eKaqchikel 2008 - Production Peccadilloes

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Tuesday, July 22 - The primary reason we travel to Guatemala for this production is because this is where the kaqchikel language speakers are. We take advantage of the lake, the town, the lush foliage and all the rest of the beautiful surroundings, and include as much of it as we can in the production, but our focus is the language. So, after days like today, you wish you could move the whole works into a sound stage. Forget the breathtaking volcano vistas. I want quiet!

Today seemed like a repeat of our constant production troubles from last year. No matter which direction we turned, environmental sounds invaded - the hotel marimba and drum set, angry birds, launchas on the lake, argumentative passerbys, rattling trucks, buzzing tuk-tuks, the hotel PA, droning radios, passing prostilitizers, and finally - rain. On that last, it's not just about getting wet - we can move to indoors or covered locations - it's the sound of the rain. Whether bouncing off the leaves, sidewalks or tin roofs, rain is noisy! And the light too - clouds and rain make for inconsistent lighting conditions. Spending time shooting sound footage - where the quality of the sound is especially important - reminds me why Hollywood builds soundstages.

Our little production peccadilloes aside, it was still a productive day. In the morning we completed the final weather dialogue. The vignette was about rain, and - not surprisingly - there was no actual rain to be found in the morning. No worries. We had the teacher enter with an umbrella and shake it before launching into his dialogue. If that doesn't sell rain, I don't know what does!

In the afternoon we began the town dialogues. We'd been suffering sound issues all day - stopping frequently to let the latest audio affront pass. But this is when the rain took over. In the end, we were able to shoot around it, with the worst of it miraculously pausing while we shot the critical moments.

We also recorded the teachers speaking specific phrases that we will edit and work into the final product. Things like "good job" when the student answers a question right, or "sorry, try again" when they answer wrong. All in Kaqchikel, of course. Here's a little clip of the last bit of recording we did today.

We'll pick up tomorrow with more town dialogues and, hopefully, the first home dialogues.