March 20, 2007, 12:08 am

Last week, in my cinematography class, we shot our underwater project. In the corner of the studio classroom, that used to be a drama class, before the building was deemed unfit for the physical activity required by drama students (oh, and they got a new building too), there sits a large 8x4x5 water tank. The week prior to this we had shot outside every morning starting around 8am, with 250D stock, which was much too sensitive for the unexpectedly, but nonetheless welcomed, warm and sunny weather. We shot with the aperture essentially closed, f16 on our 8mm lens and even with the ND, I assume most of our shooting is overexposed. The stock was not ours by choice, but was provided to us at no cost, so it is not our place to complain.

Anyways, after this hectic shooting, and due to the night before, me staying up until late late late to shoot for the other production I'm currently working on, the underwater project was, well, not really a priority, I guess. My group seemed to feel much the same, though thankfully, one of my peers was brave enough to venture into the cold water with the camera in the air-filled underwater camera housing, requiring weights to keep it under the surface. Attempting to utilize the lcd viewfinder was difficult to say the least. On the ground next to the tank, our heads tilted, we struggled to view the small lcd on the gl-2 through the plexi-glass tank, the water and then the plexi-glass camera housing. I was nearly defeated, deciding that the project would turn out mediocre, and I was also disappointed, it was a great opportunity, but seemingly less-than-ideal conditions drove everyone in the group to a momentarily feeling of giving up.

However, now viewing the project, captured, though not edited, I'm pleasantly surprised to see some of the shots how we had hoped and some great material to sort through at some point and fit in somewhere else.

Four days of shooting ahead, I'm a little bit tired already.

In less relatedness, the new formatting of cbcradio2 is quite delightful. We're currently listening to "the signal" and it's been in the background of our increasingly late night workings for the last two hours. Is "brave new waves" still on? I don't think so, now changed into some other thru-night broadcast of mixed music, though likely not as eclectic as bnw.

I spoke over the weekend to my parents, over dinner, about the potential of a city like Windsor. In its massive sadness of a post-industrial urban failure, there is incredible possibility for a culture and arts-centered city, with particular attention paid to the environment. The auto industry will not survive, or at least will not continue to provide this southern-most part of the country with employment. Windsor's unemployment rate is the highest in the country at the moment, and yet even in this there is a silver lining, a motivating factor to recreate a city that is environmentally progressive and ready to move forward with social justice and culture as its mandate. There's so much work to do before something like this can ever be a reality, but hopefully it's not long before these steps begin. I think the Artist Urban Plans Symposium was a good start, and I hope that something clicked in with people from those lectures and we can start to make some real change to match the rhetoric and big-city projects.

By Justin | 0 COMMENTS | POSTED IN: text

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