Time??

Grandmaster says "Time aint' got time for time". Lately I'm feeling like I ain't got time this film! I've been quite busy for the past month, which is good because I'm going to need to sink my earnings from those other jobs into this documentary.

The Canada trip is coming up in just over a month. A festival has been added in Victoria, BC, so that brings the total festivals to 5. I am really trying to make it happen that I can attend at least 4 or those festivals. I may skip Regina if I simply can't afford it.

Today I am going to send out letters to the airlines begging for free flights. Getting some support there will go a long way towards financing the Canada trip. Of course I will still have about $1000 in travel costs inside Canada, plus hotels, meals and hiring a soundman! I figure the entire trip is going to cost me somewhere around $4000. It's a crazy amount of money that, at least right now, is going to come out of my own pocket. But I simply cannot skip this experience. It's too important to the story. Hopefully these festivals will provided me with some form of an ending so I can wrap up shooting and move on to editing.

OK, so why does it seem like I obsess about money on this blog? Well mainly because I write it when I am in my office doing the mundane things a producer does, like budgeting and planning. So when I finally get around to writing I've got my mind on my money and my money on my mind.

Moving away from money, there are a few things to report on the production side. In late April I managed to get a few more days of shooting in. My buddy Doug "the soundman" Murray was here for a visit so I took advantage of some free help shot a few interviews. Doug also took some great stills of The Grandmaster that will eventually end up on the real website, posters, DVD covers, etc. I'll post some more here sometime soon.

I have discovered a problem with my camera. Seems the transport was out of alignment causing intermittent video break up. Checking my tapes from Costa Rica confirmed the worst; I have some tapes that are no good. However the gods of independent documentary making were watching over me as I really did not lose anything too important. Probably the biggest scene I lost was when GM was signing autographs the night before his concert in Costa Rica. Luckily a scene like that will probably re-present itself in Canada so I am not too upset. The camera is now in Vancouver where I understand it has been fixed. I will retrieve it when I fly up for the first festival in July. In the meantime the good folks at Channel 5 have been kind enough to lend me their PD-170 on the few occasions I have had to shoot something lately.

I need to shoot one more background interview before I go Canada, and then a few more interviews and scenes with The Grandmaster here in Belize City. It’s exciting to think that by the time I get back from Canada I may only have a few pick up shots and some b-roll left to shoot before principal photography is actually wrapped!