| Jason Lee chats with Robert DiPatri and Eion Bailey between takes |
Vincent Pereira: It's cool.
Jesse Ray Boehm: It's cool?! Of course it is, so will we be seeing ABP on a DVD and video release soon? What extras are you planning on including on the DVD and/or video release?
Vincent Pereira: The DVD will have a commentary track, a few deleted scenes, and be letterboxed at about 1.66:1
Jesse Ray Boehm: Can you tell us about your new project, AUTOGRAPH? And how is it coming along?
Vincent Pereira: See above for AUTOGRAPH info. It's coming well, should finally be finished scripting by early April.
Jesse Ray Boehm: You had quite a nice snippet in Filmmaker magazine previously. Did this mention come as a surprise to you; if not, how did the article come about?
Vincent Pereira: I submitted my film to and got into the IFFM in 1997, and the editor of Filmmaker magazine got a bunch of the submission tapes to watch for the Filmmaker piece on the market, and he loved A BETTER PLACE, so he called me and did the interview. I was very pleasantly surprised that A BETTER PLACE was featured so prominently in that article. It was the first real press the film got and I liked it.
Jesse Ray Boehm: You are helping edit DOGMA; what are the differences when editing a film with a multi-million dollar budget compared to a small indie film?
Vincent Pereira: I'm only the assistant editor, putting together a workprint conformed to the AVID edit for test screenings. But, as far as what Kevin and Scott are doing, it's not much different from what I did. Of course, they are doing it digitally, but it's basically just them in a room putting the film tighter and selecting all the takes on their own. They have more money, but that's really it.
Jesse Ray Boehm: How did you first get into the editing factor of the film process?
Vincent Pereira: I edited A BETTER PLACE. I had two assistants who were cutting some scenes, but I always found myself coming in at night and completely re-cutting what they had cut, so finally I just said, "Thanks for the help, but I can manage this on my own" and I ended up cutting the film myself. It basically makes sense for the director to cut his own film, especially at this level. On bigger films, it might be easier to have an outside editor do it, but the director should always be there watching what is done and actively collaborating in the editing.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Recently you appeared in comic form in the Clerks: Holiday Special. What was your reaction and take on your sort of psycho mopboy role? Is that character going to show up in the new CLERKS cartoon TV Show and was that the character that Kevin Smith wrote for you in the first draft of Clerks?
Vincent Pereira: The character of the psychotic ex-mopboy was first introduced in the pre-first draft of CLERKS; I remember Kevin handed me a bunch of random scenes and he was in there--the scene was going to involve Dante going to the bank to make a deposit, and the bank is being staked out by the ex-mopboy (he's been fired from the Quik-Stop and blames Dante) who's on the roof of a nearby building and armed; he starts shooting when Dante goes to drop off the cash. The subplot never made any actual draft of the script; Kevin decided before he consolidated all of his scenes together into a cohesive unit that it would just be too expensive to do.
I thought that it was really funny; I can be pretty intense, and used to be really anti-social and misanthropic, so the character isn't totally off-base as to who I was a few years ago.
As for him showing up in the animated series, I don't know.
| The crew of A BETTER PLACE in silhouette- from left-to-right, cinematographer Ian Dudley, writer/director Vincent Pereira, boom operator Dan McGee, and sound recordist Daniello |
Vincent Pereira: It's a horror story and my plan is to write it as a novel. I need to do a lot of research on it before I really start writing, but I have most of the story and story arcs mapped out in my head. That's about all I'm comfortable saying about it at the moment.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Where do you see your self in five years? Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Vincent Pereira: I really don't know.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Will you stay New Jersey-based for your career or will you eventually make the leap out to Los Angeles?
Vincent Pereira: I will never live in Los Angeles. I like NJ a lot, and I'd consider moving somewhere else, but definitely not Los Angeles.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Now are there any other projects we may be seeing the Pereira name on in the near future, maybe a music video or something along those lines? Any interest in editing on a higher scale in the future?
