Now that Barbara has adamantly looked into what is for her the essence of each scene and I too – in spite of a little heart ache once in a while – did my very best, we’ve managed to create a less epic version of the film: 2 hours and 15 minutes – We are on the right track now!

Admittedly, a little bit of stress is now adding to the atmosphere of the editing room. In order to nip tensions in the bud, Barbara has decided for us to do ten Sun-greetings each, every time a controversy or a creative (respectively personal) crisis threatens to arise. To my regret even Surya Namaskara B. The floor in the editing room in fact doesn’t exactly look inviting, but a little bit of dirt once in a while is supposed to strengthen the immune system. Everything for the art!

Haha! Shorten everything? I’m dying right now. Where am I gonna start? What can we throw out, cut out, kill? – And then, I love my scenes so much. Every little frame I love!!! Aaaaaahhhh,,,,,!!!!

Yesterday we, that is Barbara, Constanze and me, made it through the 3.5-hour-epic. After we went on our last legs from Barbara’s living room into the kitchen, we first of all had to overcome the shock. Then, of course, came the inevitable decision: First and foremost the film has to be reduced to a reasonable lengh.

Finally all the scenes have been cut. Actually, most of them are fine, but still too long. Barbara and Constanze suggested to string them all together in order to see if the film works. I’m not so sure if that’s a good idea.

Yep. It’s pretty much work to cut all the scenes together. Claudia is still a happy camper. Ambitious and full of energy. – That’s good! Because I can really get quite uncomfortable, strict and picky when it comes to editing my scenes.

Since Matze bailed out I feel a little overwhelmed. After a considerable amount of dithering Barbara and I decided to reedit a good number of scenes. So I still have a lot to do!

The computer now takes only five minutes instead of 15 minutes to open the project. Technological progress for the world!

Whew! I have to admit that sometimes it’s really hard to cut these scenes. The sound was actually recorded as in documentaries. So if the actors interrupt each other’s sentences you can’t really do anything about it. Besides, each take of a scene very often has a completely different content than the other takes. But that’s also what makes it more interesting, of course :-). By the way, Matze and I have now split the scenes amongst us. We are doing shift work now.

Barbara asked me if I wanted to co-edit the movie – something I definitely did not expect! I had cut a few scenes and was very happy to hear that she liked them… At first I wasn’t sure if Matze would be okay with it, so I wrote him an e-mail in order to ask him. But when he wrote that it was alright with him of course I gratefully accepted the offer :-)