finding mismo's pace...

as mentioned in my last submission, one of the biggest challenges in editing motion pictures is getting the pacing right... unfolding the pictures before viewers to compel them to hang around for the next round of moving pictures...

in mismo, there are three distinct stories that make up the larger story... we are all the same... just different...

we have the viera family... made up of jorge, pedro, and anjelica... we have the 'quasi' bohemian family--made up of mitch and rachel... and the 'other side of the tracks' family... made up of toni, bella, and diego...

our rough cuts introduced the viera family first, 'quasi' bohemian family second, and the 'sketchy' family third... this is how the film ended too... but in the midst of taking the film from rough to final cut... many shifts were made within those separate stories... the scale tipped back and forth...

we wanted to give the 'parts' (i.e., each particular story) their due without undermining the whole... yet the 'whole' is only felt if it doesn't feel like three distinct parts... a risk you run in parallel storytelling...

during the rough cuts, we overexposed the viera family... we gave them too much time.. too early... at the expense of making connections with the other two story lines...

this makes sense... you often find the right pace by figuring out where the boundaries are first... where you've went too far... it's a great game of back and forth...

when it was unbalanced... it felt like three separate stories without a sense of wholeness... you need both... that disharmony sent us back to the editing room...

we eventually strung out the viera story further into the movie... and pulled mitch and rachel forward... and sprinkled in toni, bella, and diego... and once the movie gave proper attention to mitch and rachel... toni, bella, diego started coming in more... and then on the back end... toni, bella, diego have much of their story unveiled...

by the time the movie ends... all these characters have touched in ways that speak to their particular story and the larger too...

more than that... in the final scene... in real time... each character touches the other... sometimes physically but mostly in the labyrinth of collective decision making... and how we are affected.. and infected... by all the choices around us... even when unaware...

so bottom line... finding the natural balance... where both the part and the whole feels right and just... that's a story's pace...

and guess what... it's not a linear process... it's an exploratory process... back and forth... and if you are telling a parallel story... make extra time and space for yourself because the route may be ambiguous for awhile...

finding a story's pace...

creating/editing a story's pace is one of the primary challenges of movie making...as a storyteller with motion pictures at my disposal... i look to create a biological and psychic ecosystem that sustains viewers...where you feel compelled to physically and socially collaborate in a larger story...

parallel storytelling movies...such as mismo...crash...amores perros...present filmmakers with an additional 'pacing' challenge...you have more characters than a typical movie...yet you are expected to sustain a story-consuming experience that parallels that of a typical movie with just a few characters...that is...most people want to see all the characters early in the story...

yet there is a finite and contracting sense of time when telling stories...stories as told...get narrower...not wider in expression...you are led to something...everything contributes to that something...but the story is always funneling...

so one has to be creative in getting everybody in...but not just in...but in at the right time...when it feels right...not just inserting characters in for the sake of getting them in...just doesn't feel natural...

how do you know when it's natural...we will look at that in my next submission...