Charles Deemer

Small Screen Video


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Artist At Home

a film by Terry Simons

(a short version of "The Visitor")


Go to the director's cut.


Why a Shorter Version?

When I watched The Visitor again after many years, not remembering much of what was in it, I was impressed immediatley with several things: here was a serious story, told seriously, which I liked; Terry's sensibility was different from mine in several ways, mostly in terms of pacing a story; that this film did not follow the advice I give my screenwriting students, "stay on the story spine!" I wondered what a version closer to the story spine might look like. I knew it would be shorter but how shorter? As an exercise, I decided to see what I could take out and still retain the essence of the story.

To my shock, my exercise turned a 53 minute film into a 22 minute film. Talk about the chain saw being your friend (other advice I give my students)!

Having finished the exercise, I struggled with whether I should tell Terry or not. If the roles were reversed, I don't think I would like someone re-editing my film without my knowledge. At the same time, Terry well knows the problems in this no-budget film, as well as its strengths. Assuring him this was an exercise, not an alternative public film, I finally let him know about it. It is Terry's idea to make both versions available, which says much about his confidence and maturity as an artist.

These are not two edits of one film so much as two interpretations of the same short story, using the same reservoire of video footage. The longer version is full of much more complexity and nuances than the short version. Yet the short version has the advantage of sticking to the central story, which can get lost in the other, especially on a first viewing. Both have their strengths.

And weaknesses. I got a little cute in my edit with the "a poet + a novelist + a novelist's wife" jazz at the beginning. We're among friends, so I'm not taking the trouble to remove it. What I like best about my edit is leaving the poet when he slams the door. The story is over, and the novel that results from it is a kind of coda.

Charles Deemer