Today I was filming again for the documentary about the Exquisite Corpse film project, “Tag, You’re It!”. The filmmakers of the second segment handed over the last minute of their short film/segment to the filmmaker of the third segment. And that filmmaker happens to be Scott. This, of course, means that I have to make sure I don’t spill anything I know about the previous segment. All he’s allowed to know is that one minute (while I know a lot more). But I’ve done okay with keeping mum so far.
It was really interesting to watch Scott react to the minute and talk to the women from the previous segment about the expectation, then watching the minute and then trying to figure out what it might mean and more importantly what kind of a film you can spin out of it. Since the IEP women had just gone through this experience two weeks before, they certainly could relate.
The tension and suspense that happens around this handover made me realize again how interesting this whole process is. It gave me a bit of a push again to see that this is a worthwhile project. Of course, documenting everyone’s work and this experiment is worthwhile no matter what. But is this documentary going to be an actual film worth watching and does it make sense for me to put my time and effort into it? Some questions like that have lately been sneaking up. I’m already involved in three full-length documentaries (in very different stages). Also SXSW hasn’t been all that supportive of me filming during the festival. That’s pretty frustrating since this is where some of the filmmakers will officially present “Tag, You’re It!” at their panel and probably recruit more collaborators. And last but not least, I usually make films that deal directly with the human experience, films that hopefully will move, enlighten and encourage. I know it sounds cliche, but I like to think that the work I do might make a difference. I suppose a documentary about an arts project can be quite inspiring. It just feels a little bit superficial compared to my usual work.
But either way, today was exciting and the last minute of the second segment turned out great and it looks very promising for the entire Exquisite Corpse film collection/project. And in regards to my documentary about the project… I’ll just keep you posted.