Yep, for the first time in film school, I actually got to handle a film print. Wooo! I'm taking an editing class (hi Norm) and had to conform the edits we made in the computer system to the actual film print. It was the perfect day for doing this: I was feeling hungover and slightly misanthropic and generally overwhelmed with decision-making in work and life lately. To have all my decisions in front of me on a piece of paper was great. To work with my hands was a relief. To not have to talk to anyone and to listen to music on headphones while doing this made my day complete. It took two albums to cut out the shots and splice the dailies back together and two-thirds of an album to splice the whole cut together.
Completely analog tasks like this are something I miss lately. It's like jogging or driving a commute: there's work to be done, yes, but you really only have to have 30% or so of your brain engaged in the task of getting your body to go through the required motions. The higher functioning part of your brain can wander into more difficult and interesting territory. I miss this in modern life. It's not that I want to do my laundry by hand on a washboard, but having to remember phone numbers and then waiting for the rotary phone wheel to make its revolution, or raking leaves, or washing dishes by hand, these things are important for the soul. Or for my soul. Or just for my brain to make its revolution and come up with seasoned, complex answers to difficult problems. I've had some of my best ideas in the shower and stuck in traffic. Endless choice and complete ease of access mean the only work left for me to do is make the decision.
That said, let's hope my conformed print screens without any cuts backwards or upside down. I'm hoping that having sewn shorts together backwards in the past would teach me to be meticulous despite my absent mind.
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