Out of Focus

What do you do when you (as a filmmaker) discover that one of your shots is out of focus?...

Not only is it too late to fix it... but every take has the same problem. The actor you need has already gone home and can't come back because they are off on another shoot. And it just isn't in the budget to get them back anyway.

That's where creative filmmaking comes into play.

This scerario happened to us on our last film. We still can't quite figure out how it happened, because the shots taken before and after the one in question are fine. But every take we did of this one particular shot in Dear J did not match the rest of the movie; or the rest of the scene, for that matter.

We actually realized the shot was no good while we were still on set, but only AFTER we wrapped for the day. The actors had gone and as we watched some of the dailies for that day, well, our hearts began to sink.

Not only was the shot key to the scene, but it involved the Judge (played by Karen Lynn Gorney -- Yes, the same Karen Lynn Gorney who played opposite of John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever')... And she was off to shoot in Florida or something the next day.

First attempt at fixing this mistake: We decided to do the shot again, this time without her in it... using a double and only getting the Judge's arm in the frame. And although we reviewed the footage, you can tell we were rather harried because we got Fumbles (played by Myron Buchholz) to use the wrong arm when he whispers his message to the Judge! (We actually didn't realize this mistake until we began editing the movie about a month later.)

That version of things stayed in the movie for over a year during the post-production phase. And it even made it into the version we showed at the gala in October 2007. (There's a little trivia for you!)

But then, shortly before we burned the final DVD version, we had a breakthrough... Firstly, we reasoned, this whole scene takes place in the imaginery courtroom, right? Secondly, it's part of a discussion between the two psychologists, Dr. Donovin and Dr. Frolick, as they discuss James' situation. Therefore, if the original footage is grainy, why not make that whole particular scene grainy?

We tried it, and voila! It worked... Serendipitiously, it actually makes the scene work.

Necessity is the mother of invention... or in this case, at least of creativity.