eKaqchikel 2009 - Sunday Morning Pre-Production

eKaqchikel Application | Derek's Flickr Feed for today | Marie's eKaq Flickr photos

Sunday, July 19 - Now fully recovered from the yesterday's travels. I'd like to claim jet lag but we never left our original time zone. We are an hour earlier here since Guatemala doesn't observe daylight savings time. Maybe that's it...

The morning in Panajachel is clear, dry and warm. In the past we've had to deal with intermittent rain – never good for production. Even moving the show indoors doesn't really help as the rain noise affect the mic's audio pickup. We had no choice but to precede sometimes, rain or no, but it's never our preference.

Marie and Valerie are spending the morning working on scripts for the week's production. Since we'll be producing content for the final segment of the language application, the dialogues will be oriented to tying together the vocabulary, grammar and cultural concepts from the previous segments. More on that as it shapes up.

Also this morning, Lee and I will be breaking the production gear out from the shipping packaging, setting everything up and making sure all arrived in working order. There's not a lot we can do if something important arrives broken, but we also don't want any nasty surprises when we go to set up for the first shoot. And with a little warning, we can improvise.

Our hotel in Panajachel is the Posada de Don Rodrigo. It's one of the better spots in town, both in terms of personal and production amenities. The staff is unfailingly helpful and supportive in our efforts, coming up with whatever last minute props and assistance we need. They've provided us with uniforms, place settings, rooms, food, and more. We've even used a staff's family home in town as a production location. Whatever they can do for us, they have.

Perhaps the greatest asset we've borrowed from the hotel over the last few years is their beautiful gardens and grounds. These have proved to be effective backdrops for all parts of the production. Depending on where we setup and point the cameras, we can make every scene look like a different location. Very convenient when there are 12 dialogues to record in four days! This year, we'll almost certainly be using the hotel as a backdrop for some of the segments, but script requirements are going to call for locations further afield, as well.

And least we forget, today is Lee's birthday! Because our production trips fall during the same time each year, Lee has spent his last four birthdays with us in Guatemala. A few years ago, on the occasion of his 40th, our Guatemalan hosts threw quite the shindig, complete with cake, flowers and song. Take a look at the pix! Thanks for sticking with us Lee. And happy birthday!