9.26.2011

October's coming.

Well, September's almost over already. I'm at a loss as to where it's gone, but it's been greatly occupied by the good sort of busy that I'll look forward to continuing in the next three months. Being immersed in this film student mentality once again has gotten me back on my feet, and I'm now able to reflect on the past year of my life with a strange sort of... omniscience. It's like I dropped this breadcrumb trail of myself and can now trace it back and pick up bits that need to be kept, and leave other bits to be carried away by ravens and the like.

I guess this is what aging feels like.

Second year of this film program has proven to move forward at warp 9, which isn't entirely what I expected - seeing as how I've spent the past 6 months under the impression we shoot our second year films sometime following January 1st, but we do, in fact, shoot this November. In five weeks. So, that's caused a bit of a discombobulatory panic that I haven't much liked. However, since that elusive piece of knowledge was dropped on us, things have sort of gotten up to speed and now we're on our way. The most intense two hour brainstorm occurred on Tuesday at the Acme Cafe over delicious delicious pie, where my group's idea sort of rose from the ashes of a number of less fortunate ideas and came into play as what we would be spending the next seven months bringing to the silver screen in the form of a ten-minute short film. It's going to be a rather epic adventure, I think.

On this second year shoot, I've stepped up to the plate as the director of photography. I've sort of taken this up as some sort of combination quest/challenge that's going to make me wise up in the more technical aspects of filmmaking - the aspect I enjoy most, but know the least about. The more sets I work on outside of school, the more I see myself getting pigeon-holed into these paper pushing jobs I typically see women doing on a set. I don't want to end up paper-pushing on a set - it's important to know how and have excellent people who do that around - but it doesn't appeal to me and I don't particularly enjoy it. The obstacle here, for me, is getting out there and not allowing myself to fall behind, to know how to communicate what I want on a set and to have the chutzpah to go out and be a valuable asset on sets.

I've been doing a lot of reading - thankfully I've been blessed with a semester that doesn't make reading a wretched and horrible thing and I've been able to read a lot of things at my own leisure. I finished reading The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch last night, and have started in on a book for school, Believing is Seeing Mary Ann Staniszewski and Audio - Visual by Michel Chion today. I'm going to try and get as many film books under my belt in the next four weeks as possible. A broader perspective, nuggets of wisdom and general knowledge are all things I will need to the nth degree come to our shoot in November.

I've been steadily working through my ever-growing 'films to watch' list. Magnolia, Midnight in Paris, Bridesmaids, Rear Window, Vera Drake, Thor, The Shining, Road to Perdition and My Own Private Idaho are some I've crossed off my list this past week or so. The film journal I started a month or two back has proven valuable on a number of levels - familiarizing myself with all sorts of names, trends in director's/cinematographer's works, pointing out things that evoke particular emotion, amazing instances of photography - I tend to remember things much better if I write them down.




However, reflecting upon films I've seen since August in a little black book have lead me to this unnecessary, but incredibly nagging feeling that I must now watch every movie I've seen prior to August 2011 again so I can reevaluate it. It's terribly redundant and there is no way in hell I'm sitting through Transformers 2 again just to say it caused me to have explosive naps. But whatever.

Anyways, I pulled two entire heads of lettuce out of my garden today - I'm at a loss as to what kind of lettuces they were, as I put down a number of varieties that came in variety packs themselves, but both were rather wonderful in a salad. It was surprisingly filling. I'm unsure if it was the variety or the fact that these grew without aid of growth hormones and have had two months to become gorgeous, full heads of lettuce instead of the meek stuff you buy at the super market.

A wicked wind rolled through Vancouver last night and blew  over my Brandywine tomatoes. I spent a good hour staking them back up with anything I could find. They've gotten stupidly heavy with tomatoes the size of my fist and I'm not entirely sure how they'll hold up if we get another windy day, but we'll see how it goes. I weeded the second garden bed today and am drawing up a bit of a space saving regime to plant that will come up over winter and in the spring - a variety of hardy lettuces, carrots, radishes, beets and garlic.

Digging in the rain drenched soil today, I rediscovered the curious world that I knew as a child that exists around the roots of plants and around the edges of the garden bed. Earthworms and red worms were plentiful, I must've come upon a dozen just weeding out dandelions. When I'm out there, dirt up to my elbows, flip flops and sweatpants (so many reasons there why I get all the guys, but that's an issue for later), I relax completely - not a lot bothers me. I brush elbows with mama wolf spiders, roll sowbugs around in the palm of my hand - I realize that these are things I should not fear. And I think, a hiatus from the outdoors and a super-city mentality allows these insecurities and itty bitty fears to come creeping back.

Because I'm obsessive-compulsive about the animals I keep as pets, I'm so very glad to say that my dear old catfish, Leonard, turned two last week and my other catfish, Samson, is turning two next week. May they have many years of lazing around, being catfish before them!

Well, after this million-word-count blog post, I should probably go to sleep or something. I've got a week of hellish stress on a budget of zero dollars ahead of me. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Hope everyone has had a nice start to their autumn and here's to starting October on the right foot.


Things we can both be excited about:

VIFF - oh you sweet, sweet film festival

Drive - read this review by FilmDrunk


Aerlan has a blog - you will go to there!

