Crew Diaries:
SEAN ALBERTSON
Film Editor

my days as the editor

It all started when my agent sent me a script entitled "STILL BREATHING".

I'd say that eighty percent of the scripts I read are crap. Good scripts are rare. So my expectations are never very high. I began to read. By the third page I was taken in. By the twentieth page I knew this was something special. When I finished reading, I thought it might just be one of, if not THE most beautiful script I'd ever read. This was no typical hollywood movie. This had beauty in depth of characters, story and location. Yes... Location. San Antonio Texas was a character all it's own in this script. I WANTED TO EDIT THIS FILM!

Off I went to the ZapPictures headquarters in Los Angeles (across the street from the famous La Brea Tar Pits) to met with Jim Robinson (writer/ director) and Marshall Persinger (producer). When I got there, Jim welcomed me into his office. I found him to be very charming and sweet. Sitting and listened to him explain his story and characters, I was immediately taken in by his vision. Not only had I loved my own interpretation of his script, but his creative vision fit so well into how I saw it when I read it. I felt a very strong creative connection with him. I was feeling good!

Then ... in blew Ms. Persinger! When Marshall enters a room it is no small affair. She has this enormous energy and passion that pours out of her. I must say it was somewhat intimidating. She made me want to love this project even more than I already did!

Was it possible? I was totally taken aback by what I saw in these two film makers. As a matter of fact, everybody in the freak'n office was passionate about this film! IT WAS SICKENING!!! I've never seen anything like it. There's always one or two people on every film that seems to be in it just for the money... not here. Everyone seemed to be there because they loved the art of filmmaking. This film seemed blessed!

I knew nothing of the casting choices or crew. I just knew that I wanted to be a part of this beautiful project. When my agent called and said that they had made an offer, I said "that will be fine" as I was thinking "THEY WANT TO PAY ME?!?! YAHOO!!! Off to San Antonio I went!


Here's the best gauge of what a great time I had in Texas ... I gained 15 pounds in just over a month! Man, the food was great... lot's of beer and great, great music! What a party! I'm surprised we found time to shoot a movie. San Antonio welcomed us with open arms and I dove in with open mouth! We spent a good amount of time on the riverwalk where there's not much to do but listen to good music and eat good food. Our hotel and office were right next to the real Alamo! It was very exciting. We shot a good deal of the Texas location at a beautiful house in an old part of town called Alamo Heights. The house was truly magical. The whole city was really, and Jim made sure that all of us understood the magic and personality of this wonderful city that had a leading role in his film. There was always a local trip planned for the crew on the weekends for group drinking and eating excursions!

My favorite place in Texas was the San Antonio River and it's famous riverwalk. The river was so beautiful. And I had an opportunity to spend a couple of days on the river shooting secondary footage of a scene that unfortunately did not make it past the final cut of the film. It's too bad. That was some of my most creative work on the film.

I should preface the rest of this story by telling you that I love fish. In my house there is a collection of fish mobiles and little fish trinkets. I harbor no negative feelings or resentment towards fish. Okay ... that said:

Jim wrote a scene to be shot at a undeveloped part of the San Antonio river. Ida, played by Celeste Holm, is the grandmother to Brendan Fraser's character, Fletcher McBracken. They are both artists of sorts; she a retired jazz musician and he a street performer/artist/musician/rock-stacking genius (you'll just have to see the movie...)

Anyway, in the scene, Ida and Fletcher are playing music together on small boats in the river. A group of fishermen gather on the banks, waiting. It seems that when Ida plays a single note on her tuba, something about that one note magically calls all the fish to the surface. And as the fish rise, the fisherman are to swat at and grab them with nets, hands, brooms, golf clubs... whatever they can get their hands on. A quirky scene to be sure, but one that was going to be fun.

