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___________[__S C R E E N__S A V E R S__] Single white filmmaker Myles Berkowitz took a camera crew along on "20 Dates" and found Ms. Right -- not to mention a distribution deal. BY LARRY GETLEN Actor-screenwriter Myles Berkowitz was struggling to succeed in Hollywood while simultaneously navigating the treacherous dating waters of Los Angeles. Frustrated by his lack of progress in both areas, Berkowitz raised $60,000 and exposed his life to the camera. He videotaped himself on 20 dates with women he met through traditional and not-so-traditional methods, hoping the result would coalesce into an entertaining film. To his surprise, Berkowitz fell in love with a woman he met during the filming, and "20 Dates" captures many of the nuances and entanglements of the courtship on camera. But he still dated other women to fulfill his contractual obligations, and the film shows the impact of this romantic juggling act on his life. He also wound up with an unexpected antagonist in financier and co-producer Elie Samaha, whose prodding for name actresses and T&A shots became so hostile that Berkowitz taped their conversations, fearing for his life. Berkowitz spent a year in the editing room whittling down 120 hours of footage to 88 minutes. Together with his editors, he crafted a "documentary" that faithfully adheres to the structure and conventions of romantic comedy. "20 Dates" won the audience award at the 1998 Slamdance Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution by Fox Searchlight within a week. It will be released in New York and Los Angeles on Feb. 26. Salon spoke to Berkowitz from his home in Los Angeles about his unique and trying filming process. Do you consider this a documentary? There are several reasons why it's not. I don't believe a true documentarian would go into a situation to provoke a response. When I try to sneak past the guards at a studio, whereas that is real, is that a true documentary? I was provoking the situation by showing up there. That's what Michael Moore did in "Roger and Me." I just feel that a true documentary places a camera down and records real life. My going with a camera and trying to get on a studio lot, or into a fancy restaurant, or even on a date, was a lot more provocative than what true documentaries do. Before filming, did you do a draft or mock script, or any sequencing that you hoped the script would eventually follow? Yes. I had written a treatment that had me going out on 20 dates, and assumed some things would happen -- for instance, a date where I'll like her and she won't like me. Then I was going to conduct sit-down interviews with people about single life and dating that would somehow relate to the experiences I had on dates in the movie. I also hoped to have more than one date with a woman that I could blow up into a relationship on screen. I thought it probably wasn't going to work out in the end, so I intended to make a mean, vicious comedy about dating. I could never have planned meeting the woman of my dreams and falling in love while this was filming. So the project kind of got away from me. The mean, vicious comedy about dating became a sweet romantic comedy. How did the film's structure eventually develop? From any particular date, we had three or four hours of footage. We had to take snippets of each date that would represent the overall dating experience, and also see whether or not the 20 dates as a whole represented a universal dating journey. Charlie Chaplin used to make movies that way. He would show up on the set with a basic idea for the story in his head, film some scenes, then close down production for a couple of weeks. He would think more about the story and how he could write it, and he and his writing partner would work out the scenes. Because film was so cheap, and because he was Chaplin, he could do it. Do you think you'll ever want to work like this again? No, absolutely not. It was a nightmare. I'm flat-out broke and I'm exhausted. It was very hard work. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - N E X T+P A G E+| The unexpected emergence of a heroine and a villain - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.