We are so grateful for all the folks who came together to attack this project! This experience was a wonderful collaborative effort between a variety of fantastically generous people.

Confession.

This was my first intimate-first-hand experience with a film making process, and what a process! Each phase was vibrant, unexpected, incredibly stimulating, and each delivered a healthy dose of vigor straight to the chest.

Ready. Set. Write.

The writing process lasted until around 2:30am, Saturday morning, with the script coming to a final draft during the last 60 minutes. It’s amazing how many story lines, bits of backstory, left field lightning strikes, large arc revisions, and sheer volume of ideas got worked over during those first six to eight hours.

Hot Cold Read.

The call was at 8:30am, only six hours later. My first goose-bumpy moment was during the first cold read around the kitchen table. The smell of oats and coffee and energy drinks from the night before lingered throughout the room.

What had, up until that point, been purely an intellectual exercise became something in the world. It’s own being. That first moment the dialog was being read with some scene direction, tingles. I am feeling it again just thinking about it.

Location! Location! Flightpath!

Then it was off to the location, Discovery Park. After some brief scouting and meandering, folks getting comfortable, reading bits of dialog back and forth, it was into scene one, shot one.

We got some strange looks, even got a talking to from a park official who was very nice, just wanted be sure we were on the up and up. The morning was productive, not too hot, not too many bugs, no attacking caterpillars, no nettles, and very few planes. The afternoon was a bit different.

After our ten minute hike to the Greensleeves location, adjacent to a road, and only ten seconds away by vehicle, the air show started to ramp up. And the nettles said hello to our feet, ankles, and hands. Kara – our resident wildlife consultant – flipped out the idea that the back-side of fern leaves helped to alleviate the nettle stings. Everyone seemed to agree. Psychological effect or not, it worked for the crew.

Then something strange happened, planes. Lots of planes. And helicopters too. Henry calling “Holding for planes.” became a common refrain, as well as did “Wait for it…” while waiting for the plane sounds to fade.

Can I get a sandwich?!

After breaking for lunch, snacking on – yes – subs, Karl and Pete showed up to deliver and capture some sweet sweet tree lines, which took less than 15 minutes.

Heading back to the Greensleeves tree – this time we drove for ten seconds, instead of walking for ten minutes – we pushed to close out the day of shooting. Ali did an amazing job. Walking through forest floor in heels is not a relaxing avenue. And she kept delivering it, take after take, with enthusiasm, authenticity, and focus.

Brad, our wily-woodsman in purple blazer – no shirt required, brought consistent energy, wit, and got a taste for getting good audio capture in tight forest spaces.

Natalie and Kara kept everybody focused on the script and oh hey – shouldn’t she be holding a sandwich in this shot? As well as lugging gear and cracking jokes.

Oh, and the cars and pedestrians. There must have been a wedding reception at the cultural center down the way, as there was a fairly steady stream of both throughout the afternoon. All the passer-byes were polite, it’s just that cars make noise. All that and more plains.

You know it’s funny, I don’t recall any planes during the lunch break?

In the blink of an eye.

After getting back from the park, and Kara blasting through her lines with great emotional delivery, the crew separated to focus on the remaining bits of work.

Colin on the climactic effects shot, and Henry on the rough cut.

After a few hours of ripping the data from tape to disc, final cut was fired up. My second goose-bumpy moment was after the first few cuts of scene one were made, and a review playback happened. Suddenly it wasn’t just imagery, it was the beginning of a narrative.

At some point during the evening, things start to get a little blurry here from lack of sleep, we got a delivery from Eric who signed up for music on the project. He had delivered a couple themes as starting ideas.

My third goose-bumpy moment was when we dropped one of the musical ideas onto the rough cut of the getting lost montage. Again, it leapt up the scale of independent existence.

Stuff happened. Amp was purchased. Progress was made. Morning came.

We will, we will, save you.

Over to post-location number 2, pull in the effect shot – amazing. Now it’s down to cutting for time. It was another fascinating experience to watch experienced folks have to make tough decisions about how to reduce, how to make more potent, how to leverage the delivery to communicate the idea in it’s most efficient form.

It was the groups baby, and it wouldn’t quite fit.

Some how we got there. Then we got the beach ball. And we hadn’t saved. It was after this that I asked for a save every time it seemed like a good idea for the remainder of Sunday. I’m sure it was annoying, but seems it was a good call.

Providence, not coincidence.

Over at Eric’s place (post location #3, not only did he write some stellar compositions, but he allowed us to finish up at his place. AND he let us pick some raspberries during render) the final bits started to fall into place.

Pete threw his audio processing prowess at our teeter-totter leveled audio and brought a huge selection of appropriate effects, Eric put the final touches on his themes, Henry and Colin got Greensleeves locked.

This was another fantastic moment. There were three groups of minds, three machines (all Apple machines thankyouverymuch), all working on a problem. All bringing technology to bear on different aspects of the same artistic endeavor. All working together. All pushing through the final hour. And the best part?

No one had an ego about anything. Everyone was in pursuit of the best possible quality of final product, and the best idea, regardless of where the idea came from. It was a truly humbling experience, and I am so thankful to have been a part of it.

We finished with plenty of time to burn a disc, and deliver to Georgetown with a score of minutes to spare.

The drive home was surreal. The McDonalds was gross but sensorily sufficient. And for quite some time, I just sat in wonder, fidgeting, smoking, sipping, thinking.

What just happened? No, wait, who cares. I loved it. More please.

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