A nervewracking day, in which I called almost every film person I knew trying to gather more information on negative cutters. By day's end, I had made a deal with Elliott Gamson, a well-known cutter about town who was recommended to me by Dean Bell, a filmmaker and friend of Robin's. I never got a price as low as I'd originally hoped for, and perhaps I should have held off a while more and kept investigating. But my anxiety about getting started was becoming unbearable, and my unfortunate tendency to act without adequate reflection won the day. Elliott seems quite experienced and competent, and comes with a recommendation from Dean.
After work I picked up the bulky box of video dailies at Robin's studio and lugged it via subway to Elliott's workspace in the DuArt building. I carelessly chucked away thousands of dollars today, and then was too cheap to take a cab uptown with the dailies.... My negatives are still at the now-defunct Guffanti lab (who, I discover, were about to put them in storage at the end of the month without telling me)--as soon as I liberate them and get them to Elliott, he can begin work.
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