Part XXXII: Aerials

Here is what I did today:




That's right. Your eyes do not deceive you. This is a plane.

I rode in a plane today. It is the smallest plane I have ever been in and it was spectacular. Nadia told me about this flight company that offers 20 minute flights over the marine park's heart. So I inquired last week about getting some sweet aerial shots. Turns out, today was the first day of their season. So I kind of felt like a guinea pig but luckily we didn't go down in flames or crash horribly into a mountainside. It was really smooth and I hope I got some great footage. I got to sit in the front of the craft because with five passengers I was the only one who wasn't in a couple. Actually worked out great because I could film through the biggest window.

By far the best part is when we circled over a pod of belugas at the surface. Seriously they were so beautiful, no pictures because I was taping.







Also I had a run-in with a marmot today. This little guy lives around our office and as I came out the door he from and hissed at me. So I took his picture.


The proximity between the door and the marmot- he is on the right at the top of the grass.

Part XXXI: Workin' for the Weekend

Sorry Loverboy, I'm going to have to change those lyrics to Working on the Weekend. It's a beautiful Saturday in Tadoussac, and I'm working. Luckily, it's a day of entirely shooting so I've been outside all day. It's 6:16 PM right now, and I'm still not done my day. One interview today quickly multiplied into seven. Seven interviews!! The shortest of which is five minutes, the longest is 30. It's no two hour behemoth I did yesterday but it's still work.

My day started at 9 AM when I got into the office to recharge my desperately low batteries. I also unloaded everything I did yesterday and emptied out my camera for the day ahead. My first stop was at the Cap de Bon Desire (the Cape of Good Desire) to film an activity called 30 Pieds chez Neptune. What happens is that divers search around the area to collect organisms in the water and bring them up in buckets. The buckets are then transported over to big blue kiddie pools where visitors can learn about starfish, anemonies, crabs, mussels etc... Best part: you get to touch them.

After that activity I jetted down the road to the Centre de Decouverte Marin to interview one of the divers for the St-Laurent-en-Directe program before it began. We talked about the riches of the sea floor and how people think the St-Lawrence is one huge garbage can. After out interview was the program itself which I filmed again. Today the visibility was pretty bad so the divers had to get really close to the fauna and flora. It was really cool to get like massive zoom ins of sea anenomes and other creepy crawlies of the sea floor. Of course the spider crab freaked me out... stupid spiders.

After the show I got two streeter style interviews about the show. One was taken in the theatre and kind of has this really nice atmosphere. Then I interviewed two more divers in Explos Nature. These were 10 minute power interviews. Fast-talking, quick questions and short anwsers were the name of the game. Overall though they had really interesting stories and things to say.

So now I'm back home, taking a little break before my last interview of the day. I made the supreme mistake of sitting down on the couch. Now I really don't want to get back up. But alas, the work, she beckons, and I must answer her call. AWAY!

Part XXX:(RACY!) Crazy days

It's 10 PM on a Friday night and I'm exhausted. That's right ... I've turned into an 80 year old woman. I'm legitimately lying on the couch right now watching television by myself. The joys of youth.

Today was a crazy cray day on Canada's Greatest Summer Job. This AM Nadia and I made the snap decision to do her interview today while it was sunny. I grabbed my camera and she brought along her fresh new Parks Canada shirt and we were out to Pointe Rouge to shoot her interview.

Nadia is a natural talker. In fact, she's pretty ideal as an interview. She changed between joking and serious perfectly and had lots of little antecdotes. One good interview=one happy Kelly.

So after my two hours and change interview I tore off to les Escoumins to go to St-Laurent-en-Directe. It seems like on my half hour journey the clouds rolled in a killed the stifling heat. Downside- it looked like it was going to storm. So I watched the divers' presentation with trepidation, because the clouds were menacing. The show began, I was filming the people in the room and not really paying attention to the screen. When I looked up, I realized how fantastic the footage is. I feel a little weird about taking the footage from Explos-Natures (the Parks partner who runs the program) but I really like the story I have. So, full steam ahead.

Part XXIX: A pocket full of AWESOME!

What a fantastic day today was. I spent about 30 seconds at my desk where my butt was practically levitating over my seat. As soon as I came in, Nadia swept by my desk telling me to be ready in twenty minutes to go into the fjord. So after popping into the bathroom and checking my e-mail (I missed the teleconference call) we were heading our to the Tadoussac marina. The thick fog that has been blanketing Tadoussac is still here in full force.
Our destination today was Baie St-Marguerite. A site notorious for beluga sightings. Nadia and her helpers started the echolocation and I was trying to figure out how to get a more exciting, different view of her rather than just sitting and looking for whales. This allowed me to climb onto the front of the boat where I was splashed and thrown around a bit but it was pretty exhilarating. Fantastic!
The second part of my day was spent at the CDMM recording the St-Laurent-en-Directe program. Divers go underwater with a camera and stream live video of the St-Lawrence floor to a viewing room. It was the first time I had seen it and it was fantastic. Seriously, so colourful, so surprising and so interesting. I never knew how not-ugly the floor of the St-Lawrence is. I got some pretty cool footage and some pretty cool interviews. Yay!

