Part XXIII: De-Stressing Day

Another day mostly spent at the office scripting and logging tape. I did manage to get out into the sunshine today and get a little tiny bit of shooting done. Just the small stuff that really needed to get done. I got some great shots of some unknown geese (I have my field guide and I've been looking) and some shots of the ferry that are kind of boring but will come in handy.
While filming around town I was feeling good. Had a freezie, it was nice out, good times. Unfortunately by the time I got back and looked at my footage. The dead kitten windsock was in about half the shots. Damn. All I could see in the top right hand corner are these little wisps of hair. I think it's time to visit the barber.

Still gearing up for this weekend's kayak trip mentally, physically and logistically. I feel like I have everything I need but I know that as soon as I get out there I will say, "if only I had ...", and then will kick myself for not having it. Which is kind of hard in a kayak.

So today is just another regular day in the world of Canada's Greatest Summer Job. Which, is still pretty amazing.

Here is a picture of me looking doofy in a kayak... a little preview of this weekend

Part XXII: Worries, Frustrations, Insecurities and Hope

Confession: Behind the awesome facade, I am secretly quaking in my boots. So much is hinging on this weekend's kayak trip. My entire first video is framed around it and I'm going to be using a lot of footage for the second video. Also, where has all the time gone. I'm now down to making three videos in a month. Whoops, at least I have my plans set but the last two weeks are going to be a marathon of editing. I hope it rains the entire time so that I won't be feeling like the Wicked Witch of the West.

I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!

So, this short three day work week I have a lot of taping to do, scripts, logistics and tomorrow I'm on the Parks Canada boat. So all in all I have to get my act together. Today was spent scripting, logging tape and double checking kayak rentals.

Never fear Parks Canada. I can do this. Even if I take me until 11:59:59 on August 4, 2010. These videos will get done.

Also, congrats to all grads today.

Part XII: Funny Sign Day.

It's Friday and it's time for some comic relief. Here are the funny signs that I have encountered thus far in the month in Tadoussac.

How cute is this? Unfortunately whilst pulling up to take the photo I brutally crushed a family of baby ducks.


This photo was taken right in the centre of town at the Tadoussac docks. First time I've ever seen a speed limit of 16 before. Weird....


Mmmmm... Tachos


Well sorry readers for wasting your time with that but I really didn't do much worthwhile today. I only worked for three hours because of the overtime I booked on other days so I went out an enjoyed the beach all afternoon.
Next week is a big one, lots of filming on the kayak trip, a special guest and St-Jean Baptiste!

Part XXI: Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

Today I touched my first krill. It was small, it was squishy, it was dead. I spent 10 hours on the Calanus II today, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Coast Guard boat. It was quite the experience in the French language, smoking and 'les hostie filets'. This isn't your momma's fishing experience.

Fisherwoman Kelly, taking a break


Apparantly you need to smoke this many packs per day to be a real fisherman.


Welcome to my office.




Not a long post today, tired. Also when I told the fishermen about the Halak trade, I've never heard so much French profanity.

Part XX: I got 99 problems but a pitch ain't one

Today I was purusing my blog, looking over all the amazing posts, pictures and things I've done. I've come to realize that I haven't shared the pitches for my films a.k.a what the films are about.
So here they are!
Theme (given out by Parks Canada): Jobs at Parks Canada
I am going to be following Nadia Menard, a marine biologist, who is in the midst of an extensive research project this summer. She is trying to determine why there is a fluctuation in the number of whales that visit each year. Since the whales are pretty much the Park's rasion-etre, her research is especially important in the conservation and economic domains (tourism is the number one industry because of the whales). She is using echolocation to track the whale's prey and track the whales, seals and birds that all feed off of it.
She has a great personality. Today when we were on the boat looking for fish shoals, she leaned over the railing of the boat and started chanting, "here fishy, fishy, fishy!" Also, she speaks English. Bonus.

Theme: The natural beauty of the Park
Now this one can come off as just a series of glory shots but I have a storyline that will be interesting to stick to. Most people see the St-Lawrence as a huge garbage can. They think it's full or pollution, corpses and snowmobiles, but that's really not the case. The St-Laurent-en-Directe program run by Parks Canada shows people the wonders of the sea floor. They send a cameraperson and a biologist diving into the St-Lawrence to show the tourists a live feed of the creatures of the deep. The best part is that the visitors can ask questions to the biologist underwater and ask the cameraperson to go left, right, up or down.
Combined with the beauty on top of the water that the tourists usually see, it should provide a pretty nice picture of why this area should be protected and respected.

