Production update

August was spent in research and travelling to collect b-roll for the Dakota project. I met with some wonderful folks at the Minnesota Historical Society and talked to several people who will be key interviews down the road.

Kerry Sandler joined the road trip for the first week. We went from the white rock of Saint Paul to Acton to Lac qui Parle to Upper Sioux Agency site to Wood Lake and Birch Coulee Battlefield to Lower Sioux Agency site. We were blessed with good weather and even a beautiful full moon.

I then travelled down to St Peter for a couple of interviews. Final footage for this burst of photography was at Fort Snelling with Timya Owen and Jennie Reedquist assisting on production. We went to the State Park area as well to visit the site of the internment camp. It's difficult to stand on that small piece of land, surrounded by the beauty of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers and realize 1600 people somehow were crammed behind a fence on this spot.

The rest of the vacation was spent trying to organize the story a bit more in my head. It was a truly productive time! There's a lot of work to do. It'll take years to get the project to completion but we're feeling good about the progress so far!

In other news: Head on over to Colin Devlin's "Democracy of One" site. In the video section you'll find some of the footage we shot in Montreal amidst the epk (making of) but more than that you'll find some fantastic music!

There hasn't been a lot of down time lately but I have enjoyed Anton Corbijn's directorial feature narrative debut "Control" which brought back a love of Joy Division and is making me want to dive back into the Intellectual Beauty story. As the weather shifts to fall I have hope that I will be able to make some time for that!

Production continues

Congratulations to Ben & Neha who welcomed daughter Aasia into the world last January! From the pictures they've shared she's a healthy happy baby who I'm sure surprise and inspire her wonderful parents every day! And yes that's how bad I am at staying current, I'm posting this and she's 8 months old!

The day job at the tv station has been keeping me very full of late. I have spent every spare moment pulling together an outline and shooting plan for the Dakota project though and we continue shooting over the next couple of weeks. We're also making connections for future interviews with key people who will help share this story with a wider audience. We're making some great progress. On a topic this complex and with so little information available, the research takes a serious amount of time. It will likely take a couple of years to get this into a viewable format but I will try to be better about updating folks through the blog.

More soon

quick update

I apologize for being so offline lately! Life's been busy.

I spent early May capturing a moment for my Father on video. He was placing a gravestone on his great grandfather's grave, he'd gone markerless for 119 years. So I dropped everything to document this gift for my Dad. We'll see what he thinks on Father's Day of the finished piece.

Dakota 38 project. We hope to be in principle photography this summer/fall. I want to thank everyone who has been contacting me with information to help the research. All of you are helping bring this project to reality!

Writing for Intellectual Beauty continues as well...that of course is a much longer process. I'm hoping to take it from outline format to first draft in the next couple of months! Enjoying the muse!

Movies recently seen in the theater: Body of War, a documentary on a wounded Iraq War veteran with some music provided by Eddie Veddar. Very powerful! Also Iron Man, for fun. Enjoyed that as well.

Rentals: Bella, which was absolutely wonderful. All the behind the scenes footage is worth a watch as well! Inspiring!

More soon (hopefully more than every couple of months!!!!)
Sherece

Project Updates

Dakota 38: Still submitting funding proposals and talking to organizations and individuals about the project. We will be shooting more this late summer and fall. So things are progressing nicely!

Legacy: I just need to find more photos...and edit time.

Intellectual Beauty: Still writing and shaping. The basic outline is nearing completion. Then the real fun begins!

Sorry for such delays between updates. The other job is keeping me very busy of late. And speaking of that...check out a musical act called NOUR. A program I just finished producing with them (and the University of Minnesota) will air in the Twin Cities in April. Wonderful artists!

Projects update

It's been a bit hectic trying to catch up from being gone for 3 weeks...slowly but surely though!

Croatia:  I hope to merge some of Patti's gorgeous photos with the video shot and post some video on the website eventually.  It may take me a little while though.

Dakota 38:  We're in full fundraising mode now.  Having meetings, giving presentations and hoping people see the value of the program as much as Duffy, Timya and I do.  We should be in production this summer!

NEW PROJECT: and part of the reason it's been so long between blogs!  I've been re-inspired by a friend (thank you Jennie!) to work on the Lake Geneva Summer of 1816 "Intellectual Beauty" script.  So I've been deep in reading Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin and Claire Clairmont...journals, letters, books, poetry...everything I could get my hands on.  And outlining a story.  It's been awhile since I was muse's bitch, it's been fun!  

Off topic...the Oscars!  I of course had to see as many of the films as possible before the ceremony, that's been inspiring as well.  I loved Atonement, Juno and No Country for Old Men...found There Will Be Blood a bit disconcerting.  I can't find fault with any of the Oscar choices.  Very happy for "Once" being acknowledged for song!  Best moment of the evening in my opinion.

Stay tuned...I'll get back in the habit of updating more regularly now!