Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Film Geeks

I began my love affair with film and photography in high school. I studied dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts where I hung out with such film geeks as David Gordon Green (George Washington, Pineapple Express) and Danny McBride (Hot Rod, Pineapple Express), who at the time was behind the camera mostly not in front of it. I married my favorite photographer Kyle George and have begun to dabble in climbing film making. I'm a complete amateur but I have a vast choreographic background and I hope that translates to film! I hope one day I can reunite with my old classmates to congratulate them on their successes and to get to work with Peter Mortimer of Sender Films who completely upped the anti in climbing film making.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Streetfighter

I have completed my second short climbing film with only a few lingering questions about video compression. I edited this one in iMovie which I have now sworn that I will never do again for anything meaningful. It was so much fun to shoot. It only took Jill and I a day to figure out the sequence (22 moves is a lot to remember) and a couple tries to send. It had been really rainy so the holds were very very dirty which was exciting at the end. The variable weather made for interesting color contrasts on the film. I'm not quit sure how to normalize that either. Time and place I suppose. I am very into the entire editing process, aside from the climbing, that for me was the best part. I get so zoned in to mixing the movement that my daughter has to tug at me to get my attention. I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the second installment.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Story Teller

How do you tell a story using 80-90% movement? Climbing is like a dance but it's so much more calculated. With dance you have an ingrained need for artistic expression but with climbing it's all in discovery. "Can I actually do this move? Will I psych myself out?" Is this then the origin of the story? How it makes you feel to climb? Pretty isoteric if you ask me. For now, I'll keep it simple.
Each move is in itself a small discovery. Lately I've been focused on not congratulating myself too early. It's easy to through something that's hard and then get excited, lose concentration and not get any further on the problem. It's not over till it's over.