phinster

phineas had a birthday a while back. i shot some fun pictures of him. here he models his present's wrapping paper. i had just purchased an off-camera flash unit and was learning how to use it.

optics

i've been taking lots of pictures lately, but sorry, none for this post. david hockney has my imagination lately, priming me with ideas about photography, painting, art in general. i read a book by lawrence weschler over the holidays titled "True to Life: 25 Years of Conversations with David Hockney". i feel as if i've been through art history all over again, and this time am excited about it. a while back, hockney began to think that old masters had used optical techniques to achieve their works, a controversial view even today. his investigations are fascinating. his point isn't that the works are any less compelling because the old masters may not have created everything on the canvas with their own eye, but that artists of that time used all the tools available to them to explore, almost like scientists. i love that idea.

personal truth

Specific, personal truth is the best medium in which to grow relationships.

movies

another long time between posts. i've been sick with flu, probably swine flu, for about four weeks. all that's left is lingering cough. despite physical discomfort, i've welcomed the opportunity to rest, reflect, and spend a lot of time alone. i was supposed to shoot a short movie, the first since making a short dramatic film six years ago, but i was too wiped out to do it. we've rescheduled for march, 2010.

my film activities continue with star trek phase 2 and a couple documentaries, but they are not my own projects. being in bed has given my own projects new immediacy, because it feels like i have a lot less time to work. i know this flu will pass, but the restriction of waking time helps give weight to the most important things. i've resigned from the few boards i participate on, and have cut back on commitments. i sense the importance of having lots of time and time-space in which to create, to absorb, to integrate thoughts, ideas, images, sounds, feelings.

i've watched hundreds of films while in bed, shorts and features, drama and docs. streaming movies are fantastic. the quality is okay, but having an on demand film festival in my lap worth the sacrifice. it's great to see so many films back to back, to compare styles, lighting, scripts, pacing, camera work, acting, sets, scenery, sound, music... for the last few years, i haven't been able to stay awake through a film. it still happens, but somehow watching so many films has awakened me. i'm looking at films not for entertainment, but for content, story, creativity, craftsmanship.

i've watched a lot of short films. curiously, they are often too long, lacking density, plot, though often technically very good. the features, by and large, even the bad ones, tend to be more condensed.

Return of the Blog

A long hiatus, yes. A molting process, yes. A shift in direction, yes. A new career, apparently. Renewed enthusiasm: yes.

In a nutshell, I've become a budding cinematographer... budding at the age of 46. And why not? I'm an admirer of makeovers, especially buildings. What happened? Last summer I took a film lighting course at the Maine Media Workshops and loved it. Since then, I've become involved with Star Trek Phase II helping shoot their one-hour webisodes of classic Star Trek, all for the fun of it. The production values are high and I've learned a lot on the set which operates more or less professionally in an amateur kind of way. Then this summer, I happened to see a course at the Media Workshops and lucked into it via their waiting list. I met some great people and we made some fun little films. After that, I was hooked and declared my intentions to take up filmmaking. It's not like I haven't done it before. When I sat down and figured out how many little films I'd made over the years it totaled more than thirty, a couple are award winners. But, deciding to move further into it is a big break from my prior architectural commitments but it feels right. If there were any place you'd know you weren't supposed to be, it would be a film set, because it can be brutally boring. If you don't have the bigger picture in your grasp it will feel insufferable. I've watched (and filmed) people in this mode and it's not pretty.

Right now I'm working with Tim Wolff, of New Orleans, on his documentary about gay social clubs who spearheaded a unique gay rights movement in the south. I was down there to shoot earlier in the year and Tim is up here in Vermont now as we edit it. I love thinking about the structure of film, how to tell a story.

I'm also working on a short film with Richard Ballon, a playwright and writer, whom I met at CineSlam, a short film festival in Vermont. Also in the works, possibly, is a feature to be shot in Los Angeles this fall or winter and for sure a segment in a documentary project about Vermont. I'll be helping one of the filmmakers I met this summer in Maine complete his project next week. I'm happy with the speed with which things have started rolling.

facebook killed the blogger star

as with all things new, there is a period of adjustment in which i figure out how a new thing affects the balances of my life. facebook has been a lot of fun but i find that i'm spending more time in facebook than writing here. i've substituted people watching for contemplation and reflection. composing the one liner status update is a haiku-ish art in itself and seeing what friends respond to is fascinating, but i miss the benefit of spending an hour or more stringing together more than one or two ideas.

tomorrow, i am traveling to my meditation center where i'll be serving this time for about two weeks. i will be meditating, but not as intensively as if i were taking the course. i think i'll be learning to cook all the simple vegetarian food they serve and i'm excited about that as well as learning to integrate meditation with work. i'm not as successful as i'd like to be at maintaining my practice at home. it's easy when at the center. everything is set up to help you succeed. at home, much more difficult. i awake with thoughts of my business, things to do, and before i know it i'm out the door looking for a coffee.

oh, and i won and lost the election. i got the most votes but because i was a write-in, and some folks wrote me into a slot i wasn't running for, i didn't technically win a seat. no regrets!

politics

i'm running for a seat on my town's selectboard. it just so happened that there was a slot on the ballot open and friends urged me to run. so, here i go!