Indy In The Can

Just a quick note tonight to share my excitement and pure geeky joy! For the first time in almost 20 years... there is actually new footage shot.. "in the can" as they say.. of Indiana Jones. (Cue the classic John Williams theme in your head) Sure he did a brief cameo for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles 14 years ago, but to me.. that hardly counts. Finally, a new feature film has officially started shooting, with all new shots of our favorite (and now much older..) archeologist back in action.

The film, which began shooting this last week, will continue to film throughout the summer in New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, near Hilo, Hawaii and other yet to be disclosed locations. Sadly, nothing here in Oregon.

But suffice it to say, that Harrison Ford was once again, wearing the old Fedora this week.. and my inner-geek is smiling ear to ear simply knowing that we're that much closer a whole new adventure to enjoy next Memorial Day!

Rest, Rafting and...Ryan

It's that time of year again..Time to reflect back and realize that my wife and I have been married 9 years!! That seems just amazing to me!! Boy, how time flies! This weekend it was really easy to reflect upon this fact as I was surprised by the announcement of our anniversary trip, something I was not expecting. To catch up on how we do our whole anniversary trip tradition, refer back to this post from last year. But this year, it was my wife's turn to plan, scheme, plot, and lie.. my turn to be surprised.

The adventure began Friday morning.. what I thought would be a regular day. I got up with the knowledge that, while it was indeed Friday, it was the Friday before one of our biggest shows of the year. This meant that the day would be filled with lots of last minute odds and ends to get ready, lots of e-mails and phone calls, and an overall zooey day. To drive this point home to me, my boss (in on the whole surprise) had been warning me all week about how important Friday would be to getting things done for the show. And so I got ready for work with the full intention of facing craziness at the office and it wasn't until I climbed into my car in the driveway that my phone rang with my wife announcing that I wouldn't really be going in.

SURPRISE DAY OFF! Cool! And even better knowing that I wasn't really missing anything, thanks to both my wife and bosses lies. But as my wife soon discovered, even the best laid plans can hit bumps. She got a call from our regular baby sitter, scheduled to watch Little Calvin overnight. Sadly, her adult son had been hospitalized that morning and was in the ICU for some unknown medical illness. In a panic and a rush of calls, she was able to put together plan B fairly quickly still giving Little Cal a great weekend. And then we were off to unknown destinations.

The day began with a nice driving trip up the McKenzie River into the mountains. What makes this a real treat is up in the hills... there are no hay fields.. which means I got a nice break from the height of allergy season... I could walk outside... and breathe! A miracle! We ended up at a resort called the Holiday Farm, a series of river front cabins just east of Blue River. There, we relaxed for the afternoon before going to dinner at the resort's restaurant. During our dinner out on the restaurant's large porch, a blues concert played on the other side of the resort enabling us to enjoy the music, while not losing out on the sounds of nature and the river at the same time. Just a perfect blend.

After dinner, it was off for a quick soak at Belknap Hot Springs, a nice, hot pool fed by a natural hot spring. As a fan of hot water, I was able to find that perfect spot where the hot water flows into the pool, and it becomes almost too hot to stand.. just awesome!

While the focus of Friday was relaxing and calm... Saturday was a bit hectic. (but also fun!). My wife surprised me with the announcement that we were booked on a river rafting trip down the McKenzie River. It has been since I was a junior in high school that I have been river rafting and I eagerly went along for the ride. And the McKenzie gave us quite a fun ride.

In all, we rafted over 12 miles of river with our guide and 5 others. The river got a bit wild in places with a few Category 3 rapids to experience. Luckily we all stayed in the boat, but boy did we get wet!!! Early in the ride I got blasted with a few tidal waves of water, as we hit the rapids in just the perfect place to cause me to get hit. But such is the fun of river rafting. And it's not like we weren't prepared in our wetsuits to make the 42 degree water bearable. I was actually quite toasty all afternoon.

Eventually we got to the end of the ride, and had just enough time to shower, grab some food and make the drive back to Eugene. There, I got another surprise. My wife took us to the Hult Center, Eugene's performing arts center, where from the size of the crowds, it was obvious that something was going on.. My wife just wouldn't say what. And she kept me away from any promotion posters for the event.

