SAE Magazine 13-2

clues to go on. The story’s ity and love misconstrued en I think of those early emember how deferential on as an author. He had ovelist Robert Graves and ohn Manifold. I considered esentation Rodney taught to film. But then there was er – intelligent and deeply – who required the timely modern screenplay. Also I tor, David Rapsey, whose oetic interpretation into a Love – the pinnacle value of our film – was of vital interest to Rodney. Sexual ob- session in the form of love sat uncom- fortably at the feet of our illustrious script editor. I soon under- stood that if I were to be a writer of calibre, I would need to learn from their experi- ence whilst simultan- eously remaining strong about my position. My resistance had a purpose, namely I had to stay focused on the goal at hand, which was to deliver a world-class screen- play that warranted a solid mid-range production budget. Let’s take a step back and look at the ingredi- ents. We had funding to write a screenplay with an acknowledged genius of literature. I had read Captivity Cap- tive and loved the novel immensely. At this stage, Rodney had seen my VCA graduat- ing short film Cut (1998) and decid- ed (after rejecting offers as high as Hollywood) that I should be the director of this film. Gulp! He deeply valued his book, in which he spoke from his soul. He was more than an expert in his field. He was a wordsmith of the highest international standard. How was I to convince him that, in a screenplay, words are merely a vehicle for the visual material of the shot film? In the beginning, we worked closely on the image- ry of the film. Rodney taught me to absorb myself in the material such that the images arose effort- lessly. He considered true art to arise from an in- describable place in the collective unconscious. ➤ Index Photo:TimBergholz innacle value was of vital o Rodney

SAE Magazine 13-2

Pages