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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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JAMES CAMERON:
Generally speaking,
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a lot of visual effects
works against you
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for a lot of reasons.
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It can be numbing.
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You can kind of debase the
value of a given effect
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by having too many of them.
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They can blow your budget.
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It's better to have a
few memorable set pieces.
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From a writing standpoint,
I sort of treat it
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as a standalone thing.
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I'll figure out where it's going
to start, what the kickoff is.
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You know, what the kind of
opening bell of the set piece
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is and where the resolution is.
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I'll figure out where my--
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my out point is.
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And then I'll work within that
so that it's not too long,
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it-- it stays focused
and it stays of a piece.
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And, I mean, I think there's--
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just like there's an
art to scene writing,
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I think there's an art
to creating a set piece.
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It's kind of a
film within a film,
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and it kind of has
its own-- own rules,
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and it's got a beginning,
a middle, and an end,
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some kind of resolution.
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That end may or may
coincide with an act break
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or it may not.
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But, you know, a
suspense sequence
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or a scene, a dramatic
scene in a film
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might be a four or
five-page dialogue
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scene that's done in
some stylized way,
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maybe without any cuts.
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Maybe some circulating Steadicam
shot that moves sinuously
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through some dramatic moment.
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That would be a-- that
would be a set piece.
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So then you have to pick
your battles carefully.
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What's the narrative
purpose of the set piece?
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So to use the example
from "Terminator"
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of the first future
flashback, it was actually
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just to build character.
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For Michael Biehn's character.
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It was to show his
traumatic world
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and why he was basically a
walking, physically-scarred,
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and mentally-scarred example of
post-traumatic stress syndrome.
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He was the living embodiment
in the present day
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of how bad that future was and
why you needed to prevent it
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from occurring, right?
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So it had a powerful
narrative and character
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purpose in that
film, but it was also
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just stuff I wanted to see.
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And that's another thing.
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Is there are a lot of kind
of rules and advisories
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about why you put
things in movies, and--
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and they all have to serve a
purpose, except they don't.
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Sometimes it should
just be something
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you want to see as a filmmaker.
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And sometimes the
only way to see it
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is to make it and show it.
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And I remember having
this discussion
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with one of the heads
of 20th Century Fox
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when "Avatar" was almost done
and they were complaining
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about the flying scenes.
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Why does this flying
scene go on so long?
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And you've-- you've
already proved the point.
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It doesn't advance
the narrative,
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it doesn't advance
the character.
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I said, you're right
on every count,
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you've ticked every box like
a good studio executive.
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But guess what?
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I want to see it.
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And I extrapolate from
that, and Stanley Kubrick
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was a firm proponent
of this principle.
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If I want to see it,
my cognitive leap
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is, there are going to be lots
of people that want to see it.
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I want to see it for itself,
not for its purpose, right?
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Because there is a purpose to
the things you want to see.
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The purpose is to be
present, to be in that world,
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to be enjoying what's
happening, to sustain a feeling.
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So those flying scenes actually
did have a big purpose.
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That's when Jake and
Neytiri fell in love.
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And I got into a big fight
with the studio over that.
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And I'd like to say fortunately
I prevailed, because I
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love those flying scenes.
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They're great.
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But life is a whole lot
easier if you can actually
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dig deep and examine why
you've made a decision
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or why you have that instinct.
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Because it's going to cost
somebody else a bunch of money
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to follow up on that instinct.
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And so the more
you can share it,
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the more you can
inspire others with it
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and why that choice makes sense,
the better life is going to be.
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Set pieces often are good
candidates for previs.
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Chances are, you're not
going to have a budget
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to previs the entire
picture, nor do you need to.
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You should only have to
previs the things that
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are extraordinary
and require really
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tight, interdepartmental
planning well before the fact.
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So in terms of the previs
process, you've got to--
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you can't just
start storyboarding
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until you know what
things are going
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to look like, because what
are you going to draw?
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Is the character wearing a
trench coat or a loincloth,
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you know?
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So you have to do some
design before you can even
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start storyboarding,
otherwise you're
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just going to do
stick figures, which
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isn't going to tell anybody
anything, yourself included.
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So I say start the
design process,
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start to evolve the storyboards.
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Now some people work
with storyboards
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and some people work
more with previs tools.
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You can use a-- a suite of--
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of keyframe previs.
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You can do a little
animation pieces.
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Put a blank face,
but at least it
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gives you the-- the
dynamics and the framing.
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And you start to think
about composition,
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you start to think
about cutting.
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And now you'll-- you'll
essentially do some kind
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of a pre-cut of the scene
with your-- with your previs.
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It doesn't mean you're
bound to shoot it that way.
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You're always going to be open
to inspiration of the moment,
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but it's a good
jumping-off place
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so people know how
much you have to build,
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what does the director expect
here in terms of the action?
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How long am I going
to be on something?
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How much detail do we need?
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What kind of action are we going
to try to do/ How are we going
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to move the camera?
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How are we going to
support the camera?
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Is it on a crane, is
it on a Steadicam,
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is it being handheld?
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You know, it starts to
trigger a thousand questions.
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And a good team around
you will start to hit--
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hit you with those
questions, you know?
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The DP's going to want to know,
are we on a wide lens style
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or are we on a
longer lens style?
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Are we on a backlight
style or are
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we on a diffused light style?
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What's the style, you know?
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Because there's a
thousand different ways
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to light a scene, there's
a thousand different ways
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to shoot a scene.
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Presumably the filmmaker, if
they don't come in with a style
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initially, they're
going to have to find
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one that suits the piece,
that suits the story.
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That's-- that's a
critical part of it.
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And when those questions
start to get answered,
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then you can start
saying, okay, I
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need this shot, this
shot, and this shot.
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Just from my own experience,
a good example of a set piece
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that was done on a film that
was made on a very low budget
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is Reese's flashback of the
future, of the traumatic future
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that he comes from in the
first act of "The Terminator."
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And I say the first act because
Reese hasn't met Sarah yet
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and he hasn't met--
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he hasn't met the
Terminator yet.
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So this is all sort of
in the character setup,
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and I wanted to see this
future soldier in his world,
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and I wanted to go into it
through his fatigue-induced
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dream state and come out
of it where he's shocked
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and disoriented and back in
our present, which is his--
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his past.
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I knew it was going to
involve visual effects models,
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you know, miniatures,
miniature explosions,
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and some full-sized
live action elements
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that were done in a-- in a
set of some-- some ruins,
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some post-nuclear
holocaust ruins.
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So I thought, I'd a
better draw this up.
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So I approach it in a
very disciplined fashion.
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I got my roommate to put on
some kind of military uniform.
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I went and bought some guns.
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We went-- we went out
in a field someplace,
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and I took pictures of him
in all the different poses
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that I wanted.
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And I also did that for the car
chases as well, which I also--
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also storyboarded.
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Had him, you know,
hanging out the window,
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I wanted to be able to
see what kind of positions
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you could get into with the
weapons, what kind of lenses
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I wanted to be on.
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Did I want to be on telephoto
lenses or close lenses?
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Wanted to make the guns
look big, so shorter--
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shorter lenses.
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And start to think, well,
how am I going to shoot this?
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How can I get the
Insert car there?
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So I started going
through the whole--
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whole exercise.
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I got my long-suffering
roommate to basically play
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every character in the
film except for Sarah.
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I think he played
Sarah a couple times.
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And then I brought it all back.
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I printed up all the photos.
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This is back in the
days of photochemistry.
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So I had a bunch of
prints all over my desk,
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and I just started
drawing it all up.
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