On a tangent here but today while on the boat I realized how awesome this job is. Seriously, even if my movies are less than stellar, I'm having so much fun this summer. I meet new people almost everyday and hear some amazing stories. I'm so happy I decided to take this job instead of working as a customs agent (sorry Meredith). We got out outline for the Torngat mountains trip in August and it looks SO FREAKIN' COOL! Seriously, like there is an electric fence around the entire base camp to keep bears out.

So now I am here on the couch, reveling in the amazing opportunity that I am living.

Part XXVIII: Boats and Burns

I have a sunburn. Not just any old sunburn. A raging scarlet red face sunburn. I got home looked in the mirror and started laughing hysterically. The burn is a result is of day one of a two day boat shoot extravaganza! Try saying that five times fast.


I am on the Alliance (the Parks Canada boat) following Nadia around like a puppy dog. She is the marine biologist at the park and I'm shooting a movie about her. Following a pre-determined course, we cruise along mapping the predators in the area while at the same time using echolocation to track the prey. Today was a special day. This is because for the first day ever, we didn't see over five marine mammals. It was a foggy foggy day and the mammals were all hiding. Sad for footage but hilarious in another way. There were lots of birds out today and we were all discussing the names of them in English and in French. Well, one of the species present on the St-Lawrence was the booby. Yes, the bird. So energetically Nadia starts calling out, "Booby! Booby!", in an effort to get them to come closer. It was hilarious. Once the translation of the other use of booby in English was passed around the boat, it was even more hilarious.

Nadia is a great character to profile. She's really passionate and energetic about her work. At about 3:00 when I was crashing she was still running along the top of the boat, binoculars in hand. Also, her English is fantastic and I can finally make my English film! She's open to any suggestions I have and is really excited for her interview (to be shot next week).

All and all, a great day on the St-Lawrence.

Part XXVII: Fog & Troubleshooting

Today is day three of crazy fog. Seriously, it's like walking through a cloud. It reminds me of skiing in the Rockies/Alps where you suddenly enter the clouds, can't see a thing, then pop out again at the bottom. In Tadoussac, it seems there is two layers to get through. From my house on the hill I pass through one layer about 10 feet down from the front door then stay in the second cloud that surrounds the office and the water. So I spend my days not being able to see out the windows- which is kind of depressing but still kind of cool.

Since the fog is stunting any possible shooting I started putting pieces of my first movie together. I realize it's actually pretty far along- farther along than I thought. That is until I accidentally renamed some clips that I have used and can't get the edits back the way they were. So I basically just added another three hours of work to my list- all because of my own blunder.

Don't worry dear reader, it's not all doom and gloom. I'm actually in a great mood because ... the sun came out! It burned up all the fog and my worries that I could never shoot! Also, Nadia (the marine biologist who is the focus of a film) came back from vacation. So we talked and have plans to shoot tomorrow, Wednesday, next Monday, next Tuesday and next Wednesday. Phew!

So busy busy busy and excited to get our there and shoot! Keep your fingers crossed for some sun!

Random photo for today. My truck at a milestone!

Part XXVI: AWOL II a.k.a Fun with Editing

Dear readers, I am sorry. I know that on Thursday morning as you were celebrating the nation's birthday you looked to your trusty blog and ... nothing. I left on Wednesday and booked it back home to Ormstown/Montreal for a truly amazing weekend. I saw friends and family, made some sweet Canada Day money coming second in a foot race and enjoyed copious amounts of delicious food.
So that's that and today is back to work, back to reality and back to freaking out. Actually, when I woke up today it was rather zen. Tadoussac was covered in a think fog, everything was still and silent. It was like waking up in a dream, and boy did it ever calm my nerves. That and the 10 degree weather, seriously, it's 10 degrees out, stop complaining Montrealers. Maybe it's because I'm still exhausted and still recovering from the weekend and slightly hopped up on cold medication (yes, I have a cold in July) but the end seems close. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong, I love this job. Everyday I'm learning something new about editing, storytelling, scripting and my own abilities and having lots of fun, but I am looking forward to that moment when I type the last word and hit save. I'm proud of what I have so far and since I'm not in film production and by no means a technology expert, I hope that the storytelling/journalistic ability will really come through for me.

With a exactly a month left I have a game plan. Video One will be shot by Sunday and the only thing left after that is a little archival footage. Video Two will be shot for the most part by Saturday and video three is slated for next week.

On a totally unrelated topic, I finally got my photos from the kayak extravaganza this weekend. They were being held hostage in a foreign phone but I pulled a little Noreiga magic and removed them.
So today features a little scrapbook of the experience but cannot accurately depict the crazy. So, enjoy!

Sean's car never looked so good


ADVENTURE!


Campsite at Anse a Tabatiere


Sean cooking with his homemade oven mitt. It's two socks.


In tune with nature... as a tripod.