We had an enormous amount to shoot in one day -- several pages of dialog and actors performing musically to "playback" -- all performed on boats in the middle of a river on a steamy hot San Antonio June day!. And to make things even more fun, one boat had a slow leak!. In order to "make the day", I was assigned a second unit camera crew. It was my job to get all of the shots on film of the fish rising to the top of the water, and the fisherman whacking at them with their utensils. It was not an easy task. You try getting hundreds of live fish to rise to the top of the water at the same time!

We started the day very early at the San Antonio Zoo. We tried everything on some common fish they had swimming in the streams that run through this beautiful old Zoo. First we tried fish food -- no luck. The food was visible in the shot, or it made the water ripple too much. Next, we tried dumping live fish into the water and hoping they'd swim through the shot. I learned that fish cannot be told what to do. I begged and pleaded with them. Nothing. We left the Zoo with very little usable material. Off to the river we went!

When we got to the river with the first unit, I decided it was time to take serious action. That meant DEAD FISH! If I had a few dead fish I could put them in the water and they'd stay put. Well, they did. Since we couldn't kill any fish (which I would NEVER do) we had to get fish from the supermarket. I failed to realize that they gut the fish before they sell them to you... the fish-eating public. We put them in... and they SANK right to the bottom. Although they did stay put, they were no longer of any use to us. Just as I was about to give up and suggest that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on digital visual effects, a brilliant cinematic idea came to me. I took a dead gutted fish, tied a very thin fishing line to it's mouth, then one to it's tail fin. And "voila"... a DEAD FISH PUPPET! It took a while, and the addition of another line to the middle fin, but we put together a crack team and proceeded to master the art of dead fish puppetry. It took four men to maneuver one fish. It was quite a sight. After we got a few shots of the fish swimming to the top of the water, I wanted some close shots of our fishermen whacking the fish with their various utensils. Now we had FOUR PEOPLE per dead fish puppet trying to swim the fish up from under the water into the camera frame (having to maneuver around the camera crew), and another person (me) to whack at the dead fish puppet with a golf club, broom stick, bat, and some strange torture weapon that looked like it came from an ancient roman punishment dungeon (courtesy of our propmaster Don "Tex" Clark).

My favorite shot of the film came out of that day. A close up of a fish swimming to the top of the water as a golf club bears down on it and POW! The fish explodes right in the middle of the frame!! This was note quite the effect we had in mind, But what the hell. We were artists! When we destroyed the last of our dead fish puppets, it was Miller time!!! A job well done... now THAT was creative film making! You can't even see the lines! Unfortunately, the viewing public will never get to see the product of my most ingenious fish-puppets. Maybe I should market the process. Okay... anyone looking for GUTTED, DEAD FISH PUPPETS for film or stage, call my agent.

As it happens on most films that I do, towards the end of the editing process, I begin to relax. there is often a sadness in moving on from relationships that have developed. But more than anything, a sense of completion and accomplishment. I can then look forward to a vacation or my next project. STILL BREATHING was a different story. As I neared the end of my job on STILL BREATHING, I certainly felt a sense of accomplishment. I also, however, began to develop a sense of loss. Something like when a good friend is moving away. I had grown to adore and admire the wonderful people I had worked with... and the movie had found it's way into my heart in a way I had never experienced before. The people, the story, the characters, the settings, the beautiful photography, the music, had all come together and become an experience that I did not want to let go of. (And who could forget the "dead fish-puppet" artistry?) My only fear was that I might never have the opportunity to edit a film that moved me as this film did.

I am very proud of my contribution to STILL BREATHING. I have the entire cast and crew to thank for that. This collaborative film making effort is not one I will soon forget. STILL BREATHING, and all that made it will be in my heart for a very very long time.

...Sean Albertson - Editor

Director's note: Although whacking dead fish was obviously a highlight for Sean... what he really does best is edit. Thanks Sean, for your wonderful contribution to the film-- and I'm sorry for whatever traumatic event happened between you and a dead fish in your early childhood.

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