Same Page.
I closed the guitar body this week. While filming, Jonard asked, “what does this step mean to you, how does it make you feel? I straight up told him that it made me sad. I literally strive to make each guitar brace a work of art. Cleaning the glue, chiseling each brace to a perfect symmetry while paying attention the voicing, finish sand every inch. All that effort, then glued and closed off to the world. All the hard work no longer in sight to appreciate. It’s a means to an end. On the other hand, it is also a means to a beginning.
The next exciting thing to look forward to is binding and purfling the top and back. So I rushed all the way to this point to realize that I wanted to use a tried and true binding router jig. A jig I don’t have. So I hurried up to wait. I do have options in the shop that I’ve used before, however, the results are not as consistent as I’d like. I held to the philosophy of second guessing, rethinking this step, and doing it right the first time. This is the only option. So I took out the wallet and put the order in at one of my favorite online luthier stores. So now we wait.
In the meantime, Noel, Jonard, and I finally had our first project meeting together in the flesh. The intent was to capture interviews and have Noel showcase his progress thus far. More footage for our teaser video that shows both sides of this project. But instead, we deviated.
We needed to have our project kicked off. We needed to flesh out our visions, our expectations, our goals. We joked that the ‘out of sequence’ nature we’ve embarked on is so out of industry norm and wouldn’t normally happen – in the documentary film making sense. We don’t have funding . . . yet. No one is getting paid at the moment. We have questions that were unanswered like: Who’s responsible for what? What are our titles, our roles? What happens when Jonard gets busy in the summer. In the real world, this project wouldn’t have started without these questions answered. This is a moment that is worth emphasizing. We can let a lot of things get in the way. We can make excuses to not start. Alternatively, we can break these so called templates and checklists and just do it and figure it out along the way. It takes a like-minded team to allow this. AND we need to be on the same page.
At the end of our meeting, beyond being the talent of the doc, Noel and I decided that we were determined to be Producers of the project. Jonard will be Director of Photography/ Filmography/ Cinematography/ Audio/ Chief Editor/ saviour to the project... Jonard will like that last one.
Our boot-strap start is a testament for our affinity to create. We are real people, we are the real world, and we have the will to do what-ever to make this happen.
-- Cliff
