I leave today for San Diego for two weeks. I will (hopefully) complete filming during this time. I'm not entirely sure what our approach to shooting will be, but I've got plans for lots of pool therapy, some sort of staged re-telling of my mother's fall, and another stab at the underwater Super 8 filming. I usually don't approach filming with such a casual plan, but at this point I'm just trying to acquire as many emotionally meaningful images and am having faith that I will find my path in the editing.

On Friday night, I was presented with two awards at the annual SFSU Film Finals show. I was awarded the Leo Diner award for Innovative filmmaking and was named SFSU's nominee for the Princess Grace award, a national competition for up to $25,000 in production funds. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/business/11hip.html?em&ex=1210824000&en=d62f373bea4e635a&ei=5087%0A

Panavision has agreed to donate their camera package for a second round of shooting, which is great news. Their lenses are so nice, nothing I could have rented would have matched up with what we shot the first time. Shooting is scheduled for May 22-27. Mom is walking without any assistance and her therapy is going well. The house is finally put together, so we can shoot downstairs. Smaller crew, maybe just me and Sinisa for a good chunk of it. Marina Shoupe generously donated another underwater camera mount, so we're going to give the underwater Super 8 stuff another shot, as well. I think this will finally be the end of shooting...

Got the footage back from the lab - there was some sort of malfunction with the camera we used and the footage came back with a vertical jitter. It wasn't in the test roll we shot and we aren't certain what went wrong, but it ruined 1/3 to 1/2 of the footage. Not sure how I'm going to work around it - maybe we'll shoot again; maybe I'll use stills with sound effects... Also, didn't get the UFVA grant. Rough week all around.

Finished our Super 8 shooting today. The shine had definitely worn off the process for Leo, but he soldiered on and we shot some great sequences (looking at x-rays on dad's lightboard in the bathroom, helping mom walk down the stairs, putting mom's socks on...). We had the ultimate carrot: a jacuzzi... Shipping off twelve Super 8 cartridges today: curious how they'll look - neither Sinisa nor I had ever shot Super 8 stock with movie lights... Next up: the science fiction sequences. I had to do some tests to see the best approach to replicating that' sitting six inches in front of a TV and watching the same VHS for the 100th time' look. My efforts for the UFVA visual sample were passable but can definitely be improved upon.

Started shooting Super 8 with young Leo McBrosse... Started out a little rough: both underwater cameras (Kodak XL55) flamed out and the weather went sour, but it ended up being a good day... We shot seven scenes with Leo, mostly over the shoulder and POV stuff. Overexposed as a rule. I'm excited about it. I think the Super 8 recreations (a young jason hacking away at six foot tall weeds with his mother's shoehorn, or stomping around in the mud with mom's old plastic leg braces) with add some much-needed levity to the project... Tomorrow we get the x-ray examinations and young Jason walking mom down the stairs... Working with child actors wasn't quite the nightmare I'd envisioned: Leo needed a patient and firm hand, but he was a quick learner and a good listener. I'm glad I had mom and dad around to keep him occupied.

It's been awhile since my last post. Quick catch up: been teaching two Intro to Film Production sections, and working a couple days a week as a contractor, which means I've had little time to do much with Mothersbane other than stare at the glorious frame grabs I've mounted on foamcore on my wall... Panavision has suspended their New Filmmaker Grant until April, so I had to put off shooting the last of our Super 16 stuff with mom til then... I've been named a finalist for a UFV Carole Fielding Student Grant. I was asked to submit a visual sample - this turned out to be one of the hardest things I've ever attempted. With only 1/2 to 2/3 of my footage, and without much of my sound, how can I convey the film without simply explaining/telling? I found myself constantly writing explanatory voiceover to contextualize gaps and unify the structure. It's very talky and I could have gone about it better, but it DID get me to do some serious editing, so that was nice... Flying home today to shoot the Super 8 sequences with a little boy that is a dead ringer for me age 8. Got an underwater camera mount (!) to play with, a lovely Niz Braun with a great lens, 25 rolls of 64t and a set of 2ks. Should be fun... Mom is doing great; getting around on her walker, driving a little, cooking up a storm and going nearly vegetarian. They think she'll be walking unassisted by mid-March. She sounds strong and enthusiastic on the phone.

Mom's surgery was a success. It was a long procedure (we dropped her off at 6:30, she in at 8:30, and we didn't see her again until 6 at night) in which they replaced the plate on her left femur with a longer plate and added two more cables and three screws to tighten the plate to the bone. The doctors were very happy with how everything went and mom was in good spirits tonight. They're going to keep her a couple of nights, which means a much-deserved break for my poor father. I fly home tonight and begin to edit some kind of clip select sequence together for finishing fund grants. Sinisa oversaw the telecine at Entertainment Post and said the footage looked great (whew). Apparently our telecine guy was the fella that oversaw Pi and Garden State.

Mom went in today to have the staples removed from her shoulder incision. She complained of continued soreness in her left knee and showed herdoctor that the swelling above her knee had still not receded. They did more x-rays and discovered another fracture, along the plate that they had affixed in October. The x-rays look crazy - I can't believe she can get around at all, considering what the bones look like. So, on Wednesday, they're going in again and replacing the plate with something more substantial. It doesn't push the time table for her walking back much, since she'll have to let the arm heal for another two months anyway, but it is dispiriting to say the least. My parents didn't seem too upset - went right off to a potluck for the LSU-Ohio State game. It's just part of their routine, I guess. Still getting used to it, myself.