Theme: My own choice!
For the video of my choosing I was really helped by my Intermediate TV professor Jacques Grenier. He turned me on to the idea of doing a Globe Trekker style video. This is a kind of adventure into the unknown (except I know all about it, the viewer is discovering along with me) that is the Saguenay fjord. I'm going on a three day kayak expedition down the fjord learning about the history, geography, industry and ecology of the fjord. Since the fjord is often overlooked by the tourists and largely untouched by man (there are no roads along the fjord, only boats and walking paths really have access) it's kind of a journey into the wild. I will of course have a trusty assistant/cameraman/pack mule to aid me.

So what do you think?
Also, I am feeling massively dizzy because I was on a boat all day. I still feel the waves hitting me.

Don't have a good picture for today so here is a shot of the fjord stolen from CBC.

Part XIX: Sunrise

This photo was taken at 3:46 this morning. It was exactly 36 minutes after I had gotten out of bed. I woke up this morning with a goal: time lapse sunrise.
Although this was the goal, I realized something about myself today. I cannot do math ridiculously early in the morning. For example: should I put it on a 10 second or 30 second time lapse. Well here is the math behind the decision. There are 30 frames per second of tape. If I put it at 10 second time lapse then it will take one frame of video every 10 seconds. Follow? So how long will it take to get one second of tape? Well 10seconds x 30frames = 300 seconds. 300 seconds divided by 60 seconds equals 5. So what does this all mean? It will take 5 minutes of footage to get 1 second of tape in time lapse. Now this seems simple right? Okay, now wake up early. You're groggy, you're trying to figure out where is the best camera location, you're trying to do math. Ugh.

Turns out the footage isn't so bad. I would like to try it again with a 30 seconds lapse to see the difference and then have some more choice in what I will be using.

So there I sat in my pickup, watching the sunrise over the St-Lawrence and wrapped up in a sleeping bag. Eventually I fell asleep only to arise with the sun beaming in my face and the clock reading 5:15. I collected up my equipment and headed back home. Went back to bed at 5:30 and woke up at 9:30 fresh and ready for work!

I feel like if I don't use this clip it will be one of those ones that only you realize how much work goes into filming only to come up with nothing.

Part XVIII: Sand Dunes

Hello dear readers, sorry for my absence. I took the advantage of this weekend's nice weather to return to Ormstown and Montreal. Went to the Ormstown Fair, St-Laurent street festival and saw a band with a very talented lead singer/guitarist/bassist/pianist. A 14 hour round trip but well worth the exhaustion.
Unfortunately the trip left me in a stupor and it was so hard to drag myself out of bed this morning. The day passed in a daze, I didn't get much done and found myself surfing the web for kayak trip tips with no real objective. I was content to sit in my plush office chair and read for most of the day, broken up by sending e-mails to co-workers and scanning personal e-mail accounts.
The real fun came after work.
Rosemary, Tanya, Kevin (the new guy) and I went out for coffee at cafe Boheme. We had all been cooped up all day and were looking for adventure. Adventure we found, in the *Not actually me, taken from Internet*

form of sand dunes. The Tadoussac Sand Dunes are huge cliffs of sand, bigger than your grandmother's dunes. They are really steep and the beach below looks like a little sand bar. I heard that a fun Tadoussac activity is to throw yourself down the hill and roll to the bottom. That's exactly what we did.
I reached the bottom, dizzy and discombobulated and covered from sand from head to toe. All the while laughing hysterically and trying to catch my breath from the rush.
I was soon followed by the others and we all explored the beach. We ended up climbing over some rocks and finding a hidden beach where we sang as loud as we could. It's like I was drunk but without a drop of booze. One rendition of Stop, As Long as you Love Me, Make a Man Out of You and Don't Stop Believin' later. We faced the dunes again, this time going up. It was a trek and a half, I had to stop about eight times to catch my breath. Came home to a nice sand-free shower.

Tomorrow I am planning to wake up at 4:00 AM to film the sunrise. We'll see if it actually happens.