MARCO'sMANIA and docs that seem to take forever to complete

Yesterday while outside in Montreal's NDG area it was snowing, inside, editor MC Sarda ........finishing MARCOsMANIA - a doc on bipolar buddy  shot over the past decade - yes a long long coverage of one guy's life & struggle with mental illness -
he was doing miraculous things back then

Well last post i thought my docs were up and ready to do post on but was in Montreal with editor MC Sarda, editing over past few days cause a small miracle had happened. Let me explain further... a 15 years back Marco and I took off in my old Volvo 245 wagon to cover the Maritime portion of his WorldHertiageSites shoot. He had over the previous years photographed all the sites east of Quebec so this was the last of them. His bi polar illness has overcome him from time to time so that it was taking years to complete this project. But the amazing thing of using the project as a healing therapy for his bipolar-ism, was the he was doing the entire project on his disability pension of about a thou a month and that he wasn't giving up.

Anyway, like a i said about a decade and a half ago i took off in my old Volvo wagon with camping gear to film/video his journey from Toronto to Anse aux Meadows on the St Anthony peninsula in northern Nfld which, by the way, is said to be the first Viking settlement in N.America. Well after many days of a strange, funny and eventful tour we arrived back in Toronto with about 12 hours of footage shot from my Sony D8 camera.

Then a few bouts with the wrong editors, etc., etc .. the footage lay dormant sort of half assed assembled for a decade until 2009 when after a severe bout with cancer, i decided i'd clean up all my 'undone' stuff and do worthwhile work to complete undon projects so at that time i picked up my camera and shot stuff with Marco on his ongoing therapy 'art cure' of his bi polar illness. But was unable to get the heritage footage back from the editor ... eventually we resolved our differences and i got it back after years of neglect but once again had problems with editing the Heritage footage.

Then i got hit with cancer and thus unable to do much for, once again, years (also my Mother became incontinent/ill and so Helene and I were spending much of our time travelling every week to Toronto from Ottawa to look after her needs eventually spending the last couple years full time in Toronto looking after her and me trying to recover from a traumatic cancer chest splitting operation. )

Well all those delays came to an end a couple years ago when i got back into movie making sort of a cure for my illness and my lethargy to tackle that movie again. I managed to update my equipment, contacted Marco after years and shot stuff that i thought would use all those years of problems into a 'new' doc. but once again some editing problems and disaster when the footage no longer seemed useable since my D8 Sony failed thus i was unable to log&capture the footage .. again delays

Lamenting the end of a movie made well well we'll see

After a year of this and that of learning FinalCutPro, of learning how to set up and log&capture HD footage from my Canon A1S to the browers, set up bins, etc., etc. , two more of my docs are finally ready for the final stages of colour correction/sound corrections so that's what i'm learning now slowly (mind u in my opinion one never learns all that FCPro can do unless they are a full time, pro editor - the number of people who i've encountered who do it 'part time' and who know how to do it but not why it goes that way and in fact only know about what i know which is 'as long as it goes well then I know it' when it doesn't go well - carimba!!  'Lord help me Jesus!' (as ChrisK. says) I call out for my pro pals who work with it every day for help - i bless them every night and light a candle in church {that's a metaphore of course since my church days are very few and far between - which may be why it took so long for FCPro to sink in?)

There should be a FCPRo intervention workshop where,  like those loose fat or recovery ur life so called 'reality' shows,  u can weep on shoulders that cry out for weeping souls who don't get all .. that FCPro offers - those classes I think would be full!

Anyway, like all those hardy filmakers who like myself believe that to be a true 'film/video-maker' u have to learn all the aspects so that when there's no money or little money and few people who can or want to participate  (and in Canada that's often enough) in a project that's close to your heart, that needs to be done, that cries out for recognition, u have all the means at ur disposal ... 'cause the only one u really need to help u is urself.

