eKaqchikel 2008 - The Home Stretch

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Wednesday, July 23 - Smooth sailing today. We set up and shot in four different locations, including the home of a local family. The last was a "tour" of the home to illustrate the rooms of a house. It could have been one of the more difficult sequences but actually proved to be one of the easiest.

One of the benefits of our multiple visits - four total for the entire project, with three spent at the same hotel - are the relationships we've built. Arturo, one of the hotel desk managers, sent us to his parent's house just down the street. They were gracious, welcoming, and their home fit our requirements perfectly. We wrapped the house interiors within an hour.

The house was in the afternoon. The morning was spent finishing the "directions" dialogues. For these we returned to the hotel gardens where we spent so much production time last year. The rain almost held out for us, but at noon (and literally, like clockwork) the skies opened up. Fortunately, we had finished most of the production by then. Our actors were troopers, though, standing in the rain to record their last few lines. Lee was nearly a casualty though, an avocado tried to take him out...

We can now call the production "95% complete." Tomorrow morning we'll pickup one final (and simple) recording session with one of the teachers and then head back up the road for a few more B-roll shots of locations around town.

I've continued to shoot segments with the Flip Video camera. No new surprises. It continues to be a limited, though useful tool. The image quality is adequate and the mic picks up a wide range of sounds (sometimes too much, in fact). I wish it had some sort of mic input, but that's probably asking for too much. My biggest complaint is that it's awkward to use - the buttons are simple and self-evident, but simply starting and stopping the device can be a chore. The plus, though, is a big one - it's small and convenient and therefore easy to always have on hand. Of course the same could be said about the video recording capability of your digital still camera. I'm tempted to put them on a par. But if you don't already have a video capable digital camera, the Flip fulfills the function easily and cheaply.