Today we lost one precious day to a defunct cable. Trying to not let it get us down, we aim to go back again and reshoot it all soon. We were following the fish as they were caught, straight up to the fish market, auctioned and bought (in total a process that unfolds in a matter of minutes) and got some pretty good character-building stuff with our fishermen friends, but alas... unless this is a silent project, it’ll probably end up on the cutting-room floor. We were using the external mixer, and everything sounded fine through the headphones and looked good on the levels, but when we played it back it sounded like digital aliens. So, tonight we’ll do some troubleshooting and hopefully resolve the problem.
Since my last post, Ben and I had the opportunity to go to a “retreat” centre north of here with a crowded bus-load of charismatics. They sang, prayed, clapped and made music the whole 2 hours there and back. It was phenomenal! Nothing like church-music I’ve heard before (for which I am eternally grateful). We recorded as much of it as we could… but man, trying to assemble the whole shebang with external mixer, zeppelin, camera, etc on a bus so crowded you can’t bend your knees is a feat that one can never really prepare for!
Keep the posts coming! And hope everything’s going well for you all!
Julia, e-mail me with more detail about what happened and let's see what we can do.
ReplyDelete-Ernst
Julia + Ben, how brilliant are the chinese fishing nets at sunrise!? I bet they’ll look spectacular on film! Are you in Fort Cochin? If you haven’t done it already, I would highly recommend getting some fresh fish at the market (I think we did shrimp and calamari when we were in FC) and take it to a local fry shack. It’s only a teensy bit cheaper than ordering off the menu, but it’s great for the novelty and you get waaaaay more seafood.
ReplyDeleteI know firsthand how frustrating it is to discover your footage is useless after putting so much focus and effort into a day of shooting. Thank god you go back over your footage at the end of the day! Imagine if you’d gotten back to Harvard only to discover that several weeks of footage was useless! Ten points for Alfred’s suggestion that we log every single day… all the more reason to stick to that good advice. It sucks hardcore to lose all that hard work, but there’s definitely still a silver lining—Ernst is brilliant, and can maybe sort out the crossed wires in post-production, and there’s still time and the ability to reshoot. :) I hope you get your sound mixer problems unmixed! And eat some idly for me! Om nom nom.
flashback to chinese fishing nets
...and to overcrowded indian buses!