I know that movie-making is a collaborative creative, art and skill, that one gathers the team together as a producer and all that but so often the driven film-maker just has to make that movie, driven like a junkie, so to speak, to get to the heart of a story and display that heart to fellow humans - that need after all is what real, genuine creative people suffer from and suffer they do unless they learn it all and paint away on that canvas and without heat, comfort or moola create what's in their heart and mind!

p.s. all the babble means that 2 docs are done ; 2 more to go.... and go they will - remember 'Best is All - All is Best.'  What's that saying from some trite holywoody movie, 'Set ur movie free if it comes back with cash, buy a case of beer and celebrate.' (not sure if i got that quote right??)

MAY I SHARE MY DAY - DISASTER TO PERFECTION IN 8 HOURS

Howdy Canadian winter folks,

now isn't life like that - one wakes up into a disaster fozen cold water pipes to main floor washroom  (since i know how to thaw pipes it's really a minor disaster - and i know that when the overnight temp hits -25c that cold water pipe on the overhang washroom extension i built years back freezes. ) if one can't repair it themselves costs spell disaster - but when on can then the expensive disaster turns into a modest problem that one quickly remedies - after thawing the cold water pipe, i made a great 'cream of leek' soup of the day which is rare for me since i usually don't buy leeks but the chinese superstore had them on sale and i buy 'sale items' always over full price ones since I cook so much i'm aware of costs - then worked away on my movies and that went well - FCPRO actually didn't give me problems - then a game of scrabble and for a change i won - then out for a riverside ski and my tore painful heel was healed enough not to give me such a pain that i'd have to give up and come back since it was really a fine day in the sun despite the -15c it was probably half that in the sun and nature was out there greeting me and the other 3 skiers who's path i crossed - so of the 1.3 million people in this area, 4 of us were skiing ... makes one wonder what the others may be doing on this fine Canadian winter mmmmmmmm?

p.s. while i was skiing along the River i had this nice plump chicken in the new oven (bought a new oven/fridge recently after 25 years with the old ones) roasting with a nice rice based stuffing - when i got back i augmented the chicken with some really nice french fries from potatoes i bought in NB - very tasty meal that i'm now vigorously consuming after my great skiing exercise -

hope ur winter day was also fruit-full and fun ??

Mr. PETER 'Chuckles' EVANCHUCK

ahhhhhhhh FRUSTRATION GALORE - the never ending search and rescue of older projects and older cameras

  I don't know who it was that said, 'it ain't easy.' or 'It's not over 'till it's over.' probably a few million comedians over the centuries. Well i'm now repeating those well used words 'cause such a couple days have i had with camera problems and it seems not a FinalCutPro problem but a old decaying camera problem.
 A decade or so back i shot about 12 hours recording a biPolar buddy's 'art therapy' tour of travelling on the cheap, sleeping in or around my old Volvo wagon in tents or just on the ground,  and he taking pics of Canada's World Heritage sites from Toronto to the tip of the Northern Peninsula of Nfld. at L'Ainse aux Meadows where the icebergs float from the arctic ocean along the Lab. coast between Nfld and Labrador.
It was about June of '99 and the weather was fine for the start of the journey. So after about two weeks of 'roughing it' we returned with some great footage - it was screened but very little was done with it until  a few years later when it started to go from editor to editor without completion then we both had moved on and that footage lay dormant until about 3-4 years ago when I got back into movie making at a pro level and started to learn FCPro bought some equipment and got a job that took me back to the maritimes shooing in Nfld and NB.
Then I remembered that footage checked it out and knew there was a fine movie to be made with it - then once again i had editor problems and once again it lay dormate for a while until i learned FCPro and got more serious about tying up loose ends and using some of that endless footage i shot over the years but never made into completed movies. Also i ran into Marco the photographer, again and we sort of renewed our friendship. He was still sort of hoping to do something with his new Leica digital camera but wasn't that active any longer since his new meds for his mania had given him peace of mind but put on about 140 lbs. So now he was FAT MARCO and ten years later no longer energetic and wild.



story to continue in next blog ....

