From the blinds and the mini-helicopter to the quick trip to the upper Texas coast, the whole month of April was a blur.
One of the clearest/sharpest parts of that month was spent in blinds filming Greater Prairie Chickens in Kansas. After initially starting out on what was supposed to be the largest booming ground of these birds near Tecumseh, Nebraska, I shifted down to Kansas for logistical reasons after it became clear that there were just as many birds in Kansas and that the Nebraska booming grounds- for whatever reason- were all significantly smaller than either of the previous two years.
On a booming ground north of Emporia, I found a great location with good access and a nice number of males- 24. This seemed to be a good mix of location, nice size (in terms of number of males), only a few hours commute and good back drops. When on one day of shooting- 11 females arrived to look over the "boys", I was ecstatic. It became easy to make a commitment to a specific area.
In a marathon, one's mind needs focus to provide clarity, to monitor muscle and other bodily functions. In so much of the rest of our 'normal' lives this is done on an unconscious level. Becoming a marathoner, during the '90's changed some of this in my life, permanently.
Now my marathons are longer in nature. This film began in 2008 and I did not receive any funding until August of 2009. I made a commitment to this project by taking out a $30,000 loan thinking I would simply repay it immediately when the backer provided the first check. But then the recession kicked in. The first backer was unable to do anything at the time we had both talked about.
Free fall. I have never jumped out of a plane.
The courage and commitment to running those marathons has proved very useful to me in business. I've only made so much money because my heart out races my brain. But the steady pace comes through in the long run.
By mid-April, shooting the aerial footage of the extensive fires from the mini-Helicopter operated so well by Tabb Firchau was complete. Then the High speed camera arrived. This proved to be a major headache and an expensive lesson. I ended up with about 2 shooting days and fortunately the footage looked pretty good. Earlier a single worn-down battery (provided by the rental company) inside a proprietary box that controls important aspects of this beast allowed these horrible grainy bars across the image.
Finally, with only a few days left, after many emails and several phone calls, the problem was solved. Rain and poor weather delayed - I finally got the sunny conditions needed - perseverance furthers as the I-Ching advises. Steady pace- as I have learned.
Suddenly- in touch with post production supervisors from Fox Studios it rapidly became apparent that their advice was incompetent. The shooting for a new feature film the Big Year was due to begin in about 10 days but the contracted crew was not going to show up to a major location until well after the peak of migration had passed overhead.
I was somewhat dumbfounded by this and literally realized that if I hit the coast in time I could rescue the scene because the hired crew- supposed experts- were going to totally blow it.
Before I knew it, I was on my way to High Island, Texas... and that is where the next entry will begin.
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