Editing and Heitor Villa-Lobos

Editing: A Day in a Life

I’m editing a Soleri section of the film, and it’s giving me fits. I try this. I like it. I look at a little later and I don’t like it. I change it. I don’t like the change. I change it again. I like it okay. I eat lunch. I look at it. I don’t like it. What am thinking? What am I trying to say?

What do I want to show when Soleri says:

Looking at the bottom line is where the corporation finds its own worth and where humanity finds it own damnation, probably. Because most of the time the goal of the corporation, which is coming up with big dividends which are the top, are willing to sacrifice most of the … let’s call it the spirit of the human animal.

Do I want to keep that looooong pause in there before “let’s call it the spirit of the human animal”? Do I want the sequence to end negatively, with stock footage of a guy working on an assembly line dealing with boxes of LPs and 45s or do I end positively with footage we shot of an Arcosanti resident doing the opposite of that, sitting quietly, carving a design into a clay bell?

I don’t know.

So I Play Some Guitar

I play this piece by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Prelude No. 4.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVJXSDTFfGY[/youtube]

I’m unhappy with the middle section. I watch the video. How does John Williams make his fingers move that quickly?  I need to play faster. I search the web for advice. On a geeky guitar forum, a guitarist bucks convention. Do not practice the fast bits slowly, perfecting them and then gradually increasing the speed with the aid of a metronome. This is how I was taught. This is what I teach my students.

No! During a master class with a guitarist of some renown, the master yelled at him, “Faster! Faster!” Don’t worry about accuracy. Don’t worry if you miss 15% of the notes or 25% of the notes. The only way to play fast is to play fast! Play fast and practice speed. You will get the accuracy with more practice.

This seems like good advice. If you have certain fundamentals down, that is.

I return to the editing. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work now. Lay it down. The only way to get it done is to get it done. Go back and do it again. Eventually it will be better, or, hopefully, satisfy me.

And then I remember that two slow sections flank the fast section in that Villa-Lobos prelude. And those require delicacy and nuance. That’s the beauty and challenge of many of Villa-Lobos’ guitar compositions, they are works of contrast, and yet somehow the contrasts do not seem bolted together, their transitions are seamless. How do I bring life to those contrasts?

Back to the Soleri sequence. I like it. I don’t like it. I like it. I don’t like it. It’s a muddle. It makes perfect sense. I move this shot here. Then I move it there. Then I move it back. Then back there again. What the hell does the Villa-Lobos prelude have to do with any of this?

Thankfully, not every day is like this. But on such days … oi!