The learning never stops with FCPro

  The other day i pulled up one of my docs to continue working on it after a rather long absence - Much to my surprise things were not good -
    On my Fantom ext. drive half the movie was showing red blocks instead of the image and telling me that i was missing media - 'Media Offline' was the red reminder of shots/clips that were no longer viewable. A year ago when i was just learning FCPro this would have caused great consternation in my editing life as it would have sent any director/editor into a bit of a frenzy since working so hard to get it this far and then having more problems is no fun BUT that was then and this is now.
  Now after sort of learning enough NOT to go beserk, i started to attempt to figure out what went wrong but it was with the help of a professional editor that things cleared up instantly. Here's how one can 'locate media' that's on another drive but no longer on ur new drive. First connect the 'other external drive to a usb imput on ur iMAC - Go to the tiny 'camera' ikon on the time line's upper right hand side and set ur mouse pointed on it - a pull down menu will indicate that it's the 'find master shot' ikon when u click on that u'll notice in ur bin/browser a highlighted shot/clip - right click on that ikon and up will come a window menu - scroll down to 'connect media' click on that and another window appears with instructions to 'locate' the missing media from the original drive location - when it locates it on the lower right hand side u'll click on the 'choose' button then when new window comes up u click on the button saying 'connect' click on that button - now then connects ur missing media from ur original ( LaCie) drive to ur new Fantom drive and turns the red 'missing media' info on ur time line/canvas to the actual visual/sound shot/clip .... and peace returns to the director's frenzied mind
   Good luck and good editing.. it is fun when everything works smoothly , isn't it??

Producer/Director PETER EVANCHUCK

those inspired moments came to Peter Evanchuck while trying to end his doc. on homeless poet Robert Payne

I guess every Director while editing his movie will have edits that simply seem to work at the time but a week later, they seem awkward sometimes even all wrong. Or if the Director is also the cameraman, then while looking at the edits suddenly remembers a sequence or a shot that would better open or close or move the movie in the right direction with significant meaning.
Just the other day that happened to me. I've been having some real problems with the ending of my doc. on a homeless poet, Robert Payne. I didn't shoot the final scene and i no longer am able to find him so i've been stuck. Well i suddenly had that great moment, that inspired moment of seeing what i already had shot that was in the bin would 'fit'. It would create an open ended ending where the endless, aimless movement of the homeless would be clearly seen; where complacency is the rigour mortis of the soul for all involved.. even those who seem unable to help themselves ... those shots came together, the sounds came together and the movie seemed to have a proper ending....

ahhh finally a lotta smooth editing with FCPro - Peter Evanchuck

I guess for all who only have one brain cell working like me, when suddenly for no apparent reason, u remember all the ways to edit ur movie with FCPro and it all works and u spend all ur time editing rather than trying to figure out what went wrong ... well, then when that happens, that's a miracle day for this Director/Editor.

So today and the past few editing days have been like that. So to all u elders who are trying to learn something as complex as FCPro don't give up u'll have 'miracle days' that'll turn into miracle weeks.

Not sure how all other producer/director/cameramen edit but i usually remember every shot/scene that I took which is in the bin so when i bring it up in the viewer my memory is refreshed as i recall the entire shot and what was going on around and in my head when i took it. This speeds up my ability to edit a scene/sequence, I find it beneficial to bike or kayak or walk around and think about the movie then in my head make decisions what should go where and my head plays the shot into the scene and i know from my head's viewer how that will look - this facility helps me greatly

Today all that came together for a new addition to the opening and now she be smooth and very interesting to watch where time, place and intrigue are all satisfied in the viewers mind.

p.s. the motto is 'The Director that learns to edit their movie, saves a whack o dough!' I have a great fine cut editor who then goes over it and makes everything that needs to be smoother... smoother ... ahhh life is then very good to see one's hard work come alive and become finished.