We walked into the theater, and to our seats only a few rows from the stage to find a simple setup: 4 bar stools and some musical equipment. I had no idea what this was. I finally concluded it was some kind of comedy show, but it wasn't until the cast hit the stage that I realized what I was in for. It turns out, one of my old favorite TV shows, Whose Line Is It Anyway, was on tour with "the whole TV show cast except for the Rich guy, the black guy and the bald guy". Any fans of the show will know who that refers to.

And so for the next 2 hours we were entertained by the world's best Improv comedy stars: Greg Proops, Chip Esten (he's in "The Office"!), Jefff Davis, and our favorite, Ryan Stiles. The show was outrageously funny as the group could sing, dance, and act out just about anything suggested. For instance, in their opening skit, they needed a profession to act out... they pointed to a guy in the audience and said "what's your job?" He replied "I fix chain saws bars." Needless to say, they had never gotten that one before, but did fine none the less. Then it was a song all about a lady on the front row who was a landscaper (and whose husband also happened to by the county's DA). And boy, Chip Esten can 80's dance, giving Wham a run for their money!!! In all the group was fantastic and seeing them all that up close and personal, was a great treat!

And so concluded the 2007 anniversary trip with a bang, a weekend that was a lot of fun, very restful and deeply exhausting all at the same time. Now the planning switches back over to me and I have a year or so to figure out next year's trip, a creative challenge that I thrive on. hmmmm. what to do.. what to do .

I'M NOT DEAD!

Bad blogger.. bad! I know, I know.. as many of my blog readers have so carefully pointed out in e-mails or phone calls.. "YOU HAVEN'T UPDATED YOUR BLOG FOR ALMOST 3 MONTHS!! ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"

I can definitely answer "Yes!" to that question.. that is.. unless everyone else that I deal with on a daily basis is also dead and no one has bothered to tell me. Hmmmmm. Nope.. not dead yet (I'm NOT DEEEAADD! I feel happy!) I have just had an extremely busy spring. Between constant work demands and working to take care of the family as my wife's arm recovers, life has been busier than normal and most of my typical blogging time just seems to get sucked away.

I have still been doing a lot of mental blogging, figuring out things to write about, mapping them out, normally while on my evening runs. But by the time I stumble through the door, the last thing I want to do is start typing. So I'll save those ideas for another time. Instead, I'll do a quick recap of various events of the last 3 months. That way I can still share the news, and then be caught up for my future blogging. So here's a quick summary of the highlights of the last few months.

Let's start... back in April. Dawn's arm now securely in a black snazzy brace, she began to return to normal life once again. And one of the first things on the agenda.. the girls weekend away to Utah for the NCAA Gymnastics Tournament. Blog readers may remember the origin of this trip, as described here. Suffice it to say, Dawn and Amanda won tickets to this years championship, while going to last years championship held near us, in Corvallis. The girls saved their extra pennies all year and finally bought their plane tickets to head East.

Joining then for the weekend tournament was my Mom, flying over from Colorado. I guess she just couldn't pass up a good "Girl's Weekend". Also joining then, at least for a morning of exploring downtown Salt Lake City was the girls of Dawn's family.

Needless to say, the girls had a ball. Their assigned seats at the event happened to be right in the middle of the Florida State fans section, and so to prevent them from cheering on other teams, the FSU crowd made them all "Honorary Gators", complete with t-shirts, pom poms, signs, pins.. the works. This just added to the excitement, although it was weird for me to watch my family, decked out in Florida gear, during the camera pans across their section during the CBS television coverage..

Next up.. Work. Been a busy few months having just inherited several new websites to manage with new products to learn. I am used to the luxury RV markets, but horse trailers, cargo trailers, and small towables are all a bit new to me. But challenges help us all to grow. I also got to help, as a "behind the scenes" photgrapher, on the production of a new video for one of my newer websites. And this wasn't just a basic "put camera on tripod and do some interviews" kind of shoot. This was a $50 grand, week long shoot, flying crew in from all over the country.... shoot.

It was educational to say the least, what with my fairly small sized films, to see the size of production this turned out to be. It was an insanely coordinated thing, much more than I was used to with gear, cameras, lighting all stung out as the crew slowly worked through the script.

