It’s very late here in Vienna/Austria right now, and the reason for writing today’s Production Note that late is because we’ve been screening the latest version of our little movie until ten minutes ago.
Lisa has been working on this version all week, based on the structure she and Wolfgang came up with last week. Wolfgang and Stefan were busy working on other projects – after all, rents need to be paid and children need to be fed.
This latest version is considerably shorter (114 minutes) and very different from the former versions. It’s less chronological and breathes more of the local colour of Leo’s hometown Bruce and Clarksdale, home of the Blues. We also dropped the beginning that initially we felt was pretty good – but nobody except Wolfgang and Lisa seemed to like it. So we came up with another way to start the movie. It’s still a bit rough but could be the way to go.
Having seen this version of the movie just now for the first time, it feels like a step forward. Of course, there’s still a giant amount of details that need to be changed, dropped, moved around or elaborated. But we feel like this new way of telling Leo’s story is a big improvement to the earlier versions of the movie.
So we’ll work on this version for some more days next week and then do another test screening, probably also next week. Will keep you posted about the outcome of that.