Award winning filmmaker Dr. Penelope Price is on her way to Kabul, Afghanistan with a crew of one, a cameraman, to shoot a documentary.
A few months ago I discussed this project with Dr. Price and suggested she set up a dKos account, introduce herself to this community, chronicle her endeavor with diaries while on location in Afghanistan, and look into screening her film at NN10 in Vegas next summer.
Yesterday, I received this message to a follow up email:
Hello Rob ,
I wanted to set up an account with the Daily Kos, but since I am teaching full time and researching/arranging this trip, I did not have time.
However, I will take you up on your offer to "post things for me." Perhaps, you could be my liaison with Daily Kos.
So, I will attach my "blog." Please feel free to edit it. It is addressed to my documentary filmmaker friends, so it might be too specific for your audience.
Here is the first installment...from Atlanta on December 7th, 2009
It is my honor and privilege to oblige.
December 7, 2009
I am at the Atlanta airport now, sitting in the Delta "Sky Club" lounge...drinking a
scotch to get me ready for the 13.5 hour flight to Dubai.
On flight from PHX to Atlanta, I read and critiqued all the final scripts from my Screenwriting Class. Now I will import the grades. Love the Internet! Give final exams while you are in the air. My final doc projects are going to be posted for me on You Tube to view and critique.
We, Frank Kraljic (my Director of Photography) and I, watched some CNN footage of Afghanistan and Iraq this morning at the PHX Airport. It looked so dusty and tragic and ugly and horrific. I want to find the beauty of Afghanistan. Everyone says it is beautiful...land of magic. It is the land of the stories of the Arabian Knights (or Nights?) It is the land of the great mystic poet Rumi. I want to start the film with this poem by Rumi:
Only Love,
Only the holder the flag fits into,
And wind. No flag.
We are thinking of shooting all the soldiers like news footage from the shoulder, and all the Afghans in beautiful golden tones and composition...from a lower angle like I did with my DP in El Salvador. Frank likes the idea, is totally on board. It is great because he is thinking of camera and I am thinking of story.
Regarding story, I have a clip I am about to show Frank of a camera style that I think really works for story.
It is hand held, done by a young man, Manny, who is a Documentary DP, who shot one of my students” TCM275 pieces. Manny is NOT a student, he is a professional working out of LA.
Also, Frank and I talked about the tendency to stop shooting because the composition goes awry, because as DP, you are thinking "composition" but as Director, you are thinking of story...and when you get back to the editing room, you notice, we both have noticed, that we don't hold the shot long enough. Just when the dramatic action is getting interesting, we cut. I did this in Iraq, at the Kurdish New Roze festival in Sulamania. I had this great shot of Kalat and Kajow and they were just getting relaxed and interacting beautifully, and I was the DP and I cut... I thought the framing was off.
But now, with me paying attention to the story and Frank to the camera...maybe we won't do that.
Now I have to email Marnie and see who is picking us up at the airport in Kabul.
Thanks for the diary, Penelope – can't wait for the next installment.
It strikes me as a bit treacherous for an unmarried, unrelated American couple to traipse about in Afghanistan.
Please be safe and return in one piece.