Speed bumps

The initial airing on SHAW went off with a few hitches of technical nature.
There was antifacting during the end of the piece. I was crushed. SHAW and I worked to
remedy the problem and the PARTING STONE aired beautifully on 19, March 2011. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

On suggestion of friends, I have initiated contact with MADD to see if they were interested in using the production. This will be done on a no fee basis. I feel that there is a message that needs be heard. People need to think.

Show time

12, March 2012, the Parting Stone will debut on SHAW TV Okanagan Today at 10:00am.
This will be the culmination of nearly a year of work. It just doesn't stop there either
at the Monday City of Kelowna council meeting, roadside memorials were going to be addressed.

Were politicians going to legislate the grieving process and enforce conformity? Were they going to deny personal mourning? The clerks had drafted bylaws giving these memorials a 2 year life span and it went to a vote. One councilor painted a picture of memorials ;popping up like dandelions for each and every traffic fatality in the city, over run by crosses, a city transformed into a cemetery. Compassion and common sense won out as the majority had ruled that enough bylaws already exist and council had no place in dictating how people grieved and mourned. I suspect that it ain't over.

We have been making arrangements to screen the Parting Stone at Thompson Rivers University with a directors Q&A session. I had best bone up on my public speaking.
Later this month there will be a session with the Knowledge Network so our fingers are crossed. Maybe we will see the light of day Canada wide but I am happy with local exposure.

It is just about getting people to think.

The countdown

Coming to the end. A little tightening up today and working on the promotional web site. The trailer is on youtube. We just now have to run it through post then TV here we come.
That will be a job of it's own. I fired a few emails out to participants who I have not communicated with in some time. I hope that they are happy, I am getting there.

End Game

The project is nearing completion. I have had edits critiques by CTV and am now having a going over by my colleague Gerri Excell along with her producer in the UK. Now in the third variation, it is now looking like something that will do the subject justice. I have recently had the pleasure of adding Audio Engineer Darren Hammett to the team. So many wonderful people who believe in this project, I can not begin to adequately thank them.

I am already researching my next project and my long suffering wife is checking my sanity. I will soon be putting up a web page to introduce the project. I will let all involved know when.

the URL will be:
thepartingstone.com

Commitment

Exams are over and a long talk with Gerri Excell has assured me the project is on the right track. All those who have volunteered content have delivered. I am now knee deep into putting it together. The one hour masterpiece is now looking like a 30 minute tightly scripted feature. I have been in touch with Shaw Cable and they are interested in running it when completed. I derive this from the fact that the fellow I spoke with four months ago remembered my name. I am hopeful, this is the season of hope, right?

The momentum Builds

The local turmoil over roadside memorials and it they should have a time limit, take down and replaced with some thing called a "Halo" seems to have fizzled out. The woman who initiated the firestorm with a letter to local council has withdrawn here letter and is contemplating legal actions against the City of Kelowna for having her letter altered the having it published.The issue is a sensitive one.

I managed to get a little more footage connected to the incident and well as a little publicity for the project. Steve McGinnis who will be providing some of the music for the soundtrack has told me that the disc is in the mail. I will be focusing on the editing of the project through the month of December and HOPE to have it in the can by the end of January. I will be shopping the finished product to a local cable company for getting it to air. My aspirations about a wider distribution got a dose of reality not too long ago. Guess I have to start modest and work from there. This topic is serious and needs discussion no matter what medium it takes. It is good to be back at it.

The last great act of deiance.

Personal issues have left my documentary in park at the moment but a move by our local government to take down the roadside memorials and replace them with a "halo" a metal band with the deceased's name and date of death has infuriated me so and has started the ball rolling again. These people just can not seem to accept that their idea of memorializing a loved one doesn't work for everyone. Some people can not bare to think that someone might think outside the box. No pun intended.

It will get done. Again as a result of a letter to our city council asking for these "Eye soars" to be removed, I find myself to have come off the fence and can not be objective in this film's message.

