Ending #2:
Through narration, we see Kevin sitting in a director's
chair on set somewhere, apparently having worked his way
up into the filmmaking industry until he's "made it".
However, when the actual director of the show he's working
on walks out and tells him to get him his coffee, we realize
he's only worked his way up to Grip or Assistant position.
End of ending #2.
Ending
#3:
We see Kevin sitting out on a bench on the pier. A beautiful
Asian woman sits down next to him and smiles at him. She
tells him that she knows who he is and that she's seen his
student film. He laughs and is surprised she remembers something
so awful. Through a thick Asian accent, she tells him that
she thought it was brilliant because it was truth. At this
point, narration concludes the film, as Kevin recalls, "As
Jean Luc Goddard said, 'Photography is truth, but the film
is truth 24 times a second'". He goes on to realize
how much he learned about people and truth from making this
film. Thus concludes Ending #3.
So, how do we connect the three endings that right now all have a lot of good ideas but feel blocky and unconnected? Moreover, how do we do so without having to reshoot things? Well, I have two ideas. The first idea will preserve parts of all three endings and leaves the audience with the idea that Kevin is working his way up in the traditional Hollywood studio system. The second idea would lose the second ending entirely and imply that Kevin was making films his own way in the Indie system. It really depends on which feel the director would like to leave the audience with.
Idea #1:
Well, the first thing would be to cut short the long and
confusing conversation between Kevin and his instructor.
Once she's told him the secret of choosing any two things
in the filmmaking pyramid, this ending should be concluded
with Kevin glumly agreeing that he has much to learn. The
segment in which he leaves the auditorium and runs into
his best friend, hugging after all the chaos and anger,
should then be included. Because the extended conversation
with the professor has now been cut short, there needs to
be a bit more narration when the second ending begins, perhaps
something to the effect of: "I was bummed after that
project, but I wasn't going to give up my dreams of filmmaking.
I had to start small, but I slowly began to work my way
up in the ranks of filmmaking." And then conclude the
sequence much as it currently is, with the director walking
in, at which point you would want to have the narrator admit
that he "hasn't made it yet," but he will one
day. As the second ending concludes, an additional narration
stream should introduce the final ending with something
to the effect, "Truth be told, I might well have not
been willing to work so hard to make it as a filmmaker if
I hadn't run into a woman on a pier a few weeks after that
thesis presentation". At this point, the final ending
can be shown, and it will be much more salient in this situation.
Idea #2:
Everything is almost completely same as Idea #1 except that
the second ending is lost completely, which would actually
flow a little more concisely, wouldn't require the redubbing
that Ending #2 needs (which I'll cover in the Use of Audio
Section), and leaves the film feeling more independent,
as I mentioned before. The narration that goes into ending
#3 would then be slightly altered to, "After that thesis
presentation, I didn't know if I had what it took to be
a filmmaker. But then, I ran into a woman on a pier".
This ending also has the advantage that it is even cleaner
and more concise than that from Idea #1.
[Note
to the Director: If you would like the cleanness
of the second idea, but would prefer to imply that the protagonist
is currently working in the traditional Hollywood system,
you can do this by adding some opening narration at the
beginning of the film. Something to the effect of, "People
always ask me how I got into the film industry, if I always
knew I would be a director. I always laugh and tell them
about the college thesis film that started it all."
With that brief bit of narration at the beginning, then
you could use Idea #2 and have a cleaner ending, but with
the same feel as that of Idea #2. Again, just a thought.]
Either
ending would work and either ending would require no more
reshooting and just a little extra narration recording.
Visual Look
Although it's a narrative feature, Mr. Desmond and his team
chose a documentary-style look for the film, which included
lots of handheld shots. Additionally, they experimented
with breaking some of the rules of filmmaking by using things
like jump cuts and breaking the 180 degree rule. Normally,
breaking these sorts of rules is very distracting and a
very bad idea, but this film can get away with both of these
issues due to the documentary style feel to it. In fact,
they used jump cuts so many times in the film that it actually
became a visual look. Another visual look that they chose
for the film was a headshot freeze which worked pretty well
for introducing new characters. Whenever a new person would
come into the film, the frame would pause and create a headshot
with an abbreviated resumé. Unfortunately, they don't
include the name of the character with the headshot, which
would help people keep some of the names straight, like
Kevin's best friend, Dong Su, who, to the best of my knowledge,
only mentions his name once in the film and, that time,
so low that you can barely make it out.
Additionally, they chose a variety of graphic overlays to show the passage of time, from beeping time counters to scrawled graphs showing the production schedule. The haphazard design to these worked quite well, as it really got you into the grit of being in the pressure cooker.
