Wednesday Morning found us preparing for a meeting with Jana Mcgreggor, an independent marketing consultant who PJ had introduced us to. It was our second meeting with someone from a more business perspective in two days, and I for one was a little apprehensive. Our meeting with Paul the day before had been really informative, but for me it had been a little discouraging to see just how far we'd have to go, and how little we have to do it with. However my nerves were calmed significantly during the meeting as Jana proved, to be not only knowledgeable about what our needs are, but also came with a much more positive attitude. I know that Brad and Myles hadn't been perturbed by Paul's message the day before, but it had kind of gotten to me, and I don't know why, but for me, Jana gave me back a little of the motivation that I lost the day before.
After the meeting that morning we went back to Myles' Mom's house and did some editing before making the journey to Halifax that evening. There were two things we needed to accomplish there, the first was simply attending a concert that Myles was going to take pictures of for a magazine, the other was picking up our Director of Photography, and fourth member, Mike Zakrzewski from the airport. Mike's flight was supposed to get in at around midnight, and Myles' concert was going to take place at around 6 so the concert was the first thing we went to.
The venue was a place called "The Pavilion" which is basically a small box of a building in the middle of a park, that seems to be in place solely to provide a space for local musicians to play all ages gigs with ease. It resembled many of the venues that I went to see shows at in high school, a smallish back room, with almost as many people standing outside waiting for the band they wanted to see most perform, as there are people inside. The music was raw and heavy hardcore rock, very much in my wheel house, but Brad, being an old man at heart, was really not into the drop d tuning, breakdowns, screaming and the aggressive thrashing of the audience. So upon his insistance, we left Myles to his photography and found a small pub where we could have a pint, watch The Raptors, and flirt with the bar maids (they didn't seem to mind).
After the concert was over we left for the airport and waited around for about an hour after we found out his flight was delayed. We spent the time wandering around the Halifax airport at 1 am, a weird experience, as everyone you see at any airport at that time (when all the over-priced stores and restaurants are closed) looks like death warmed over, passed out on benches and at tables, looking like all they want most in the world is for someone to tell them that it'll all be ok in the end. A bit macabre, but that was what was going through my head.
But after a while Mike finally arrived. Telling us tales of his work at CTV, courtroom drama, and some Baseball trade that everyone in Ontario seems excited about (It's hard to really follow sports when you don't always have access to a TV or the internet). Mike was part of the first expedition made out here, Brad and Myles and Mike came out here in July and found out about this crazy tale we're trying to uncover, and he wanted to be with us for this adventure, but sometimes work can make following your passions a little bit more difficult. Mike's commitment to this project is tremendous and the skills and experience he brings to the table are going to be invaluable as both him and I face our last week (for him I guess his only) week out in beautiful Nova Scotia.
That's right, it's my last week. I've booked a flight back for the 29th. As much as I want to stay longer, like Brad is planning to do, I don't have the means to support myself for very much longer, So I'm coming back while I can still afford to. Brad's plan is to stay and try to secure funding, as well as for those of us back home to get a crowd funding campaign together for us to come back again very soon.
But more about that on a later date.
Mike kept us entertained all night long with stories, jokes, great conversation and music, while we briefed him on everything that'd happened to us, and all the new facts we've discovered this time around (and when I say all night, I mean that we ended up going to bed when it was daylight again). Mike was in our class at Conestoga, and seeing him again brought back memories of all the great times we shared, and It's always great to see someone after a long time apart so you can hardly be surprised we didn't go to sleep until our bodies completely shut down.
After we awoke (after not nearly enough sleep) we set out for Middleton and Myles' Grammy Jessie's house again, not only had we promised we'd return before we left, but Jessie had made chowder that night, an incentive if I've ever heard one. We ate the delicious Chowder and stayed the night, because we had an appointment tomorrow morning at Myles' old middle school to announce the winner of a contest that the others had started last time they were out here. The contest was to deign the cover of the DVD case for Lobster inc and the contestants were all grade 6 through 8 students at Myles' former school.
The next day when we went into the school, I had a lot of flashbacks to my own schooling, and remarked that I never thought I'd be back in a Grade 7 math class, but that on the whole it wasn't that surprising that I was. We announced a winner and a runner up and stuck around for some Q & A with the students and teachers, but within an hour we had left. the rest of the afternoon was spent playing basketball with Myles' little brother Ryan out in the driveway, and all three of us who were playing with him (Myles had chosen to abstain) realizing just how out of shape we really are (very).
That day was also Myles' last day with us before leaving for his brothers wedding in Cuba. Luckily, even though he may be gone, his mom and stepdad have offered us their basement to stay in for as long as we need it. Honestly the generosity of the people out here is mind blowing, and we're forever grateful to those who've agreed to not only put up with us, but to feed us as well. Seriously, if you're ever traveling to the east coast, don't pay for a hotel, just meet some locals, the rooms may be smaller, but the service and food are infinitely better. Myles has been with us all month and without him it would have been a lot harder to do things with only two people, good thing we've got Mike.
I've talked a lot about how we're editing and researching mostly lately, and that's definitely true, but tomorrow we're going to be back in the saddle again. We're going back to Lucien's pad, and he's taking us on a lobster boat. Finally, after a month of making a documentary about fishing, we're actually going to go. We're pretty excited to finally get back to shooting, it's really what we came here to do, and all the business work, and editing, and research is important, but at our core, we're all cinematographers, and sitting on the edge of these beautiful shores and not being able to point a camera at it was always somewhat unsetting.
But for tonight, we're going to work on our crowd funding campaign, and maybe find somewhere to watch the Grey Cup.
Go Argos.
-Matt
P.S. GO COLTS! #chuckstrong
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