August 2001 Archives

Greetings from France. I promised at the start of this log that I would generally avoid travelogues/journals and stick to documenting the process of making a documentary film, but since I ended up not bringing any tapes with me on our vacation in France, the project is on vacation as well. That said, it's not out of mind. There are a few things that we've seen here that stick in my mind and will probably find their way into the project/story in some way:

I've GOT to get this film shoot log out of my head and onto the screen! It's been almost two weeks since we actually got back, but since things snowballed as soon as I got back to NYC, I left for vacation with Jean and have been even farther away from the net than before. Some vacation entries will follow, I'm sure, but I'll spare you most of the details.

On location, day 4 - Throughout the morning Jeff and I followed people around, fly-on-the-wall-style. We shot more farmers, some dry cleaning workers, and some older women doing housework and running errands.

The inspiration, I think, was Albert & David Maysles' Salesman, a film I first saw in business school, of all places, where it transfixed me with its simplicity, forthrightness, and insight. Now that the whole 15 minutes mentality has permeated (at least) US-driven society, the indifference to the camera that Maysles' subjects possess seems impossible to recapture and either eerie or nostalgic, depending on your POV. I can tell you that the presence of the camera and the notion that something is being said or done ON camera and could be repeated/disseminated are front and center in the minds of almost all our docu participants so far.
[if interested in Maysles, check out Maysles Films website or this interview with Al Maysles from The Onion's AV Club.]

After lunch, we were planning to do some driving shots: homes, fields, roads, field roads, irrigation ditches, highways, mountain canyons, etc. We got as far as the homes, fields and roads when the lens fell of the front of the camera and I drove over it. (I still have it and will post pics when I get back). Apparently, the threads had come loose during repeated rotations of the graduated density filter (which is half gray and half clear and is useful for shooting with outdoor light). Anyway, shooting wrapped up pretty quickly after that. We had to get the sound equipment back to my friend Dodge, so we just kept on driving. This unexpectedly abrupt end of shooting did NOT have anything to do with the fact that the crew had its first-and only-lunch with beer in UtahÖ

A final note from the crew regarding the location: Give up the search for good coffee early, at least in Utah County. Stick to 7-11 and avoid gas station/mini-marts, where 80-ounce refillable jugs of Diet Coke rule. In these locations, the coffee is generally the color of Coke (with melted ice), and apparently just as flavorful. One morning, I cracked, "I guess God doesn't want you to drink coffee," Jeff quickly (and accurately) replied, "Mormons don't want me to drink coffee."[note: I put the same link for both, since I'm a believer. ]

[Just ignore the dates. There's so much going on, I'm more than a little behind on the log.] On location, day 3 - We spent most of the day following around Chad, a 32-year old farmer in Mapleton. Along with his father, he works several hundred acres of land around town, including the fields he leases from my grandparents' farm. Here's what we spent the day shooting:

On location, day 2 - Email still is spotty, dialup is only AOL. And it's hot as heck (as they say around here in rural Utah). Shooting's going well. We were up and out at 7 yesterday (Tues.) to pick up additional sound equipment (add a Sennheiser boom mike to the list of required gear.) and to find hay fields being cut, baled and loaded. (Note: It takes 3-4 days for cut hay to dry before it's baled; hauling is a couple of days later, so to get the entire process, we have to shoot several different fields.) About 80% of the fields in Mapleton were cut and baled a couple of weeks ago, so it took a little longer to find fields in process. Everyone we asked was very accommodating, letting us shoot with no reservation; the first field of guys (hauling) also pointed us in the direction of other fields being cut that day. Everyone knew my grandfather, so they were happy to help out. Jeff, my friend on camera, is pretty good at assimilating, while I basically looked like a tornado had picked me up off the street in NYC and dropped me in the field. (Note to self: leave sandals at home.)

