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 The woman who initiated the firestorm with a letter to local council has withdrawn here letter and is contemplating legal actions against the City of Kelowna for having her letter altered the having it published.The issue is a sensitive one.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.