How long have I been off the road? Actually, scratch that question. Was I ever on the road to begin with?
Dan has directed me to stop worrying about posting blog photos from eight months ago, and get back to what's going on right now, 'cause things are definitely happening.
In many ways the final days of production of SFD and the dissolve back to the city through the cleansing grasslands of the Pikkani and Blood are such a distant and surreal memory. The lessons have sunk in - at least some of them.
But as is often the case after strange experiences in foreign lands, the return home reveals a new layer never noticed before. For the most, the experience has been characterized with a renewed zest for the art form of film... or maybe just the artistic process and the pragmatic elements that facilitate it.
I'm excited about my ability to "act locally and think globally". Toronto is at an important time in it's lifetime and I'm feeling very excited to be around the intelligence and wisdom of the people who live in my building, on my street and in my neighbourhood. And across this city, there are elements of huge potential in the population's ability to create a better community for ourselves, and thereby become an example of the changing values of modern cities.
Why do I say that, you ask? Toronto is a locus for money (provincial to international). It has a drive toward and chance to attain more autonomy over it's affairs. There is a skilled and intelligent citizenry here made up of a diverse array of cultures. AND -- the secret weapon-- Toronto has an arts scene that is vibrant and arguably growing (though embattled). Good things are possible, and I'm not talking about a championship for the professional hockey team (you can't have everything).
Still, the fiscal realities of living in a city and trying to make art on the side have had some low points, even with all this good energy behind it. I was only away for 6 months. Dan was away for more than four years! I respect some of the thoughts that must have been flowing through his mind has he faced the challenge of refocusing in the place he left behind and the work yet to be done to bring this project into it's next phase.
This brings us to the present. Only a month ago, it seemed everything was frozen. This month has revealed that it was the river in winter: frozen only on the surface, all the while moving steadily from the source to the sea. And so, my work in my trade (continuity) has started to pick up, coinciding with the coordination of elements of SFD's post production (carving the captivating sculpture from the amorphous block of footage) as well as our web platform development. The latter is my portfolio. While I we have a concept, we must learn how to practically apply this concept so that it does what we hope: to create something that will create ripples like a stone in a pond. To do this, the platform will make available more of the footage and connect our audience to the network assembled through the process of production, and allow those contacts and the audience to continue to educate, discuss, and build towards the new paradigm. There is hard work ahead, but the benefits are going to be amazing.
And by dealing with these new challenges, Windpath Films will move toward the goal of producing all manner product that can further understanding of the complexity inherent in man-made systems, and the simplicity of the natural forces that surround us.
To me, this goal is epitomized by the HBO TV series, "The Wire". When I first started watching, I thought it was just a shoot-em-up cops and robbers show. Now (nearing end of season 4), I realize that that was just the tasty bate that brought me into something that I never thought I'd be learning from a TV series: the complexity of and amorality behind the North American concept of justice and so-called democratic capitalism. WHAT THE HELL?! Brilliant and beautiful, because instead of numbing the mind and making it complacent, productions like "The Wire" can reawaken our thoughts about the world around us.
The trip is done, but the journey is just beginning.
Dan has directed me to stop worrying about posting blog photos from eight months ago, and get back to what's going on right now, 'cause things are definitely happening.
In many ways the final days of production of SFD and the dissolve back to the city through the cleansing grasslands of the Pikkani and Blood are such a distant and surreal memory. The lessons have sunk in - at least some of them.
But as is often the case after strange experiences in foreign lands, the return home reveals a new layer never noticed before. For the most, the experience has been characterized with a renewed zest for the art form of film... or maybe just the artistic process and the pragmatic elements that facilitate it.
I'm excited about my ability to "act locally and think globally". Toronto is at an important time in it's lifetime and I'm feeling very excited to be around the intelligence and wisdom of the people who live in my building, on my street and in my neighbourhood. And across this city, there are elements of huge potential in the population's ability to create a better community for ourselves, and thereby become an example of the changing values of modern cities.
Why do I say that, you ask? Toronto is a locus for money (provincial to international). It has a drive toward and chance to attain more autonomy over it's affairs. There is a skilled and intelligent citizenry here made up of a diverse array of cultures. AND -- the secret weapon-- Toronto has an arts scene that is vibrant and arguably growing (though embattled). Good things are possible, and I'm not talking about a championship for the professional hockey team (you can't have everything).
Still, the fiscal realities of living in a city and trying to make art on the side have had some low points, even with all this good energy behind it. I was only away for 6 months. Dan was away for more than four years! I respect some of the thoughts that must have been flowing through his mind has he faced the challenge of refocusing in the place he left behind and the work yet to be done to bring this project into it's next phase.
This brings us to the present. Only a month ago, it seemed everything was frozen. This month has revealed that it was the river in winter: frozen only on the surface, all the while moving steadily from the source to the sea. And so, my work in my trade (continuity) has started to pick up, coinciding with the coordination of elements of SFD's post production (carving the captivating sculpture from the amorphous block of footage) as well as our web platform development. The latter is my portfolio. While I we have a concept, we must learn how to practically apply this concept so that it does what we hope: to create something that will create ripples like a stone in a pond. To do this, the platform will make available more of the footage and connect our audience to the network assembled through the process of production, and allow those contacts and the audience to continue to educate, discuss, and build towards the new paradigm. There is hard work ahead, but the benefits are going to be amazing.
And by dealing with these new challenges, Windpath Films will move toward the goal of producing all manner product that can further understanding of the complexity inherent in man-made systems, and the simplicity of the natural forces that surround us.
To me, this goal is epitomized by the HBO TV series, "The Wire". When I first started watching, I thought it was just a shoot-em-up cops and robbers show. Now (nearing end of season 4), I realize that that was just the tasty bate that brought me into something that I never thought I'd be learning from a TV series: the complexity of and amorality behind the North American concept of justice and so-called democratic capitalism. WHAT THE HELL?! Brilliant and beautiful, because instead of numbing the mind and making it complacent, productions like "The Wire" can reawaken our thoughts about the world around us.
The trip is done, but the journey is just beginning.