Today, (Wed.,) we've been shooting work on irrigation ditches, the network vital to farmers as they move water around the valley. There's a water co-op here, which schedules each farmer's allocation and timing. Sometimes, a farmer'll have to be out in the middle of the night to route water through a series of locks across the valley to his field at a specified time. Today, though, the farmers we were shooting were working in the 100+ degree afternoon. We didn't need our light kit, which is a plus... the camera's rubber eyepiece cap fell into the fast-moving current of the ditch and shot away. We got it on tape. "That run right in front of your uncle Juan's house [two miles away], so you could get it back," chuckled the 80-something farmer we were following.

Tonight we're off to shoot the workers in my other grandfather's dry cleaning plant, then maybe going to the drive-in to see Planet of the Apes. IF we can log the tapes in time. Also, we've got to check the sound on one of our two mikes, so the levels sync up. Recording sound straight into the camera is easier and cheaper, but it gives you less flexibility when making changes later.

We're here in Utah, shooting. Got in last night. Two points:

1) Having been on DSL at home for so long, I didn't realize what a pain a dialup connection could be. Right now, I'm logged in through my grandmother's AOL account. This can't last.

2) It's freakin' hot (you can't swear in Utah without turning major heads). Been running around picking up sound equipment, testing filters, fixing the eyepiece on the camera. If you don't have a full time equipment person, it's going to always take extra time fixing, adjusting, and finding missing pieces of stuff.

Since I made the decision to actually go forward and shoot this film project (rather than just ruminate over it and periodically outline it), I've been watching films in slightly changed light. Now, I'm much more conscious of really parsing out:

what a director's intentions were,

when something was executed (i.e., writing, acting, directing, setting, editing, etc.)

how he/she did it (i.e., technical processes, decisionmaking process).

I basically have gotten into full "influence/tool/idea absorption mode. The result so far is a list of films I've seen or re-seen recently that have an impact on me and this project in some way (all links are to imdb and/or amazon):

It's two days before leaving for location shooting, and I've been wrapped up in myriad other responsibilities and projects that won't resolve. The takeaway: I've been ten minutes late all day, and it's made all the difference. (This phenomenon was portrayed in the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, Sliding Doors, which I didn't see.)

Waiting in line for some free theater tickets from 6:10AM until 1:30, They handed out the last tickets 55 people in front of me, and the last cancellation vouchers 5 people in front. Basically, ten minutes late. Whatever, I had plenty of time to work through shot lists, which I can assemble into a full schedule for our 4.5-day shoot.

From Central Park, it was off to B&H Video, an institution in the professional video/audio world. The store is run by a phalanx of orthodox Jews, so it's important to plan on NOT going there Saturday, when it's obviously closed. That they also close early on Friday (to be home well before the sundown start of the Sabbath) isn't news to customers, either. But who'd think they'd close at 2? Not me. I got there at 1:55, and five minutes into inputting my order of filters, polarizers, tapes, tape, and cables into the computer, the young guy helping me took off, leaving me hanging. So, back I go on Sunday...

PS Thanks for the encouraging response to the "launch" of this log. I hope it'll be interesting for you. By far the most common question from readers is, "What's the film about?" I've pointedly not put too much description of the "plot," because right now there isn't one. The subject, themes and ideas of the film should become more apparent (to you and me) as things move forward, but for now I can say that I'm planning to tell the stories of my grandparents, who are from the neighboring towns mentioned in my last post. Stay tuned, I guess, to see how that might be at all interesting as a movie.

First week of shooting is scheduled. We (the crew = Jeff and me, with another guy joining up on location) leave NYC for Salt Lake City next Monday and drive down to Mapleton. (The town has the rockin' URL, Mapleton.org. It's some Novell millionaires interspersed (or overlooking) the original farmers who built the town. Part of the Springville metropolitan area. Springville.org. These people were really on top of the domain registration thing...)

We'll shoot through Sunday in and around Mapleton and Springville. There's an art museum in Springville, thus, the nickname, Art City. Number of business listings with "Art City" in Springville: 21. [source: Anywho.com]