Independent film maker Brett Mauser has announced the coming release on YouTube of season 7 of his series “The Innocence Saga.” The final season trailer video post described it as “30 years in the making, and the Innocence Saga finally comes to a conclusion in 2024. Mike and Diane must make sacrifices and decide the fate of the world as they are guided by Jeff through the apocalypse.”
How is it a master class in editing? “The Innocence Saga” was originally ten films Mauser made in one year. Meanwhile, the series took those and other films within the Ponderous Universe of Mauser’s storytelling and reedited them into an integrated seven season series. Four years ago, Mauser described the revision process to create the series in a YouTube video:
While “The Innocence Saga” series was streaming as part of Amazon Prime at the time of that video four years ago, seasons 1 – 6 are is currently available to watch on YouTube. Other Mauser films are available to buy or rent for streaming on Amazon, and some are available to stream on Tubi (just search for Brett Mauser).
What makes Mauser’s effort special? Normally authors are constrained by time, effort, and sometimes the half-life of caffeine. As a filmmaker, Mauser was further constrained by money, technology, physical reality, and the cooperation of others. Given his additional constraints, he had an urge to go back and do it better in retelling the story with additional resources.
Importantly, Mauser is a storyteller. The medium of telling the story is not the story nor is there one and only one way to tell the story. Mauser starts with a written script like me writing a short story. By the time Mauser’s story gets put into film, it is not exactly the same form of the story but still the same essential story; not only constraints, but also collaboration with cast and crew influenced that form of the story. Meanwhile, re-editing the story from the constraints of films into a series reframes the story but the essential story remains.
I am not trying to go all Plato’s cave on you, but more that a particular story is like an abstract integrated concept that can be expressed in different concrete forms. Consider the issue of Hollywood remakes and adaptations from books or even video games, the audience has a high tolerance for minor variations so long as the essential elements of the story are not altered; violate the latter to lose the audience. Similarly, mythical and legendary stories like Robin Hood or King Arthur have various retellings without a modern urge for canonization yet violating the essential of those stories creates a contradiction.
How do I relate to this at the moment? I am in edit mode on many stories. The old perfectionist in me, that I try to keep chained within my mind’s basement, likes to escape to obsess over technical scholastic conformity and picking the right words. However, I am supposed to be telling a story; its expression is not a perfected ideal form of the never to be reached, but an effort to effectively share the story with the reader to achieve their understanding, immersion, and entertainment.
“Memory” Season 7 Episode 1 of “The Innocence Saga” premieres 11/4/2024 on YouTube; as Mike makes his last visit to the doc, he recaps all that has happened in his life and his crusade.
Jaycee Woods 
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