Moving Right Along

Whew! What a week it's been! There's a lot going on in the Calvin household.. sure I say that all the time, but once vacation is over, things really kick into high gear. As promised, I will be using this blog to, among other things, track my progress on my latest film project, kicked off last week. I am happy to report that a lot has been done in the last 10 days, and yet there is much more to be done over the next week.

During the last week, much of the graphic design for the project has been completed and approved. In addition, my wife came up with the perfect idea for how to open the film and now the opening sequence has been planned and is scheduled to shoot on the 28th. She also has been a huge help in music planning and research, spending quite a few hours on-line looking into possible songs for certain parts of the project.

Another challenge has been finding just the right place to shoot interviews. These interviews will help to chart the progress of the season for all involved. Last year, these were all done in the open gym, but then proved to be difficult to schedule let alone trying to clean up the audio from the interviews to something usable with all the ball bouncing sounds and light hums. So this year, I needed something that would work better.

I found what should be a good filming place last week and over the next week, I'll begin "setting up shop" there. But what film looks good shot against a blank, brick wall? Not mine! And so began the process of creating a backdrop for this "set". I researched several options for this and finally found the answer, thanks to my friend Brent and the Utah State University Theater Department. They are creating the perfect back drop for us that will include the team logo for the year. Painting will continue on this through the end of the week, but as of today.. it is coming along nicely:

Meanwhile, here in Oregon, I am tackling the other issues: How to hang the backdrop, how to light the room, how to mic the room to get the best audio, camera placement to get the right effects, etc. (There's a lot more to it than just throwing a camera on a tripod and hitting the button), while starting to do camera and sound tests.

Cameras officially start to roll on Monday, so there is little time left to get things done, but all in all, I am getting there, and getting really excited to see so many things begin to really come together.

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Marathon Update: 20 weeks to go and my training is still on schedule.. I haven't missed a workout yet, even with the huge milage increase that came last week. All the work I did to get ready for this stage seems to be paying off as my body seems to be taking all the miles in stride (pun intended). Sure, I am a bit sore, that is normal, but not in the pain that I was in when I attempted this a few years ago. Plus, I am finally at the point where the long runs just feel good again. I can go run and not focus on the fact that I am running.. (I am too busy previewing possible film music on my ipod and mentally planning out the sequences that could be shot.) Granted I am knocking on the wood of my desk right now.. in hopes that typing this will not send my into injury mode on tonight's run. But as of now, things are going well.