Some Thoughts from "The Muse" director, Diana Whitten
Posted by Fetch Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:01:00 GMT
On the first take of the first shot we filmed of the Muse, five years ago, the lights were set, the camera rolling, the actors ready and costumed and made up and a room full of crew members waiting for my cue as director, I remember taking a deep breath, and calling out,
“okay… GO!” Not much happened. The DP turned around and gently whispered,
“you might want to say, ‘Action.’”
“Oh, right… Just like in the movies!” I laughed.
Not that I’m much less green now, but we’ve all come a ways from our first on-set experience. I was thinking about that as we sat in the Brattle Street Theater last week – a charming little theater in Harvard Square – where I first saw Rocky Horror in high school – and where the Muse was screened as part of the Boston Underground Film Festival. Watching my own film there, I was happy to let go of all disclaimers and new ideas to make the film better, to just be thrilled it was playing on the big screen in front of an audience of strangers, and even be proud. And motivated to make another one! (maybe with monsters for Alicia…)
Also shown in the program with the Muse was a short called the Last Woman on Earth, a lovely stop-motion piece by BU student David Ruddick; and The Fine Art of Poisoning, by Bill Domonkos, a really beautiful, Edward Gorey-esque animated piece about, well, the fine art of poisoning (www.bdom.com
For information on helping the effort to preserve the Brattle Theater, which is Cambridge’s only Independent Cinema and an institution loved by Bostonians (and by Fetch!), go to: www.brattlefilm.org
