Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)

Bob Rosen: Self - Production Manager

Quotes 

• Policeman : What kind of movie - picture are you making?

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : What kind? Well, it's a feature.

  William Greaves - Director : It's a feature length - it's a feature length, we don't know.

  Policeman : You don't know?

  William Greaves - Director : It's a feature length, we don't know.

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : Right. We'll find out after we develop it.

  William Greaves - Director : The tentative title of it is, "Over the Cliff."

  Policeman : Over the cliff? You have to find a cliff now, huh?

• William Greaves - Director : The point is this: that the screen test proves to be unsatisfactory from the stand point of the actors and the Director. And then, what happens is that the Director and the actors undertake to improvise something better than that which is - has been written, you know, in the screen test. This sort of palace revolt, you know, no no, which is taking place is not dissimilar to the revolution that is taking place in America today - in terms of the fact that, in the sense that I represent the Establishment, you know, and I've been trying to get you to do certain things which you've become, in a sense disenchanted with. Now, your problem is that you've come up with creative suggestions which will make this a better production than we now have.

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : I don't understand that at all.

  William Greaves - Director : It doesn't matter whether or not you understand it. The important thing is that we surface from this production experience with something that is entirely exciting and creative as a result of our collective efforts.

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : We're just sitting around here and we're just going to rap a little bit about the film. You know, we'll get into it and when we get into it, you know, the people out there will understand, you know. They'll catch on. And we'll explain it as we go along.

  Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : Okay. But, I think maybe we should say exactly how it occurred to us to be here, this way, without the Director, without the actors, and it's something which we know is not a part of the film. At least, not as far as we know. But, we were sitting around the other night and we - talking - a few of us, we realized that here is a - here is an open ended film, with no plot, that we can see, with no end, that we can see and an action that we can't follow. We're all intelligent people. The obvious thing is - to fill in the blanks, to create for each of our own selves, a film that we understand. And if we try to think about the reasoning of the Director for allowing us the opportunity to do this - giving us the circumstances that enable us to be able to sit here - we can only conclude, at least we did last night, that he wanted it like this.

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : All the people who are sitting here, right now, you know, are members of the crew. Now, the Director does not know that we are photographing, you know, this scene. We're doing it on our own. And we were sitting there and it occurred to us, while we were trying to figure out what the film was about, you know, that we should be filming this. Because, we're really the only people who are in a position, so far, to be able to comment, you know, about the film. Because the Director, Bill Greaves, he is so far into, you know, making the film, that he has no perspective. And if you ask him, "What is the film about?" You know, he just gives you some answer that's just vaguer than the question. I mean, it's just so vague that, you know, that it would be better if you hadn't asked the question in the first place. And if you ask the actors what they think the film is about, all they can tell you is what they thought of the lines that they were reading, you know. They're just plugged into just one line. So, if there's a line like, "Come on, sport, you know, give me a chance." You know, something out piece, like that, they can say, "Well, I didn't think that line was good. I mean, I would have - I would have liked to, you know, have read it differently with a different line." So, they really don't know what's happening either. Now, we've been working on this thing for like four days. And we've all been, you know, more or less, near where the action was taking place. So, we are the only people who can really sort of function like a chorus. You know, to figure out what we're actually doing here.

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : It's not like Edward Albee. I mean, Edward Albee writes, you know, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" and George and Martha are super dramatic people - given lines that are brilliant lines, fantastically brilliant - that's right...

  Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : This is not good writing.

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : This is bad writing.

  Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : This script is not good writing and I think that that has everything to do with it.

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : Exactly. We're not in a dramatic bag here. I mean, we're somewhere else.

• Film Crew Member : Human life isn't necessarily well written.

  Bob Rosen - Production Manager : But, that's the whole point.

  Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : That's the whole point.

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : For all anybody knows, you know, Bill is standing right outside the door and he's directing this whole scene. Alright, he could be. Nobody knows. Maybe we're all acting. Alright. Maybe we're all acting. You know, I mean, I'm acting and that's it. I mean, I was, I was, Bill, Bill could have stood outside the door and told me, "Now, Rosen, when you get in there, you - tell them about this, you know, when you get to a certain point." Nobody out there knows whether or not we're for real and what is being revealed.

  Jonathan Gordon - Soundman : My whole point is that: nothing is being revealed. And that's the genius of this film - if there is a genius. I think that the genius of this film was that it was provided that at somewhere during it's filming, the crew should decide to act as a an independent unit, come into a room and talk about this film and, thereby, possibly change the end of it. That this was planned, consciously or unconsciously, by Bill.

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : Can I ask you a question? Is that really what they do at the Actor's Studio all the time?

• Bob Rosen - Production Manager : I think we can use this. I think it will add an interesting texture to the film. Doesn't anybody think so? Nobody thinks so?

  William Greaves - Director : I wouldn't call it a texture. Well, you can see the comments right on their faces. Just pan over and look at that.