Moving through the ice

It's always tempting when making a documentary to grab the camera and run, shooting everything and everyone in your rolodex so you end up with a lot of footage in a short time. It gives you the feeling that you're making progress. It yields footage. It revs up your editing engine.

But this, after all, is Rhode Island in winter and there's ice on the ground, the sun is not to be trusted and there's snow in the forecast. Every appointment needs a snow date..... Even research appointments.

There's a bright side to the corral, though. When the sky is dark and flakes are falling, there's no question of divided attention. It's time for online reseach, plowing through books and data bases, or a quick scuttle to the neighborhood library (if you're lucky enough to have one, as I am). When you're stuck at the keyboard you come up with mighty interesting things that may be useful later on.

I had a meeting with Ray, my DP/cameraman/sound guy this AM. We worked on an outline for field trips, got our communication plan in line and, in general talked about our plans for the Elephants. He's an easy going guy who seems to have his head on straight and his eyes sqarely in their sockets and he understands the lingo. I'll have his actual CV to attach to the program ASAP. Anyway, this was all very encouraging, because the volunteer PA didn't work out and we're now down to a two man crew. I must network!!! (Note to self- contact RI Film Collaborative ASAP.)

I ran across a reference to the Fanny affair (there may be a better way of phrasing that....) in a North Carolina newspaper the other day. The article mentioned that not only was actress Loretta Swit going to bat for the forlorn pachyderm, which I knew, but that Tippi Hedren, of The Birds fame, was involved as well. I'm going to have to hunt this down.

More as work progresses...