Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 51


     
     1        or is it the same as every other hamburger joint of this
     2        nature?"  That was my simple question.  It was raising
     3        points to discuss with Jane.  This whole two pages is
     4        raising points to discuss with Jane prior to the film
     5        process.  That was a question that seemed to me worth
     6        raising with Jane.
     7
     8   Q.   What I am wondering about this document, Miss Tobin, is
     9        whether this is not your version addressed to the producer
    10        of what you thought the film ought to convey?
    11        A.  It is my version of areas which I thought are worth
    12        discussing; not what I think the film should convey.
    13        She -- I mean, you know, the producer is the one who makes
    14        decisions.  Researchers will put down a whole pile of
    15        things; they will put down factual things of what they have
    16        seen; they will put down, you know, kind of: "It might be
    17        nice, there is a shaft of sunlight that comes through the
    18        room, it will be worth catching that"; they put down
    19        subjective interpretations that are worth exploring in a
    20        very loose and free way before you work out the filming
    21        schedule.
    22
    23   Q.   I will ask my question again in a slightly different way,
    24        if I may.  Is this something that you wrote down -- I quite
    25        accept that you cannot dictate to the producer -- but
    26        something you wrote down as a suggestion of the kind of
    27        angle that the film might have?
    28        A.  No.  It was a suggestion of the kind of areas it was
    29        worth talking about.  Those things that are written down
    30        there are not necessarily things which I was making a
    31        statement of fact of saying "We must do this, we must do
    32        that".  They are things which I thought were worth talking
    33        about.  Some of the things that are put down, I might not
    34        necessarily have agreed with.
    35
    36   Q.   Then you say in the last paragraph: "But it is not
    37        different to Coca Cola, Disneyland, Forest Lawns" -- I do
    38        not know what that is -- "the Hearst Castle or Roberts" --
    39        I do not know who he is --"the American belief that their
    40        way of life is the only way.  It is an elaborate edifice
    41        built to justify the basic crudity of the reality, which is
    42        selling junk food for as much money as possible."
    43
    44        Is that not, in truth, what you wanted to -----
    45        A.  I think that is the truth of what I think about
    46        McDonald's.  It is not the truth of what I was saying
    47        should be in the film.  I was putting in as free and as
    48        loose a way my impressions of having spent that time in
    49        McDonald's.  It was not a manifesto saying "This is what
    50        the film must be about".  You toss up all sorts of ideas 
    51        during the filming process.  That is what this was doing, 
    52        throwing everything into the air and seeing which we wanted 
    53        to talk about.  It is not a manifesto saying "This is what
    54        the film must portray".
    55
    56   Q.   Did you discuss these ideas with Jane Gabriel?
    57        A.  Yes.
    58
    59   Q.   Would you agree with me that, in the event, the film does
    60        not give any oxygen to these sorts of ideas?

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