The video all came together nicely, and premiered on one of my sites... well... this morning. You can watch it here..

Spring slowly began to turn to summer, beginning with Memorial Day. This year, there was just too much going on to justify a full weekend trip. And so we did a fun "mini-vacation". We headed up to Portland on a Sunday afternoon with the five of us, stayed in a family suites hotel, went out to dinner and then spent the evening playing in the hotel pool (an activity that just seems to get more and more violent the older the kids get). I have no idea why there seems to be such an obsession with "drowning dad".. who knows.. maybe they are just protecting themselves.. but things get pretty hairy. And then there is the "attempt to empty the pool cannon-ball style" contest. Yeah.. the hotel staff love our family... Best, most random line of the day came from Little Calvin with his "Dad, can I call you Larry?"

The next day, it was off to the zoo to see an assortment of animals. A few interesting sights.. Well, there was the large baboon that was.. ahem... let's just say... very HAPPY to be there that morning. There was the very large gorilla that threw a temper tantrum, swinging on his vine at a high rate of speed so that he could hit the cage glass feet first, making a huge noise and sending a dozen freaked out guests screaming in several directions. And then there was poor little Calvin complaining that his stomach hurt. We passed it off as just being tired from our previous night's exertions and eating too much breakfast buffet.

But after a busy day of zoo walking, he proved that he was serious, when were were just pulling on the freeway when he announced that he really was feeling bad, then .5 seconds later proceeded to throw up all over himself and the van. Needless to say... it was a long trip home.. and a long evening as he kept it up late into the night. Where does a kid HOLD that much stuff in that small of body? Yikes!

Next up.. Little Calvin got to finish his school year at camp. The entire school spends the second to last week at a day camp in the woods. It gives the kids a fun, new environment to learn new skills they just can't get in a classroom. It also helps them get to know kids in other grades that they may not have interacted with during the year. One of our biggest surprises of the week... Little Calvin actually had the guts to do a fairly tall and long zip line.

We worried he may be a little freaked out at the idea, as he typically has not been one for thrills like that. But not only did he do it, he was one of only 2 kids, who didn't sit down on the edge and scootch himself off the edge. Nope, he grabbed hold of the rope and just jumped for it. All week long he asked to go again, but sadly his group didn't have time to return to that station. But he still loved canoeing, archery, craft making and spent the weekend singing camp songs. (Pictured below are Little Calvin, his teacher and Abbie, on of his best friends)

One final event.. then I'm all caught up.. The Prefontaine Classic. For the track uninitiated, this is one of the premier professional track meets in the world, held each year here at Eugene's (Track Town) Hayward Field. This year, it was a good test run, as our little town will be hosting the track and field Olympic Trials next year, and this gave some of the elite runners more experience on our track before that meet.

What made this fun was the opportunity to meet several of the athletes the day before, shake their hands, and get their autographs. This year we got to meet "The World's Fastest Man", Asafa Powell, who is the current world record for the 100 meter dash, and Sanya Richards, the 400 Meter gold medalist from the last Olympics.

Having actually met the athletes and talked to them about their races for a few minutes made the meet all the more fun for the kids, as they rooted on their new favorites. All in all, a fun day watching a Kenyan runner Paul Koech, win the steeple chase by almost half a lap, Maria Mutola win the Woman's 800 meter for the 15th consecutive year, Matt Tegenkamp break the 2-mile American Record (while still coming in 3rd), and the 4 top one-mile runner's squaring of against each other in a brutal race.

And so.. there you are.. some of the big events of the last few months. Now I am finally caught up and have plans to continue to blog this summer. No more blog slacking for me. More to come... very soon!

OUCH!

If there is one thing I can say about my wife.. she doesn't like to do things halfway. If she is going to do something.. by golly, she is going to do it right. And this last weekend, she proved it.. the poor girl.

