Part One - The Esther Project

That's me sitting on the ground and Don (in his final role) walking towards the camera during our first day of principle shooting for the 'Block Blazer' blockbuster "In Search Of Esther" - a 1975 whodunit which still manages to draw crowds whenever it plays late at night on the local home theatre screen. And thanks to some devoted fans (groupies) of the super 8 film medium of the time, a few photographs from that day (taken from a respectable distance) have been uncovered that capture the art of moviemaking in the act.

This was a rushed production. With a deadline fast approaching of Don's departure for Australia, there was little time for rewrites or second takes or even a coherent storyline to stitch the project together. As I recall, my main objective was just to make a long movie. The longer the better. Ideally, I wanted something approaching the running time of an actual Hollywood movie - about 90 minutes! But what I settled for, with outtakes and bloopers, was around 20 minutes. Still; a sizable investment of time and effort.

Since the edited version of this movie is currently being torn down from its perch on the Youtube website, the new home for this epic feature should be right here at Blazer Central. But it should be offered up in chunks, rather than as a full meal deal. Starting today with part one; the opening scenes as Don returns to his hometown after a long absence. (Art would soon be imitating real life as we would eventually discover.)

What's STILL missing from this opening, was the original plan I had to run all the text credits over a few still photos I'd taken of Don at the airport pretending to have just arrived (while wearing those icky striped pants). Those pictures still exist (in slide format) and may eventually be employed for their original purpose. But not for this showing.