As the edit progresses I’ve started talking to a lady in DC about stock footage from the National Archive to include in the documentary. Of course Michele has to figure out how to pay for it, so for now I am just choosing what I want until she sees how much I want and tells me no. But as we continue to build the timeline to finish the documentary , I started thinking about our final shoot at the Detroit jazz festival, labor day weekend.  I had spoken to one of the cameramen who is shooting some of the musical acts that weekend for Mack Avenue about what I’m looking for, since he is happy to let us include his footage in the documentary so we don’t have to bring our own crew to shoot the performances. I asked Michele about what’s left in the budget for little extras, hoping we could supplement some his crew to help get my shots,and she said NOTHING! Alright, you don’t have to scream, I can ask can’t I? I went down to Hart Plaza, anyway, to scope out  camera positions. 

All of this because it hit me, this is my last chance to get meaningful footage for the documentary, which, feeds into my mental state.  I can always tell how something is going to cut together while I’m shooting it but I’m always unclear if the whole thing will come together as one unit, you know coherent.  It’s that constant fear of not being able to deliver.  So to help me out, I watched a documentary called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. This documentary chronicles how Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was plagued by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems--nearly destroying his life and career. The movie shot for more than 200 days.  

It always makes me feel better. Here’s a legendary director on the verge of a nervous breakdown. At one point in the documentary he says to his wife “I feel like an idiot, having set in motion stuff that doesn't make any sense, that doesn’t match and yet I’m doing it”.  Now, if Francis Ford Coppola feels like an idiot sometimes, you can imagine how I feel all of the time.  But now, that we’re nearing the end of the project all I can do is continue to press on and hope, wish and pray it all comes together.