Vincent Pereira: I may be directing a music video in a few months, and as for editing other projects, I'd stick to my own films generally.
Jesse Ray Boehm: What does Vincent Pereira do to make ends meet in the 90's?
Vincent Pereira: Right now I'm an assistant editor on DOGMA. Beyond that my main concern is getting AUTOGRAPH off the ground.
Jesse Ray Boehm: You are working on the Mallrats DVD. What sort of added features and extras will you be including on the disk? What sort of process actually goes into making a DVD? Putting together the extras package, going through the footage and legal clearances?
Vincent Pereira: All the legal and mastering stuff is being handled by the producer for Universal out in Los Angeles; my contribution to the project was basically outlining exactly what we wanted in the supplements, and pouring through all of the various cuts of MALLRATS on videotape to cull every snippet of additional footage that we had to include in the "deleted scenes" section. I also outlined in graphic, minute, Orson Wellesesque detail exactly how the deleted scenes section should be laid out, and it's a lot better than I usually see on DVDs/LDs, where they tend to just show the scenes, with maybe an intro. I was always disappointed that on the CHASING AMY laserdisc they didn't bother to present the deleted scenes in the context that they would have originally appeared in the film- the scenes were not just cut from the film, but by the nature of their cutting other sequences got shifted around in order. I thought it would make for a fascinating study on the editing process to show not just the cut scenes but also the scenes surrounding them--basically, to show a whole chunk of the film edited the way it was originally edited. With MALLRATS, I was able to do that--we have the ENTIRE original opening, not just the deleted stuff but also stuff that is in the final film, the reason being I wanted to present how the original opening played in its entirety.The other deleted sections are put together this way as well--we have a section with all the footage that was deleted specifically because it referred back to the original opening, and then a section of other alternate rejected openings, and finally a section of all the other odds-and-ends of deleted footage, and an alternate version of the final "where are they now" section with Jason Lee doing a voice-over. I think this makes for a much more intensive, interesting viewing experience than simply clumping the deleted scenes together at the end of a film.
Jesse Ray Boehm: What is it like coping with fame coming to your friends...and, later, slowly coming to yourself? What's it like to see it from both unique angles?
Vincent Pereira: It was frustrating for awhile, but you get used to it; after all, in the end, I'm only 25 and how many 25 year-olds can claim to have a film that they wrote and directed to their credit, and beyond that, one which people want to see? I'm more than confident that AUTOGRAPH will be made with a nice, ample budget. I always knew that Brian Lynch would make it--he's a comic genius and can write things so easily, and yet they are always fresh. His talents are much more immediately saleable than mine, so I always anticipated what's happening with him now to happen before anything big ever happened with me.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Can you talk about your role as Assistant Director and Editor on the Brian Lynch film BIG HELIUM DOG?
Vincent Pereira: I basically ran the set and kept the crew running smoothly while Brian worked with the actors. That's essentially the A.D.'s job.
As for the editing, there's not much to say beyond that I co-edited the film with Brian.
Jesse Ray Boehm: What do you think of all the Kevin Smith rip-offs, now in the present? Does it bother you to see the lack of originality brewing on the horizon?
Vincent Pereira: There's always been a lack of originality; it's nothing new. I'm used to it. As for the Kevin rip-offs, they usually aren't seen; most of them fall into the "90% of independent films that don't deserve to be seen" category as defined by Robert Hawk.
Jesse Ray Boehm: Also being a huge film purist, what is your take on the Digital Revolution? I.e. Digital Video and Digital Projection.
Vincent Pereira: If digital video could be made to have the same or better resolution than film, I say fine. But that's not the case; I recently corresponded via e-mail with a guy who is actually working on the design of the digital projection system being developed for the cinema, and he said (remember--this is the guy who is helping design it) that the image quality isn't as good as 35mm film--he said they are basically (Hollywood executives who are pushing for this system, that is) taking a "it's good enough" approach and that the image quality is essentially HDTV on a big, big screen. HDTV is great for the home, but in no way, shape, or form does it equal 35mm film, let alone say 70mm or IMAX.