Slow and Steady

This weekend I will be heading to Fayetteville, N.C., or "Fayette-Nam" as some people call it. I've been preparing my list of things to pack for the remote interview: lights, camera, batteries, tapes, etc. And will be picking up a book written by the person whom I'll interview and will try to read as much as possible before this weekend's interview. I like to be as prepared as possible, and am keenly aware of my ignorance as a civilian lately.

In other news, though, I've been picking up steam on production again, finally having recovered from some unknown illness over the past few weeks. After having been to three different doctors, I still have no clue what was making me sick. One doc thought I had mono, another thought it was a sinus infection. Either way, all I know is that for about 2-3 hours a day I felt like myself. The rest of the hours were spent in a zombie-like state, hardly able to stand or walk. I took off almost a full week of work, sleeping through almost the entire day. It was incredibly frustrating to go from a full day of working, running 2-3 miles, working on my film to hardly able to make it to work at all. But, thankfully, I'm much better and am feeling like my old self again!

Wow, we have so much work to do before this film is finished. I'm very excited about the growth of our project, especially having the number of interviews conducted doubled from the original scope. And we have a few more people that we will interview before capping the total somewhere around 15 total interviews. Each interview takes about an hour or two on camera, plus about an hour or two to set up and strike the set (take down the cameras, etc.)--give or take depending on where/when the interviews were conducted.

This will be the first out of town interview, and I am so excited about it. I think that it will add a lot of value to the production and I'm looking forward to writing about it afterward. During the hour-long car ride, I plan on listening to the interviews we conducted already. I can put them all on my iPod Shuffle or a CD to review them. It's very helpful (like stretching before running) in preparation so that I can make the most of the time we have on camera.

Yes, there is much work to be done and frustratingly little time in each day to do it all. Patience. Determination. Ruthless committment to success. We shall not flag or fail. Slow and steady wins the race. Or, in our case, creates a final product of excellence and long-lasting value.

Let the Vacation Begin

I'm now officially on vacation! Although I'm not going anywhere, and I won't be doing any R&R, I am super excited to be fully focused on the film for a full week! My to do list has been steadily growing, too. But I'm confident that this coming week will be very productive. It has been a challenge to work 9 hours, come home, work out, fix dinner and continue working. And I feel very lucky to have a full week to devote to progress with the film.

No matter how fatigued I have been lately (mostly from stresses at work), I have a healthy perspective because I know that those who served in Vietnam didn't have the luxury of leaving at the end of the work day. How silly it would be to complain of a little extra hard work to make this film come to life! Are you kidding? It is an incredible opportunity and an honor. People have been introducing me lately as, "This is Camden, and she's making a film!" How cool is that?! I can't wait to show it to people!

I've been reading as much as I can each night, and have a growing list of publications to research. Next week will be spent reading, writing and planning. Our production schedule has slowed in order for us to have a few more interviews, but I think it is quite justified and that we will be lucky to have these added experts in front of the camera. In fact, I'm really looking forward to reading, researching, memorizing, taking notes and preparing to speak with these experts. It is crafting the story that will be my big challenge after we complete the interviews.

Until then, let the vacation begin!