Live and Learn

No one told me that one of the most important steps in shooting documentary was transcribing. Or if someone did, it was when I wasn't listening. It may not sound like a big deal to you but I have to listen to and write down EVERY word with the time...to the nearest one-hundreth of a second...that it was spoken I have about 5 hours of shooting for my 5 minute documentary and my fingers look the times of a garden cultivator. Ironically, accidently forgetting to turn the sound on during a one hour shooting session was a disaster that ended up making my day.

I never paid much attention to Skype until our cell phone bill finally found us up here in Nelson. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty but were still surprised to see that the last two months were 690 dollars. Our favorite call was the 24 dollar casual chat the Vin and I had to each other from one classroom to another (in the same building). Who knew? (don't you hate that saying?)

Canada.
Benjamin Moore paint chip colors are in French. Rainforest dew is vert stuart. Pale avocado is avocat pale.
Yesterday it was pretty cold....1 degree in the Peace.
Remember I told you about the Cocoa-nut lounge? We showed up to another standing-room-only crowd...this time on a Tuesday....groovin' to an electric guitar artist yelling a combination of opera and rock.

Wednesday was classmate Alan's birthday. He turned 25 so the whole class (except Naomi who's only 17 and has a grandmother my age) went out to a karaoke bar where Vin and I belted out 'I've got you Babe' to a crowd that didn't know that Cher had ever been married.

House.
We've had electricity, plumbing and 4-6" (R30-R45) of high density closed cell foam insulation for ages but since they didn't lend themselves to compelling photography or storytelling I've had a hard time working them into my news.

The insulation people? Perfect.
The electric people? Perfect. Two brothers dba Brother's Electric. One of the brothers, Darin, went to college somewhere in Ohio because it had the strongest Ninja 'team' in the country.
The plumber? Apologized after hollering F*** You and hanging up on Vin because he asked when the boiler was going to be installed.

Max loves hiking on larch needles, a silent, western version of New England's fall leaves.

Waiting for Kathy

"OK. So we're just waiting for Kathy." the instructor said.

I know he wasn't trying to be mean or anything and I doubt anyone even heard him or cared but I felt like I'd just been the last kid picked. When did everyone finish anyway? And how was I supposed to finish now that everyone was maybe staring or pointing? I handed in the test and then he said "Do you want to take a couple minutes and stretch your legs?" How long had everyone been done? I'm in my 50's shouldn't I be smarter and faster than everyone else except Vince?

Vince and I started school a couple weeks ago. We're renting a great little house Nelson, British Columbia Sunday nights through Thursday afternoons.

Joanne is 34. Shannon and Nils are 28 and the other seven are somewhere between that and 18. They're good kids. They offer to help me with new software and I offer them any information they may need on the 70's.

I don't think I'm as smart as I thought I was. These classes are hard. I'm not sure I like it. Actually I'm pretty sure I don't.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking that once we get through editing the Sea World footage and capturing 29.97 fps in DV 720 x 480i (1.33:1) becomes second nature, I'll like it well enough to be inside all day.....when it's 70 degrees and sunny???

Film Studies
Screen-writng
Photoshop
Sound
Final Cut (editing)
Cinematography
Workflow
Directing....they looked interesting and fun on paper to me too....

Meanwhile. I just WALKED to the food co-op for tofu and avocados and tomorrow morning we'll WALK to Oso Negro (coffee) before Cinematography. I think I'm spoiled.

I'll figure it out.

Pictures:
• first day of school
• our Nelson house
• Oso Negro

time-FRAME-ing

Lucky you. : ) Our little house was framed so quickly that it left me at a loss for words.

By August 9, after a day and a half of hammers, saws, bad words, sun and a pesky hawk, our perfect frame rested happily under a roof of an exactly blue sky and the occasional vaporous wisp*.

We continued to work long days as though it were possible to move in by the first day of school, September 8, as planned. Who were we kidding?

Even so, we felt lucky. A sympathetic sun kept rain and cold weather haunting New England and our laundry drying in 15 minutes. The cleanest air ever, if you stay away from the American Legion on Friday nights, made every breath a celebration. A 5-star restaurant could never compete with our nightly cooked-under-the-stars-with-a-Coleman-stove organic rice and beans. With a salvaged 50 gallon drum table holding candle stubs and a re-purposed peanut butter jar of roadside sweet peas and daisies each meal punctuated the end of a chapter....that I'll never get around to writing because I'm messing with that damn Coleman stove.

*we have great clouds here