Aaron Rose is the director of an independent film called "Beautiful Losers," a documentary about artists. I haven't been able to see it yet but I found an interview with him and the film's editor, Lenny Mesina, of interest, especially their courage in starting over when they realized the film didn't work:
"We were working in a situation that was very uncreative and very unhealthy with editors that were great editors, but it just wasn’t working. We essentially finished what we thought was the film and then just threw it in the garbage. It was just horrible! It had none of the power, none of the spark, none of the laughs, and none of the drama that this film has now. It was a straightforward documentary with voice over – the co-director did the most horrible voice over – it was just a very standard doc.
We had all these experts chiming in about how important this is. We had Brian Grazier, curators from the Whitney museum, Jeffery Deitch, the New York Times art critics, Art in America and all these experts saying, “This is all so important!” It didn’t fit what the art’s about at all or the vibe of the film. So we left that situation and threw that entire cut in the garbage – nine months of work, everyday for eight or nine hours a day. We brought the whole production back to L.A. and found Lenny [Mesina, film editor] and Fernando Villena and it all clicked. From then on it was beautiful."
After scrapping the original version, they found a new structure:
"There was a structure there for sure, but it was composed very non-linearly. I think the structure started to really come together towards the end. We started feeling like, 'Ok, this is what it is!' The early part of the film kind of discombobulates you… for twenty-two minutes into the film there’s no narrative. It just bounces around, you’re in New York, you’re in Nashville, you’re in San Francisco, you’re in Portland, it just shakes your head around and then the narrative hits at twenty minutes. It’s actually a four-act structure. Which is totally not the way you’re supposed to do it… and it totally works. Which goes to dispel that whole myth that you have to have a three-act structure to hit the people emotionally, which is total bullshit, because we have a totally different structure that works just as well."
You can read the whole interview with Aaron Rose and Lenny Mesina here.
(For a regular dose of inspiration and tips on how to be more creative and productive, subscribe now to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to [email protected])
