Why I Didn’t Shoot That.

If you listen to the A Life’s Work commentary, Andy Bowley asks why I didn’t want to shoot Paolo Soleri’s gravestone when we were at Arcosanti in 2015

FIRST, A TIMELINE AND SOME CONTEXT (or jump to the short version)

2011 Soleri Retired and Jeff Stein was named the Interim Honcho, so I knew informing the viewer of the changing of the guard was going to be the climax of the film. I liked the symmetry of ending the film where it began, transitioning to the “standing on the shoulders of giants” ending. The film would end essentially as it began. So by 2012 I had settled on how to end a film with no ending conceptually.

2013 Soleri died.

2015 and Andy and I were there to interview Jeff Stein, shoot some B-Roll of Jeff working, and shoot some drone footage.

Andy asked Jeff where Soleri was buried and we were given a rough location. Andy was all for getting the shot. But it didn’t interest me and I told him not to bother. I think this surprised him. I’m not saying he thinks it should be in the film, but I think he thinks it’s one of those no-brainer shots that’s worth having in your back pocket, just in case. And he is completely right.

But why wasn’t I interested in capturing that image? Part of the reason was out of respect. Part was my negative reactions to shots of final resting places. But I think the main reason was that by then I had already decided how to show the fact that he died.

In December 2012 we conducted the first interview with Jeff Stein. Between December 2012 and our next trip to Arcosanti in April 2015, I had found the climax of the film concretely. I edited the transition from the two dishes at sunset at the Allen Telescope Array (shot by Andy in December 2007) to the two people sitting atop an Arcosanti vault at sunset (shot by Wolfgang Held the first time we were there October 2006). I really liked the symmetry of this. Two telescopes and two people, both looking to the sky, searching. In July 2010 Andy shot the timelapse of Arcosanti being enveloped by the darkness of the desert night. I had decided that was how I would go from the Soleri era to the Stein era. That timelapse fade out was cinematic shorthand for “get ready for something new.”

In April 2013 Soleri died and the time-lapse fade out shot became that more meaningful. This is how I would visually say, “Soleri has died and get ready for something new. “

For the 2015 shoot at Arcosanti, Andy was bringing his HD camera and we were renting a drone. One of the most important shot on my shot list was a drone shot that echoed the first shot of the film. That first shot was a simple tilt up from a dirt road to reveal Arcosanti. The drone shot I wanted was a dynamic approach on that same road to Arcosanti. We have come full circle, but we have changed, progressed. This new circle would have new people and new methods.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY…

By the time Andy and I went to Arcosanti in 2015 when we could have shot Soleri’s gravestone, I had the climactic shots and transitions etched in my brain.

Here sequence:

I couldn’t imagine changing this sequence of shots, so in my mind there was no need for the gravestone shot. I just couldn’t fathom it’s value.

That’s a failing on my part. Because Andy was right. I should have said, “Let’s get it.” It wasn’t the first shot I should have gotten but didn’t, and it won’t be the last. Something to work on for the next project.

The next project? What?