DERELICT Films

The film-folk that liked our work, and understood what we were doing with the Found Film format, asked the question – repeatedly: “Are you guys gonna make another film?” So we did.

 

We drafted three possibilities. It took months of meetings and drafts and arcs and concepts until we settled on one, something different: a psychological crime drama. We knew we were on the right track, but I knew something was not working and I could not find the right way to crack the story – so I called on Kim. She listened to me, squinted like Clint Eastwood, mumbled some words, and solved the problem.

 

Typically, we'll deconstruct the genre, and then we’ll put it back together. This time, we found it was cool to tell the story on 4 levels – just enough to make it difficult to do easily. Add to that, we'll film in a John Cassavetes/Mike Leigh style of improvisation, easy enough to make it difficult. I knew our editor, Bruce Colgate for this film, will want to hang me.

 

By early spring, we got close to a final cut, but I knew something was not right. I called on Kim again. She listened to me, again, squinted, then mumbled some words like Clint Eastwood, and said she wanted to hang me.

 

Bless our actors. We assembled and shot three more scenes, and Kim took her noose down from the hanging tree, cuz we did make the film better. But I knew, by early summer’s final cut, that the film was still not right. I claimed it was “broken.” Vincent and Jason were gonna hang me, but it definitely was "broken." Hey, all the planning and hefty budgets in the world sometimes do not work; shall I say ISHTAR, HEAVEN’S GATE or GODFATHER III? Mea Culpa!

 

We shot new scenes and re-shot old scenes, but back in the editing room, the film was still “off.”  I told Kim.  She squinted, again, but this time like Jack Palance in CITY SLICKERS, and muttered a line of dialogue that truly worked. I added one more line of dialogue to hers. We shot one last scene, and the problem was fixed.

 

CATATONIA is a micro-budget film, and it’s not without its flaws and glitches, but for a low budget/no budget indie, made with a lot of heart and tears, it does its job.

 

I’m sure some film-folks won’t like it, but I'm sure others will. For those that do and will like it– at least we'll engage them in the way we know best: through a character-driven story with emotional impact.

 

FSP