Results of Kurt's Jan 24 Reading; Varicam; Notes on Portraying Passage of Time

K&K organized a reading of the 2-17 draft. It was valuable. This is the second reading and each one yielded some good ideas. He is right about it being a good market test, and some scene changes and new scenes came out of it.

The one that stands out is the suggestion to show D&M at the dance club. I think "Dirty Dancing" was mentioned, especially the power of the eye contact between Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. That was a great idea and we've worked out and will add a scene at the dance club that emphasizes eye contact. The location we're shooting the dance scenes is an old night club with a dance floor, so it should work out perfect.

Max and Ronald seem to attract a lot of the discussion. That's not good since they are minor characters. I've tried to reduce the dialog in the Max scene

I've also tried to beef up demonstration of Dewitt's computer skills. And show more of Maria working hard.

I cut out Reflection entirely and replaced it with Heidi all the way.

On the technical front, we decided to go with the Varicam. It comes with a tape deck that you interface to a Mac running Final Cut Pro to download the files from tape, convert to digital and store them on computer disk.  I don't know the file type, though. That would be a key question interfacing with editing software. 

About the timeframe problem...  I agree some indication of time passage would be helpful. How to do it is the question. William Goldman says in Which Lie Did I Tell You that your scenes should come as late into the action as possible. In other words, resist the temptation to do lengthy lead-ins or exposition. I agree with this because I've seen wordy and expository scenes stop stuff dead--some of my own stuff.

Passage of time is difficult to show in a movie. Something clunky can be done: show a "two months later" card or have one of the characters say "remember that lunch we had a couple of months ago". 

Dennis told me about a couple of tricks: 1) lengthen fade outs/fade ins. That subtly implies the passage of time; 2) show a montage of scenes--this trick can actually show passage of time by mixing in different seasons or sequence the montage as day/night/day/night.

One lesson I'm learning with Dennis is you can shoot footage while on location with the actors which can be included/excluded, sliced and diced during the edit process. You can also include stock footage if you can show something without the actors. I suppose you could even call back some of the actors for a special shoot if necessary---however, $k-ching, $k-ching.

Converting the Playscript to Screenplay

Many plays have been turned into movies successfully (e.g., Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Streetcar Named Desire, Glass Menagerie, Death of a Salesman, Some Like it Hot, Twelve Angry Men, more recently, Six Degrees of Separation,  and Doubt), so the two art forms are mutually adaptable.

The examples are of the theater of the interior. Their dramatic impact is powered by the interplay between the characters and the inner workings of the characters. There's not much interaction with physical nature or its forces. Expressing their conflicts doesn't rely on physical violence--action movies.

Interior theater lends itself well to low budget filmmaking. You don't have to show a lot of objects or broad action or interplay with physical objects. Interior theater relies on quality of acting more than action/adventure, or exterior theater. When adapted to film, the results of the adaptation to film rely on the creativity of the director to select images that complement the interior flow of drama.

Dewitt & Maria (D&M) is interior theater and a comedy. The comedy provides some relief for the audience's strict concentration. Furthermore, D&M lends itself to low budget filmmaking. It could be shot entirely in your house and yard and the surrounding sidewalks. It requires nine actors and your friends could easily fill out the ending dance scene.

I would recommend the writer organize a simple table reading of one of the first drafts of the screen play. It's valuable to hear it semi-acted, hear comments of other listeners and the actors, and it's a good foundation for a party.

The reading revealed three main problems with the first screenplay draft. First, I had left in several long speeches that didn't work that well. Second, the plot device that brings Dewitt and his mother into acquaintance with Maria and her father, of near adjoining windows of two apartments, would not work well on film and was hard to set up. Third,  I had vainly tried to fix the first problem by cutting out one of the most wordy scenes, however, one turned out to be one of the hearts of the drama between the two main characters.

By the second draft, I had overcome all three problems: I trimmed several speeches, I found another way for Tony and Jean to meet and arrange a meeting between their children. And, I restored the heart of the play to the movie.

By the third and fourth drafts I had sharpened and enhanced the conflicts and relationships between the characters, made more variety and openness in the settings. Enhanced the visual nature of the movie version over the stage version.

My director, Dennis Devine had to show me how to format the script to make it suitable for the industrial process (and cultural norms and conventions) of shooting a movie.

First, A Little History

Dewitt & Maria, is a happy movie about love. When Dewitt comes to the end of his journey, everyone in the audience feels happy and satisfied that, somehow, the world has become a better place.

How does the writer, Jim Mueller, achieve this? His storytelling isn't sugary. He doesn't deny or ignore the difficulties of big city life. Both Dewitt and Maria face daunting challenges at work and in their relationships. Each has a traumatic past. They make mistakes. Dewitt sets off in the wrong direction, as does Maria. Both need help from those who care about them. Even though the movie ends with a happy event, the future is as uncertain for Dewitt and Maria as it is for any two people in this world.

Dewitt & Maria is an adaptation of a one act play written by Jim Mueller in the mid 1980's to win a contest. The prize was to be a fully staged production in a prestigious and beautiful theater in Rochester, New York. The play won the prize, but little did Mueller know that the production was to be in the basement of the theater, not on its main stage.

“Herb Katz, the director, led me to a bare basement room about 20x50 feet. Imagine my disappointment. But, over the next two months, Herb showed me that the great collaboration that is theatre brings ideas to life anywhere there are actors and an audience,” Mueller said recently. “The bare basement became a place of magic.”

Encouraged and inspired, Mueller expanded Dewitt & Maria into a full length play and won a grant from the New York Council on the Arts for a full production which was mounted in Rochester in 1989, this time on a main stage.

“The labor and trials of production and the performances were some of the most gratifying times of my life,” said Mueller. “Artistic expression of ideas communicates more powerfully than plain words.”

Years later, after retiring in Southern California, Mueller gravitated to the Los Angeles theater scene, which has an intimate relationship with the movie industry. By chance, he met Dennis Devine, a director of more than 30 feature films, and one of the most generous and resourceful of artists.

Mueller and Devine discussed the possibility of adapting Dewitt & Maria into a movie. After putting together the financing, Mueller set about adapting the screenplay with Dennis Devine's technical guidance. More dimensions to the story emerged from that creative effort.

Further incentive to produce the play was that Mueller's son, Kurt Mueller, is an award-winning photojournalist and cinematographer with several short documentaries to his credit. Feature-length film experience was a next logical career step for him. The team was now set: Jim Mueller would produce and provide the screen play, Dennis Devine would direct, and Kurt Mueller would be Director of Photography.

The team was determined to hew to the highest possible standard of artistic and technical professionalism and produce a film that appeals to the widest audience. Professionals were hired for all the main artistic, technical and craft positions, as well as acting. Several of Mueller's theater group buddies agreed to take small parts and be extras. The film was shot at locations local to Mueller's home.

The result is a warm, funny and inspiring feature film about love..The movie version of Dewitt & Maria, is the next evolutionary step for a one-act play, produced in the basement of the Jewish Community Center in Rochester, NY.