out of it. But a few of their friends have friended me on Facebook, which is fine with me; I just warn each of them: “What you are about to experience may shock you.”

fun, in the news

In the latest Old Stories, Ernestine tells the story of how, as a teacher in small-town Tennessee, she got a lesson from her children on picking strawberries under the hot sun.

characters, Old Stories

In the latest in the Old Stories series, Millie lets us in on the innocent kissing games she and her girl friends used to play as a young teenager with some guys they met at Hebrew school.

character, Old Stories

Hey everybody! If you haven’t noticed, we re-visioned our blog. Same URL/web address, just a different look. And as you check back here over the coming weeks and months, the look may continue to change. But don’t worry, it’s still the same documentary (which is nearing the next rough cut, by the way), tentatively entitled Life’s Waltz. One day, you may check back here, and it’ll look different from the day before, but it’ll still be a blog. And then one day, you may check back here, and it’ll not look anything like you’ve ever seen before. Hopefully, that day will be sooner than later, because that’ll be the day that either we graduated to a full-fledged website, or our web hosting service crashed and the site’s down. If it’s the latter, then it’ll be the former shortly after that, but we’re not counting on it, so you shouldn’t either. Clear skies ahead. We are working toward a complete website, of which the blog will be one element, but don’t wait for it – just let it surprise you. We hope you enjoy the new digs, and check back soon for an actual update on the film!

status update

in the news, senior eSource

In the latest Old Stories, Vera looks back on her days working at a sportswear company, where she was discovered and became a model.

characters, Old Stories

Jared gives an update on Life’s Waltz in the editing room from the frontlines, 7 months into the assistant editing and editing process. Full rough assembly complete!

jared, post-production

Just two days ago, we found out that Kathryn Jones Faulkner had passed away during the night. Our condolences go out to her family, friends, and Ernie, her husband whom she married a little over a year ago. Kathryn quickly became a good friend of ours, and Ashley and I are very sad to lose her. What a wonderful, wonderful woman she was. In addition to being so genuinely and deeply caring, friendly, and welcoming, she possessed a youthful energy and humor that could set the world on fire.

I told her a few months ago, when we screened the Old Stories at TVN, that whenever I edit her footage, I can’t stop smiling and laughing. She just had a special, unassuming, life-abounding presence about her. Her smile was contagious and her laughter inspiring. Yesterday, after visiting with Ernie for a while, I continued working on a scene where she gives Ernie two chocolate chip cookie cakes for Valentine’s Day that she had made, one inscribed with the word “love”. I marveled as she walked with her true Texan gait into her closet to uncover the two cookie cakes that she had hidden there. She snickered, turned to us on camera, and, pausing for a moment to let us in on the secret before beckoning to Ernie, informed us in playful delight, “That’s a big cookie”. Classic Kathryn.

Every time we visited the newlyweds, Kathryn would take our hands and tell us how much both she and Ernie enjoyed spending time with us, smiles all around. I hope the following video, the latest addition to the Old Stories series, can speak even just a little to her beautiful humanity and grace, as she takes us back to her youngest years, when she was a feisty little troublemaker. We miss you, Kathryn.

characters, In Memory Of, Old Stories

Self-explanatory: click here for the comic. Sometimes, life inside of a retirement community does take you back to your high school days.

Ceil and Dorothy told us not too long ago of a major spat they got into with another resident at TVN who accused them of stealing her seat at BINGO. In character, and to put it nicely, let’s just say Ceil told her no. “You’re in my seat!” I remember saying that way back when. Guess I’d better get ready to start saying it again in about 60 years.

fun