Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Bah Humbug

Christmas itself being inescapable, I decided to at least flee the city.
I drove down to the Central Valley with a friend from the Documentary Film program.  As a shooting day, it was a bit of a disaster. He was hoping for footage of the state mental hospital in Atascadero, but, as it turned out, we couldn't film on site and couldn't get a decent angle from off site.

Not exactly worth eight hours in the car.  For me though, it was a nice little escape and a chance to see some parts of California I've never seen before. 

I've also gained a new appreciation for the difficulty of working with film. It's a powerful, accessible medium, but having to work with an enormous camera creates a set of difficulties that people working with print never have to deal with.  I can work just by looking around and writing things down later. At most, I need a small recorder and a still camera. It's easy to be discreet in a way that's completely impossible for film, and the quality of your work depends completely on your skill as a reporter and storyteller, and not at all on your equipment.  

I love watching other people's films. But I think I'm too attached to traveling light, being mobile and fast, to ever make them myself.

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