Friday morning, I casually (and sleepily) walked onto an airplane in Minneapolis, to take a long flight to Portland. While I was somewhere over Montana, my wife was just getting ready for the day. Having taken Little Calvin to school earlier, she was showering prior to picking him up and heading to the airport to pick me up. She stepped out of the shower to dry off, took a step onto the bathroom linoleum floor, and for some reason, felt both of her legs slipping out from under her on the wet floor. Down she went.. backwards. Instinct took over and she threw her left arm behind her to brace her fall. As she fell backwards, she looked down at her bracing hand, just in time to see her wrist snap and break as she hit the floor. Immediately she knew she had just broken her wrist.. and needed help.

Now, nothing against my wife, but when things don't go her way, she can get angry. And in this case, that sense of anger is what really helped her. She was angry that she could tell she just sustained a major injury, and as spring break was just beginning with lots of family plans coming up, as well as work demands, this was NOT the time for a major injury! But her anger helped her work her way out of the bathroom, to get dressed and call a friend to help get her to a doctors office, all while having her left hand lying uselessly on the bed. It was this drive that kept her mind thinking clearly, to use her first aid skills (she teaches first aid classes) to teach her friend how to make a splint out of magazines (while carefully sorting out the ones that she thought I may still be reading), and bandage herself up to get some medical attention.

By the time I got off the plane, my cell phone was ringing to tell me what was going on, that she wouldn't be picking me up at the airport, and that I need to get to the hospital ASAP. She had already been to the doctors, taken X-rays, and was then immediately sent to the ER for treatment. Every doctor that looked at her wrist, could immediately tell it was broken, as it was disfigured significantly. Luckily, the bone was not coming out, but it was tweaked enough to give people the shivers.

Soon after landing in Eugene, I got my car, and headed to the hospital. By the time I got there, the doctors had just finished setting the bone. She was (luckily) out cold, with her hand hanging from a raised hook, with her fingers stuck in some medieval looking torture device. With her fingers locked in place, the doctor could pull down on her arm to pop everything back where it should be. According to the Dr. it took all his strength to pull it all out, but as seen in the x-rays, he did a perfect job. While I was glad to be a the hospital with her, part of me wasn't upset that I missed that procedure.

After more x-rays, a cat scan, and a LOT of morphine (for her)... we finally left the hospital. And for the rest of the weekend she got to deal with a large cast almost up to her shoulder, being unable to move much, and in a great deal of pain.

Fast forward to today (Tuesday). Right now she is finishing up in surgery. The doctor just handed me the groovy X-ray of the plate that now supports her wrist bone, nicely screwed in place on the operating table with 8 screws (Click image below for larger view).

Her full arm cast will be replaced with a half arm brace that she will wear for the next few weeks. Sure, the next few days will have some painful recovery for her, but she soon should be back to normal. And who knows.. with that kind of hardware in her arm, she could become all powerful on the volleyball court next year. I am struggling to remove Star Wars references from my head ("She more machine now than.." wait.. never mind). But so far so good in the recovery process.

But, everyone who sees the original x-rays and her original injury can all agree.. she did a REAL good job in breaking this bone!! My dad would be proud.. There was no "Half-Assing" here!

My Psychic iPod

It started out a little weird... now it is just plain creepy. I swear, my iPod is psychic.

I must admit, the iPod in general is the greatest invention of the last 10 years. Forget the Walkman, capable of playing a cassette tape of 90 minutes of music, with its warping tapes that a small child (or dog) could pull out and ruin in .3 seconds. I remember being so excited when I got my first one.. "Wow! I can take my music with me!". And thus began the days of carrying the walkman with me, along with a large box of cassette tapes to hold my music. One backpack and I could take it all with me, where ever I went (assuming I had a good supply of batteries, unless I wanted to hear really sloooooow tunes).

Then came the portable CD player. I can also remember the first time I listened to a song on a CD, standing at the electronics counter of Best, listening to "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. Suddenly, I had to have one of these little gadgets with such high sound quality! And forget the box of tapes... now all I needed was a CD wallet and again, I could take my music with me.

But now, iPods rule the world. Beginning as a player that could hold an astonishing 1,000 songs (Like we'd ever take THAT many songs on the road with us at once), iPods continue to get larger and larger. Nowadays, they can store, what.. 25,000 songs, your entire lifetime worth of photos, plus an entire living room's worth of DVD movies, and tv shows.. and entire entertainment center, that fits right in your pocket. I never leave home without mine.

