The DECLINE FALL & RISE of PAYNE - notes by docMAKER PETER EVANCHUCK

Making a doc. on a rather famous, homeless poet, ROBERT PAYNE is NOT all a bed of feathers. I've known ROBERT for decades thru thick, thin and the ups and the downs of his and my life. We've managed to remain in contact sometimes with difficulty and sometimes with much difficulty over those decades. Driving 5 hours from Ottawa, or 17 hours from NB isn't the easiest way to make a doc. on a very money-poor, self-financed movie. Recently, ROB's home of 4 years got closed down and one a recent trip down to get some 'pick-ups' i was confronted with a 'No Trespassing' sign where his blue tarp 'cocoon' used to be tucked alongside the wall. So i went looking for ROB but without success - he was no longer at his usual haunts .... so i returned home. Then after an email hiatus, ROB communicated with me again and eventually we managed to hook up and i managed to get my pick ups but his clothing had changed and his appearance had changed so that required a major shift in how the doc. would be structured and that caused some real concerns since the new footage would not be inserted at various points in the doc. as anticipated but would have to be cut and placed as a complete scene and that means a new opening which just isn't working out as planned since we had already structured a rather good opening and closing of the doc.... now as the saying goes, 'what to do; what to do'

The DECLINE, FALL and RISE OF PAYNE is slowly moving toward it's completion and i'm slowly learning more and more about FINALCUT pro 6 and 7 since I do believe that all moviemakers or as we used to call ourselves 'filmakers' should know about camera/editing to make their movie THEIR MOVIE and not the cameraman's or editor's movie ... more on this later...

ROB tells me that that someone somehow wants to take my title and put it on their doc. mmmmmm now that's a no no, guys!!