Initially my film was purely to examine the topic and issues around roadside memorials but now I have chosen to direct the film into a pro memorial stance. These are important messages which need to be heeded.

Society seems so afraid when we do something that does not conform and memorials are the most important act of non conformist behavior. The grief and the mourning is about the family, the loved ones and the friends.

The Storm Subsides

The whirlwind which I call August is near at an end with only one more trip to conduct. I am for some reason compelled to let all know, I have not forgotten you and am still on the case.

In the upcoming week, I plan to complete my interviews planned for this production. I will though be starting schooling full time in September but this is where I will begin the writing as well as primary editing.

While in Vancouver, I had the opportunity to chat with a number of people about my project. When they heard that I was working on roadside memorials, it was as if a light suddenly came on and they suddenly internally acknowledged all the memorials they had passed without before giving a second thought.

We all sleepwalk through life to one degree or another and it is my hope that by simply talking with these people that I have disabled the snooze button if only for a moment.

By the way, I totally enjoyed my time at the Justice Institute of BC. The instructors and my fellow students were a breath of fresh air.

Yet another roadblock

Family, don't you love them? Seems that August will be taken up by family manners and my editing platform is "in the mail". Once more at a standstill. I will return from Manitoba late middle of the month then God willing, snag my final two interviews, then the writing begins. I just have this compulsion to tell all those who have helped me to this place I am at that I haven't forsaken the faith and I will make this movie.

Time doesn't march, it gallops

And especially when you have things which need doing. Presently, I have my Mac back and it is working, I say that tongue in cheek. I have to catch up with a number of projects including our holiday footage from February which I still have not put together. I have summer schooling as well as preparation for a journey into the uncharted regions of Manitoba with my father for a visit to see my younger brother. And all this is not even touching my chores at home.

I did interview Janet, the only survivor of a crash which claimed the lives of her husband, younger sister and her boyfriend. Needless to say that the driver of the car that hit them was also killed. Here I learned many things, first of all, the driver that causes the tragedy does not get a memorial. This just seems to be a given in almost all instances. Their family's would rather just forget, or so it seems. This interview has shown me the depth of human strength and devotion. This lady defied medical odds and lived. Every major organ was damaged or burst from the impact and this doesn't even take into account the fracturing of nearly every bone in her body. One of the attending paramedics has since the accident and Janet's miraculous survival gained a profound belief in God as nothing else would account for this woman's survival. Though losing her husband and sister, she continues on despite her disabilities to be a good mother to her two you children who had their father taken from them.


Meeting Janet just makes me even more driven to complete this project. Working this documentary around life is a challenge but nothing like the challenges those left behind face daily. They have patience. I am now looking at an optimistic completion date some time in January. I have a couple more interviews to shoot then I trade the cameraa in for a word processor and the challenges that it will bring.

Getting closer

First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Belshaw for his time yesterday. John Belshaw and his wife, Diane Purvey authored the book, Private Grief, Public Mourning, a scholarly examination of roadside memorials in the province of British Columbia. A professor's time, especially during their off time during the summer is judiciously guarded and I so appreciate his contribution to the project.

Dr. Gerri Exccell of Reading in the UK has also been of great help and inspiration. After watching her documentary, In Loving Memory, recently aired on BBC2, I can see the sensitive scholarly treatment she gives the subject of roadside memorials. Dr. Excell educates the viewer to the multi layered nature of this topic in effect bringing most of us out of the "sleep walker" like state most of us go about our daily lives in. Gerri Excell takes us, for the most part, subconsciously kicking and screaming and reintroduces us to our humanity, our empathic side and the compassion most of us have long since buried. Gerri educated in a way that makes us whole as a people.

Gerri Excell teaches us that death is indeed a pivotal part of life. I encourage everyone to check out her new web site.
gerriexcell.com

The project is nearing completion of principle photography. This will be presenting myself with new challenges. I just now have to await my "New" i7 imac's return from repair.