Gone are the days of waiting in boredom in lines or in doctors offices, when at any point, I can pull out "Lost" or "The Office" and catch my favorite episode. I could even tell when kind of shift was taking place this week, as I spent the week traveling to Indiana for my job. During an entire days worth of flying, I never once pulled my laptop out of my bag (where as it typically never leaves my hands). This trip, it was my iPod that kept me entertained, as I watched 2 episodes of the "Office", an episode of "Lost" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" en-route to Cincinnati.

But what is really weird is, as I said, my iPod tends to be psychic. Somehow it "Knows" what is going on in my life and can play the appropriate music for almost any occasion.. without me doing anything.

During the work day, my iPod sits on my desk, attached to a speaker allowing me to have music playing quietly in my office as I work. Usually, when listening to music, I select "Songs" (which selects from all the tunes in my collection) and then it randomly pulls songs to play. It has thousands of songs to choose from, but what it chooses.. gets eerie.

Last year, I blogged about this phenomenon as I was intrigued that my iPod happened to pick Bill Cosby's "The Dentist" while sitting in the dentists chair. But lately, it has gotten way more than just coincidental in its "random" music picks, it must be psychic. Let me give you some examples:

• While helping a friend with some graphic design for his thesis, the iPod, happened to play 3 songs from an Album by Big Wreck, the same album that he and I used to listen to repeatedly while college room mates. It hasn't picked songs by that artist in years, or since. But it did right then.. and 3 of them. Weird.

• While talking to a friend about his upcoming trip to Disneyland, it began to play songs from my Disneyland Soundtrack.

• While boarding a plane, the iPod JUST HAPPENS to pick "Jet Airliner" by the Steve Miller Band.

• Upon reading that the new Harry Potter book will be out this summer, in the background, the Harry Potter theme begins to play.

• Even this week, while traveling for some meetings with my boss in Indiana, the iPod dipped into the Motown collection playing:

"Going Back to Indiana" by the Jackson 5

"Jimmy Mac" by Martha Reeves (that's my bosses name, by the way)

or even "Gary, Indiana" from the Music Man Soundtrack.

It's almost like my life is a movie, only the soundtrack plays out loud, the iPod queueing up the perfect tune for the situation, or the things that I am thinking about.. Guess I better watch my thoughts! It does provide for plenty of those slow looks, as my head turns sideways, the look of shock and surprise when the tune perfectly fits the situation. And there it sits, smiling back at me in its little iPod cradle on the desk.

I just must be careful... And if I start hearing "Fired" by Ben Folds or "Burn, Baby Burn (Disco Inferno) by the Trammps, I'm running for it!

Goodbye Mr. Incredible Car

It's gone... all gone.. goodbye Mr Incredible car! Most people may not understand this reference. It was invented by my friend Zak as he watched me drive my car down the street. Being that I am an.. eh... bigger guy, and I drive a smaller little sedan, I was told I looked like Mr Incredible driving down the street, me all hunched over at the wheel trying to maneuver the thing.

That thing was my 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage... the car I have owned for the last 7 years. Purchased with only 20,000 miles on it, I have obviously spent a lot of time in this little car over the years as I suddenly found it nearing 200,000 miles. My wife and I had talked for the last 6 months about the fact that a change needed to happen before the car would need some serious maintenance, the older it got and the more miles I racked up. But financing a new car, and making a whole new car payment, after having spent several years owning it free and clear, was just not appealing to us. And what kind of car could we afford to buy free and clear from the get-go? Well, probably a car with 200,000 miles. So what was the point of looking at options. There simply were none, but wait for the little beast to die.

Suddenly, an answer to our quandary came out of nowhere, hitting us like an unexpected brick to the head. My wife heard through someone at her work, of a car for sale. This one was just as old as our current car, a 1998 model year vehicle. But amazingly enough, it only had 48,000 miles on it. The car had one previous owner.. an elderly couple whose husband had been a mechanic. It didn't have a single scratch (something I certainly couldn't say for my Mirage that I had driven into the ground), not one flaw in the paint, as it had spent so much time in the garage. The interior was immaculate. And it's owners had done every bit of preventative maintenance you could imagine. When I went to look at the car, I was presented with a large file folder, filled with every receipt for every oil change, and every expense ever put into the car.

