Three Ten Pictures

Everything happens for a reason, right?

Yesterday, I had a shoot scheduled at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California.  After a forty-five minute drive, I arrived with my camera, fresh tapes, and some dramamine for a potential puke-a-minute chopper ride.  My friendly escort from the Public Affairs Office drove me to Camp Horno.  We waited.  Soon, my subject would call, and I’d film him as he shoots up Combat Town, repels from a Sikorsky, and performs other trailer-candy-worthy activities.

So we waited. I had a fantastic conversation with my escort, a soon-retiring Gunny Sgt. and highly experienced video guy.  We talked shop.  I told him about the movie.  “Yeah, we’re shooting in 24F HDV, and I’m cutting on my Dell XPS laptop, and…”

His chin hit the pavement.  “If this movie gets distribution, there’ll be a lot of people VERY interested in how you cut that thing on a consumer-grade laptop.”

“It’s simple,” I said,  “Import the footage.  Downconvert it one clip at a time.  Edit the downconverted footage.  Close Vegas.  Go to the directory with the downcoverted files and rename it.  Open Vegas again.  When it asks where all the files are, relink them to the original hi-res video clips.  Render the completed file.  It’s time-consuming, but relatively painless.”

No, that’s a lie.  It’s like cutting your front lawn with those safety scissors you had in first grade.  However, it’s no less fulfilling to see your cinematic vision brought to life in glorious HD.  And you can brag that you did it on a laptop.

He seemed impressed–that, or he thinks I’m a nutcase.

Anyway, the Gunny and I waited for my subject to call…

…for five hours…

…nothing.

Forty-five minutes and one Del Taco extra value meal later, I arrived at home with three blank camcorder tapes.

I got a couple text messages from my subject, who’d had a big emergency that day.  We can reschedule.  It was frustrating at the time, but there were some genuine extenuating circumstances there.

The next day (that’s today, by the way), I reflected on the conversation I had with Gunny, and my heart shot into my throat.

“I actually have to EDIT this movie?  Exactly which one of the toys in my attic committed to making this film?  I’m NEVER gonna finish this!!”

This happened, of course, five months into production.  We’ve shot somewhere around thirty hours of footage (I’m importing three more hours right now).  That isn’t a lot for most documentaries filmmakers–the makers of “American Teen” shot over 1,000 hours–but admittedly, I felt intimidated this morning.

Fortunately, I have no choice but to complete the film.

Everything happens for a reason.

I can’t wait to see this movie.

PS - The above image is from last week’s filmed interview with Canyon Ridge Baptist Church member Mike Althaus.  I wish Tim had been there for that one.  I shot it solo, and I’m unhappy with the lighting.  The interview, however, was fantastic.