9.02.2011

Tripping all over Western Canada.

The summer's pretty much over, but it's making room for delightful fall adventures - where I get to learn things! I cut all my hair off and bought a pair of shoes that aren't sneakers. I'm a grown up! Or something.



I've been traveling a bit. And by traveling, I mean going to see relatives. I don't get out much. First, I ferried over to the island via a long, hellish bus ride with camera equipment and, as usual, too many books. There I spent some time with my Gran and we went on some adventures. It's a tradition we go to Cumberland and pick up some delicious doughnuts at the local bakery. We went to Seal Bay, saw some seals - or rather, we heard them first, as they kept snorting at each other. We also went "plodging" at this great beach that, when the tide is out, there's this vast expanse of sand with shallow pools of saltwater flowing between eachother. Plodging is when you hike up your pants and plodge through these puddles. I think it's an English thing. My Gran is quite English. We pulled over to this road side cafe nestled in the trees called Becky's. They don't really have a menu. Just tell them what you want and they'll see if they can make it for you. What's better is that the owner is a gentleman with an artificial leg who has an affinity for karaoke. Oh, also the Nanaimo bars are the tallest I have ever seen. We spent a lunch at the Wandering Moose Cafe, who've got great soup and sandwiches and tea and things. For a fancy farewell dinner, we went into town to Atlas, where we shared a goat cheese tart and I had a burger that had regular burger fixings, plus pear and brie.

To Calgary! My mom took me to the zoo and we chatted while we perused the caged mammals. I was disappointed to see that the nocturnal portion had been closed down. The reptile and amphibian section was whittled down to some dwarf caimans and a tortoise, I think. I also obtained a pair of maroon pants that make me look like a 70's pimp. I dig it.

Canmore was hot and gorgeous, I spent some time just basking and reading. My dad took me to the Quarry before whisking me off to my Grandparent's farm for a couple nights. I reburned my sun burn. When I got to the farm I got mosquito bites ontop of my twice burned burn. There are few things as painfully itchy, methinks. We took the dogs out to the pond and hunted in the tall grass for (velociraptors) wood frogs and dragonflies and fancy-pants spiders. I found a friend down at the lake, a dragonfly was struggling in the water and I scooped him out. He hung out on my shirt sleeve for a good half hour before he deemed himself dry enough to fly away. I named him Horatio. It was nice to be up there for a bit. I don't think I've been that way since 2009. Seeing my grandparents and my uncle was great too.

Spent some time at the Paw with a group of friends. I would have liked another night with them all. I miss them quite a bit, especially since John left us. Time didn't permit much between everyone's schedule's though. Canmore lost another super guy last Wednesday quite suddenly. I'm sending all of my love out that way still, especially to his wife and all of his friends. It was such sad news to hear.

Spending time with my parents was pretty fly. Cracking vulgar jokes while drinking and roasting marshmallows, staying up to watch a movie only to have everyone just sort of fall asleep around me, pitchers of sangria for an anniversary dinner. It was pretty super. We all took a hike up to Grassi Lakes with my sister, aunt and rolly-polly dog. I walked into a lake and felt the coldest water on my legs since the East coast. I flew back to Vancouver the next day.

Here's a collection of the least dumb shots I took while I was away. I'm always disappointed that I don't have more/better footage. Le sigh. Try to enjoy none-the-less.


I came back to see that my garden had transformed into a tiny plot of jungle. The tomato plants were vast, when I was under the impression they wouldn't make it. One's even got some tomatoes already started. All of them have flowers. The radishes are MAD. I've got some good start on lettuces, flowers on the melon plant, more blossoms on the pumpkin plant. I've also now got another plot out back, which I might fill with root veggies - carrots and beets and more radishes, most probably.


A book you need to read? The Shadow of the Wind by one Carlos Ruiz Záfon. One of the most intriguing and richly written pieces I've read in a couple years. Now, this could mean I just haven't been reading much fiction. And I suppose I haven't. But I did really enjoy this novel. I went and bought his other book The Angel's Game last week. I can only hope it'll be a fraction as good as his first.
A film you need to watch? Rango! It's been said more than once that I have a child's taste in films, but I really did enjoy it. It was probably 20 minutes too long, but I really enjoyed the character design and the wondrous textures and references and all around awesomeness. I can really appreciate a film that pays just as much attention to it's secondary and background characters as it's protagonist. Also, there are very few human beings in the film. I also like that very much.

Now for some angst! There's been a funny, deep seated doubt I've seemed to have grown over the summer. After scraping all of that horrible sadness and lack of worth off my skin, I've seem to uncover something just festering away in a less accessible place, say a kidney or a spleen. I can't seem to shake it quite so easy. Hopefully some film work will drive it away. I don't like the feeling much. A future that once seemed boundless is now this slightly-too-small box that I'm destined to sit in with my knees under my chin and my ear pressed up against the top. I shudder at the prospect.

Here's my most recent Kingfisher Says post. Pretty much talking about what I just talked about in this post. But you get to see my weird face and hear all of my poorly chosen phrases and hums and haws! Yay! (Note: by far, the most convincing thumbnail to date proclaiming my sanity)