My only hesitation was really about pride. The car was an Oldsmobile.. a brand that I had always associated with elderly people. Me? An Oldsmobile driver? I don't think so.. No old lady car for me! After all, my next vehicle was supposed to be my big honkin S.U.V. or something fun.. certainly not an Oldsmobile...

But as I drove the car.. something happened. I discovered.. this was a nice, COMFORTABLE car!! My old Mirage... was a very base model car. No frills, no comforts. This car had leather seats, actual power windows and locks, a V6 engine. Things I certainly was not used to!! So while my Mirage was a baseline unit of 1998, this was a 1998 luxury car, filled with lots of driving perks that I had never had before. Suddenly the brand name didn't seem to be a very big deal. Driving down the road in comfort and a big, powerful engine under the hood, rather than my gutless 4 cylinder engine.. suddenly that was important.. desired.

And so I began to explore the potential.. of owning an "old lady car". And it didn't seem so bad. The biggest problem.. in order to be able to buy the car outright, I had to sell the Mirage.. something that I thought would be virtually impossible. Who would want a old, beat up, gutless, basic, boring car? My wife suddenly had a thought and called me at the office 5 minutes later with the news.. "I just sold your car." WHAT?!

As absolute fate would have it, she thought to call a friend. That friend had a daughter just finishing high school. A daughter who had just pulled money out of her bank account THAT DAY to go car shopping THAT AFTERNOON, as she need a car to take to college. As soon as she heard that our car was for sale, and that we'd sell it for a good deal, she bit. And it would be a perfectly fine car for a college student!

And so, in 2 days time, I went from not even looking for a car, to selling "the Mr. Incredible Car", to buying an "old lady car". It's amazing how things can change so quickly.

Now, we thought the story had ended there, but it turns out, it continued. 10 days after the "Mr Incredible Car" was purchased, the car turned out to be more incredible than we ever imagined it to be. It's new owner, all proud of owning her first car, and still a bit inexperienced behind the wheel, pulled into traffic not seeing a speeding car roaring down the inside lane of a 4 lane highway. She was side-swiped, being hit just behind the driver side door with enough force that the driver's seat was shoved into the passenger seat. The car was totaled.. the Mr. Incredible car now truly gone.

But what we found incredible was that the car, for as sick of driving it as I was, for as much as I couldn't wait to get rid of it, thinking of it as a piece of junk.. that car saved her life. According to authorities, had it been almost any other kind of car, she would have been killed in the accident. Instead, she walked away with a broken collar bone and some minor bruises. Yes, she had to be cut out of the car, but she made it. And the car is getting a lot of credit. When we heard of the accident.. that it was my old car destroyed on the highway, we feared the reaction that may come from her parents. But with tears in their eyes, they actually thanked us for selling her that car, as it has done what it needed to do. It had saved a life as it met its end. Had she been driving any of their other cars, she would no longer be with us.

Sure, it's weird seeing photos of the car that I spend so much time and put so many miles on, as nothing more than twisted metal. But it was a good car. And it wasn't until the end that I really appreciated it. Sounds silly, I know. It's a car. But it was a good car. I just have to hope that the new car can keep me just as safe if necessary. But it has too.. heck.. it's designed for old ladies!

Family Film Festival

One of the things that I always try to do as a parent of 3 creative kids is to give them a variety of things to try, to push their creative buttons so to speak. And this weekend proved to be one of those times.

It was Friday night and we had just gotten word that my daughters Saturday basketball game had been canceled. What had been a very full day previously, suddenly became wide open, and I realized I had no plans.. nothing to do with the kids. I really don't like to just sit at home with them.. waste a perfectly good day of time together, but I had no idea what to do. To make it more interesting.. I was low on funds for the weekend, meaning the typical activities of movies, swimming, etc. were not possible.

Suddenly, out of nowhere came an interesting idea. It hit me all at once, along with how I could pull it off, the rules and the structure. Immediately it became known as the "Calvin Family Film Festival".

