eKaqchikel 2007 - Production Wrap!

eKaqchikel Project Site | Marie's eKaqchikel Flickr feed | Derek's Flickr Feed for today

We wrapped production in Panajachel today! Spent the morning shooting more of the "job description" photos around town, including teacher and bricklayer. Around 10am, we returned to the hotel grounds with Tojil, Ix'Im'Nik'te and Ix'Kamey to shoot the final dialogues.

When it came time to illustrate "writing," we were reminded once again, that Kaqchikel, despite being an ancient and traditional tongue, is also the language of a modern Mayan society. Rather than take pen to paper, Tojil posed with a laptop computer. Marie's Mac, no less!

Things were going relatively smoothly (new production audio annoyance: recycling crew) until the final shot. We were just setting up the last angle when the dark skies began to release rain. Lee and I grabbed equipment to bring it under cover, but the teachers told us not to worry. "It won't rain" they told us. And sure enough, the fat raindrops quit after a moment and the sun came back out. Still, we grabbed the final shot as quickly as we could and called it a wrap.

Later, we split up to get a few items accomplished individually and sometime around 5pm a small earthquake shook the town. I was on the beach looking for still shots and didn't notice the temblor, but Marie and Lee felt it. Hopefully, not a harbinger of something more...

Was also able to shoot and process a few more panoramas today, including a really nice one from the rooftop of a building under construction.

The final tally: 12 dialogues, 8 hours of footage (on 13 miniDV tapes), and more than 2500 still photographs. Quite the haul.

We have a few loose ends to tie up in the morning, including a few more still photo opportunities (accountant, and - with a little luck - fisherman). After we say our goodbyes to the teachers we'll leave around noon for Antigua.