And the Beat goes on

First, I must applaud Gerri Excell of Reading in the UK for her wonderful and touching documentary "In Loving Memory" aired 7, July on BBC 2. Gerri puts a human face on a subject which many fail to recognize the vast significance of. Roadside memorials are an expression of individuality in a world which demands cookie cutter citizens both in life and in death.

I concluded my interview with a grief councilor just the other day. Through this entire process, I am learning so much more about myself and what it means to be human. I am in the pre interview stage with a young woman who survived a horrendous MVA. She lost her husband, sister as well as a dear friend. After listening to her story of loss and her determination to set right her life, those out there prone to complain about our own adversities should be ashamed, myself included.

Next week I will be speaking with renowned academic John Belshaw. After that I will need only to collect a couple more interviews and principal photography will be completed. Then the next phase of this project will begin.

Again in the right direction

My hats off to Gerri Excell in Reading, UK for her Documentary, "In Loving Memory". The reviews were all in praise. I will see it one way or another.

After my experiences with life throwing curves, things are slowly getting back on track.
I hope to correspond with Gerri and learn from her experience. The interviews are again being scheduled. All the stories are important and deserve a voice.

My special thanks to my dear friend Ivan who gave of his time and friendship to help in my time of need.

Time for me to grab my phone and camera and get back into the field.

Reboot

My father seems to be coming out of the woods but there still remains much to be done.

I have been getting pickup shots with the Lake Country BC Ambulance station as well as having a wonder talk with Linda Woods. I am setting up a time to interview John Belshaw, renown academician on the topic of Roadside Memorials ans well have been in contact with Gerri Excell in the UK who is airing her documentary on the subject on BBC2 tonight. It is good to be back in the saddle.

The Brakes go on

Life has a habit of throwing up speed bumps. Yesterday my father has a brain stem stroke and is in coma. I will be taking a break from the project till things get sorted out. one way or the other.

A personal transformation

My wife say that I have undergone a change while working this project, as if I am searching for something which I am missing. This could be. Over the past few weeks I have been awaiting people to get back to me about submitting interviews. There has been little filming, just a little content here and there. Day after day, no emails. I was frantically checking every day and often numerous times and still nothing. I felt like a junkie looking for the next hit. Very strange.

I have today received two replies to requests for interview and things feel better. A book on the topic of Roadside Memorials arrived yesterday too. I am attempting to get in contact with the authors for their comment. We are slowly creeping forward again.

I heard an interesting quote yesterday which has helped me bring the whole thing into some degree of perspective.
" You do not just happen,.....you become."

A lul

I am discovering that getting the interviews is a large part of the work on this project and I am noticeably uncomfortable when I am not moving forward, ie: shooting and talking with people but this is a personal quirk I best learn to accept. I am working on research and scheduling so I am doing something I guess. I seem to have a topic which resonates with people, I have lots of support and I worry I will not be able to give this project it's due. My wife believes in me and what I am attempting and has no question that I will do nothing but my best.

I do not know whether this constitutes an emotional investment by me in this project. I hope so, I hope it says to anyone whom happens across this blog that I am serious, I think the people that have invested their trust with me, I hope it says to them that I am serious and respect and honor what they have entrusted me with.

It just doesnt stop

My wife and I went for a walk in the local cemetery, It was Father's Day and as one would suspect, the place was relatively busy. It was then I noticed the signs put up by the city. There were the "You will not's , the must no's and the prohbited's" I was amazed at the rules and regulations one must adhere to even in death. One must be orderly and fall into step.

Our walk took us to meet some private contractors working on the restoration of an older part of the cemetery. They were putting in curbing along the pioneer grave section. In the process of our conversation, my wife and I discovered that there are very specific regulations one must follow if they wish to be interned in this cemetery. Your headstone must fit certain dimensional and style criteria, you plot must be maintained by your family and there was to be a certain type of container for flowers. To me it was sounding more and more like a condo and the petty dictators on strata committees.

I am fast understanding why bereaved families so look to memorialize their lost ones in a fashion best for them.