No Pain, No Gain

But if pain is directly proportional to gain I don't think I ever want a million dollars.

So yesterday was the first filming job for Rambler Productions not directly related to the school. The Kennebec Valley Dance Centre performed its 2010 Spring Show "Above and Beyond" right here in the WHS PAC. They fired their professional videographer and hired us on. No pressure right? Two three hour shows we filmed. I am SO glad I only had to film one of them. I was on steadicam so I was moving around, crouching so as not to block the audience, and never really getting a chance to rest. So my legs are currently out-of-order and my arms ache like crazy. It's painful to get up, sit down, and don't even get me started on kneeling to pick something up.

Apparently for previous shows on DVD their videographer had been just setting up a single camera, running it without zooming or changing angles of any kind, burning it to DVD without chapter selection, and charging about the same as we are for the finished product. We on the other hand shot from three angles, one mobile, two stationary. We are also including chapter selection and a sweet menu transition with a sillohetted dancer pirroetting across the screen to reveal a new menu.

The good news is that my pain is not without good cause. Currently the orders for DVD's total nearly two thousand dollars. So while I may complain about my legs, I'm not really unhappy about it. Rambler Productions is receiving 2/3 of that money. Some of it will cover the cost of DVD's and cases, the fancy new 1 to 5 DVD duplicator we just got, replacement parts for some of our cameras, and a finder's fee to Mr. Setchell and the drama department for suggesting us to the KVDC.

This Thursday I will be interviewing Keith Leavitt, a local metal artist, about the sculpture out front of what is now the grade school. "Reflections from Nature" is a collaborative sculpture from the late 80's early 90's which has many panels depicting different aspects of nature and our relationship to it. The picture to the left is from last year or possibly the year before that of my advisee group oiling up the sculpture on Day of Caring. Funny story about that picture, I scoured the web unsuccessfully for a good one of the sculpture, then thought of the town website. The site had slideshows of photos, but I didn't see one of the sculpture and I couldn't just open the albums because I needed a password. Weeeeelllll....lets just say I "managed" to obtain that photo.

Anyway, during this year's Day of Caring we were out there at it again with our pails of puréed vampire oiling it up for future generations. Before we put brush to metal though we watched a video which Mr. Leavitt made back when the sculpture was being constructed. I thought it was a really neat video. It was fascinating to see the different elements of the sculpture being designed and built. I offered to convert the VHS to DVD and now it's a full blown project! (Like I needed another.) But really I'm happy to do it and I'm really excited about the final product.

Hazards is coming along. I'm worried about three songs. More like two seeing as the last two songs are pretty much the same. I don't know if Annan Water, The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise), and The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) will be completed in time for the end of school. More on that in my next post.

In other news my lovely sister Bailey has decided to follow in my footsteps and create a blog of her own. A Vine of Stars is where she will be posting her not-so-inscrutable ramblings. She's a much better writer than I am and her posts are quite a bit more cohesive.

So go read her blog. I'm off to shoot the moon.....with a camera. Got a sweet timelapse yesterday and I'm hoping for a repeat.