Cut The Most Important Idea

Cut The Most Important Idea

Distracted | @Distractedfilm

Our series of posts reflecting on Distracted continues…

There were times when I could not shoot a scene in the way I had envisioned: a choice location suddenly became unavailable, or we couldn’t afford a certain prop, or we couldn’t find the right calibre of actor for one of the roles and so it had to be written out of the script. Sometimes, I was forced to cut the most important idea from a scene.

Or, more accurately, I was forced to cut what I thought was the most important idea. As it turned out, it wasn’t the most important idea, in fact, it wasn’t an important idea at all – it was a clever idea,  and that’s not the same thing. Clever is safe, clever is comforting, clever is reasonable, and it does not long belong in a work of art. Clever is intellectual arrogance masquerading as creativity, and it muffles the voice of aesthetic truth.

At first, these cuts caused anguish because I thought they were hurting the film, but in time I came to love them. I started to hungrily look for them as I came to understand that they were clues, clues the film was leaving for me in order to help me find it, and liberate it. The cuts I was forced to make stripped away the final lies, and what resulted was something sharper, more vivid, more direct, urgent, provocative, seminal, and singing.

A work of art is not an idea, it’s not intellectual, it cannot be thought, it can only be discovered.

Cut the most important idea.

 

MORE REFLECTIONS ON DISTRACTED

A Script Is Like A Dream

Freedom In A Strait-Jacket – Conversation With The Actor

The Dignity Of The Actor