Here's how this works.. Each kid chose a movie that we had on DVD (no rentals allowed). Then they were to pick one character and one scene from the film. The scene had to be less than 5 minutes in length, and had to be one that would work for our purposes, and timelines. What the kids would then do is assume the identity of their chosen character. We would load the scene onto the computer, and then identify every place where that character was shown. I would then go in my video editing software and splice the film in each spot. By the time we were done we had a list of specific things to shoot with our own camera that would be edited into the scene.

Due to this style of editing, you can see why we had to be careful about what scenes we could pick from. If the character was seen in a wide shot with other characters.. that would be too difficult to swap that character out. So the kids ended up picking mostly dialogue style scenes, shot in a back and forth style with other characters. Originally Tyler wanted his scene to be taken from one of my U2 concerts... the thought of him on stage with Bono was very cool for him. But with all the wide shots involved, and even matching the lighting to shoot close-ups, would prove too difficult to pull off in an afternoon. Plus I'd have to find him a guitar...

And suddenly the house was a buzz with the kids hard at work on solving their creating challenges. Finding clothes to match for costumes, and coming up with ideas for places to shoot footage that would match, or figuring out how to construct the "set".

In the end (It ended up being Sunday afternoon), each "film entry" was shown at the family festival. We had popcorn waiting, and each of the kids had not seen their sibling's work so that it would be a surprise. We had awards (brownies) for each kid.. not an overall winner so that the kids would be actually competing against one another, but awards for things we felt were successful solutions to their creative challenges. Then we enjoyed watching each film.

It was pretty fun watching the kids really freak out when we got to the final editing stage of their scene. I don't think what we were doing really sank in until after everything was shot and going into the computer. Suddenly watching themselves interact with people from their favorite films, with all the right timing, and sound.. it looked fairly convincing. Sure, I could have gone about 10 steps of perfection into this, trying for exact matches, but I kept reminding myself that this was for the kids, and that there were 3 of these to produce in only a few hours.

So here's the rundown of entry's into the 2007 Calvin Family Film Festival:

Entry 1: "Little Trouble Maker"
By Amanda

Amanda chose to play the role of the child trouble maker in "Cheaper by the Dozen".. the one that orchestrates Ashton Kutchers fall into a swimming pool and his getting attacked by a dog, due to the soaking of his underwear in meat. This was one of the easier ones to do as the scene proved to be simple and could be shot in our backyard and laundry room. Her challenge: come up with a way to shoot a close up of her behind a giant pile of ground beef.. without actually using any from the freezer.


Entry 2: "Meeting Harry"
By Tyler

Tyler, after getting his U2 idea rejected, went with another character: Ron Weasly from the Harry Potter movies. The scene was from the first film when Harry and Ron met on the train. In the scene, Ron and Harry talk to one another, Herminne enters and then Ron attempts to turn his pet rat yellow (no animals were harmed in the making of this film). The challenge here was to successfully recreate the train set up in such a way that what we shot could pass for a moving train. Although we really didn't get too close in this challenge, the shots go back and forth between Harry and Ron so quickly that it just about works. The shots where Harry and Ron look at each other smiling and laughing.. work especially well, and it is wacky seeing my son connect with a fictional character in a visually convincing way.

Entry 3: "Enter the Pirate"
By Little Calvin

LC picked one of his favorite flicks at the moment "Pirates of the Carribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest". What made this whole scene possible is the fact that we had just gotten a new book case, and the empty box was in the living room. Laid down on it's side, it resembled a coffin. Add to that his pirate Halloween costume, and the whole idea quickly came together. The scene: Jack Sparrow's coffin escape, as he blasts his way out of a coffin and rows to his ship using the coffin's original inhabitant's skeleton leg. The challenge here was finding a wide enough shot in dark enough light. Although we mostly pull this off (and lots of computer generated fog helped), you can still see the whites of our piano keyboard in the background (I was not about to move the piano for this... sorry!)

Sooo, the awards:
"Best Use of processed fake meat": Amanda
"Best conversation with a fictional wizard": Tyler
"Best entrance by a pirate": Little Calvin

All in all, it proved to be a fun idea. It filled up the weekend, provided family entertainment, allowed me to spend time with each of the kids, and didn't cost a dime. I think the festival may have to become an annual tradition.