As a kid who grew up with Star Wars – having watched the original on the big screen at the ripe age of 8, I was somewhat aghast when, years later, director George Lucas deigned to “monkey” with the original trilogy in 1997 (and subsequently in 2004, 2011, and 2019).
A film, it seemed, was a complete and unique thing; every film (and of course, every play for that matter) has its flaws, but the fans are fans because of the way the story is told, even if the storyteller later looks back and figures “I could have said that better.” We love movies like we love our children (them that have ’em): flaws and all.
So, it is with some chagrin that I now admit that I understand Mr. Lucas, just a bit.
Back in 2013, while in the middle of a protracted-term of unemployment, I decided to put my copious free time to use by video-recording my classmates and instructors at Aikido of Madison, the dojo where I have now practiced for the better part of twenty-three years. With the dojo’s 30th anniversary looming in 2014, I leaned head-first into the ambitious task of filming, editing, and producing a full-length documentary to be shown, initially, at the ensuing celebration.
While I did screen a very rough-cut version of “dojo: the story of an American aikido school” for the anniversary, the project was never fully finished. For a variety of reasons, having to do with technology (the personal computer kind), economics (also the personal kind), and life events (definitely personal), it had to be shelved.
How quickly a decade can go by, right? This year, Aikido of Madison celebrates its 40th Anniversary! In preparation, I was approached by colleagues to show “dojo” at THAT celebration; it seemed like the perfect excuse to follow through and finish it.
Not only did I finally clarify the last section of the film, which had been left in a “patchwork” state, and get the run time down from 01:05 to 00:45 min, but along the way I took time to clean up photos and clean up audio that I must admit I wish I had taken pains to record more clearly when I was on location in the moment.
I now understand Lucas’ joy at being able to use more modern tech to clarify details and improve the viewing experience.
And, let’s face it, technology has come a long way in a decade. My principal edits were done on a 2007 Mac Mini and then a 2014 iMac with an external 4TB HDD connected via Firewire 800. These past few months I’ve been working on an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB memory, a 1TB HDD, and an external 4TB SSD connected via USB-C. Not to mention, Final Cut Pro X is a much more streamlined and efficient application – paired with the fact that my familiarity and skill with it has improved ten-fold.
The result is a film (ok, video 🙂 that, while not perfect, is many times better in quality, and is about 90% of what I had originally envisioned 10 years ago.
At this writing, I’m finishing up Close Captioning, and making some minor, last-minute tweaks. I hope to release “dojo”, free on YouTube within a week.
