Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Days 15-17: Incorporating Corporation
Editing takes up our entire days now, from wake up to sleep time, Brad is primarily the one working on the trailer and he's putting in a tremendous amount of time, leaving the research and organization of shoot dates, to me and Myles. Some days we don't even leave the "office" we've constructed in Myles' Mom's basement (which we've moved around and re-jigged since it's original construction). This all means that anytime we have a reason to go out into the real world, it's actually fairly unsettling. At least for me, because I tend to acclimatize myself to indoor life a little too much if left unsupervised.
Sometimes I feel like I'm a house cat that doesn't know what to do with itself if you let it outside.
One of these outdoor excursions happened on Sunday when PJ called us down to his home, as has become a bi-weekly occurrence, but this time to film a pitch video for the CBDC, a governing municipal body that gives entrepreneurial grants to small businesses. In typical PJ fashion he called us down with only a vague Idea of what he wanted from the video, and the assumption that editing a 5 minute pitch video and throwing it up on youtube would be insanely quick and easy. It might have been if PJ and the other two CAL inc. board members hadn't talked on Camera for about 45 minutes...
But PJ has become a friend to us so we decided to do the best we could for him, and edited the video down to a lean 18 minutes, and sent it off, albeit a little later than PJ had wanted it, but was much higher quality than it would have been if we followed PJ's suggestion of "Just do it on an iPhone, it'll be fine."
We capped off that Sunday with a long overdue viewing of Anchorman and an episode of Doctor Who, which, if your wondering, is a great combination.
The next day found us working hard all day editing and planning for our meeting with a small buisness consultant the following day. We were inside working so long that by the time 8 o'clock rolled around we'd been working for about 16 hours straight, so we decided to just go for a drive. To wherever the wind would take us! Well, so long as the wind took us to somewhere with a hot meal and maybe a nice cold beverage to go with it.
"The Wind" ended up taking us to downtown Halifax, where we spent about an hour walking around in search of the harbour, which is much easier to find than we made it. We kind of had this vague idea of heading towards "The Ocean" but the end goal, being not established, wasn't a primary concern. We instead were taking joy in the simple act of stretching one's legs outdoors in a beautiful city on a peaceful monday night. We made jokes and laughed loudly into the mostly empty streets of the harbour front.
I visited this part of Halifax six years ago with my family, it was a hot day and we arrived, spontaneously into the middle of a massive Busker's festival, featuring musicians, acrobats, jugglers, magicians and more. It was a very bright and bustling atmosphere with the smell of freshly made fish 'n chips, beaver tails and hot dogs wafting over you as you walked along taking in the various performances, It's where I played the then new Xbox 360 for the first time (I don't know why they were demoing it at a street performance festival), and we all spent time climbing all over the playground that's shaped like a boat. There's also a life size version of Theodore the Tugboat you can look at. It's one of the days I remember most from any of our vacations as a family, it's the memory that's always made me want to go back to Halifax.
And there I was. Standing on the same spot the tightrope walker had done his act six years before, looking over at Theodore Tugboat and the playground shaped like a boat!
I was able to recall everything, yet it seemed so long ago that I'd been here last. I wasn't even in high school yet. It's strange to think how much life can change in six years. I was looking at it all through a fresh set of eyes, the eyes of a 20 year old film maker, not a 14 year old still scared about what high school will bring his way.
My sentiment was somewhat lost on the others, who, instead of being distracted by the facets of my childhood, found a pub on the edge of the warf, where we sat down, ate some more delicious seafood, and shared a pitcher of "The Pride of Nova Scotia" (Keith's). After much merriment and exuberance, and with our bellies truly full, we made the journey back to the car, remarking loudly about how wonderful a city Halifax was, and how great it would be if we could just get the funds together to start a production company out here.
The Barenaked Ladies provided the soundtrack to our return journey from Halifax, which found me in the drivers seat, because not only had I not had more than one glass of Lager (with a meal, over an hour before, for your information mother), but also because, without his glasses Brad can hardly see at night at all, so it would be unwise to put him in the driver's seat.
That all brings us to today. Where this vague idea of forming a production company reared it's ugly head of specifics. We met with Paul Beasant, a small business adviser at the New World Merchant Bank, a company that finds financial solutions for start ups and entrepreneurs, at a coffee shop in Bedford. He told us how specifically one actually becomes a company and what has to be done from a legal perspective (well, he told us that we'd have to see a lawyer), as well as different financial grants and small business loans and such. It was clear before we even went in there that incorporating ourselves was going to have to be a step we'd take eventually, even just to apply for any government funding, funnily enough no one wants to just give three random 20-somethings 30 grand, couldn't tell you why. It became even clearer to me as I was sitting there that we were only just now getting to the things we should have done before we left, you know, like make a business plan.
But that's kind of the beauty of what we're doing; We dont know what we're doing.
We're so indie, we're actually unsure how to make an indie film. Because as it turns out there's a heck of a lot of money that goes into even the lowest budget movies, and it's not easy to come by. But that's not going to stop us telling this story. It just might make it a little interesting.
Acquire experiences, not possessions.
-Matt
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Days 12-14: The Work Continues
The last few days have been full of work, we've been editing, lining up shoots and going to meetings. Everyday begins at around 10:00 with a cup of coffee and some disgruntled moaning and ends at around midnight with some jokes and usually an episode of Doctor Who. We haven't really gotten out too much, as our shoot isn't scheduled to begin until next week and we're too short on cash to really go experience the Halifax nightlife that we've heard so much about. But that's fine, the work in and of itself is difficult, long, tedious, but rewarding, the few things we've cut together look better than we expected and that's strengthened our resolve to get this thing done right, by whatever means necessary.
One of the things we've discussed is the probability of starting a production company out here. A big step, but not an unwise one, Halifax/Nova Scotia/ Maritime based production companies are fewer and further between than the more saturated markets of Kitchener/Waterloo and the GTA. So right there it gives us an opportunity to really carve out a living if we chose to do so. We would definitely like to.
In the upcoming days we will be helping PJ make a couple videos to promote his business (CAL inc.), he then in turn will supply us with the resources to stay on out here longer. Hopefully in the next few days, we will also be getting over this cold that we've all caught. That would be great.
Get well, then save the lobster industry.
How hard can it be?
-Matt
One of the things we've discussed is the probability of starting a production company out here. A big step, but not an unwise one, Halifax/Nova Scotia/ Maritime based production companies are fewer and further between than the more saturated markets of Kitchener/Waterloo and the GTA. So right there it gives us an opportunity to really carve out a living if we chose to do so. We would definitely like to.
In the upcoming days we will be helping PJ make a couple videos to promote his business (CAL inc.), he then in turn will supply us with the resources to stay on out here longer. Hopefully in the next few days, we will also be getting over this cold that we've all caught. That would be great.
Get well, then save the lobster industry.
How hard can it be?
-Matt
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Day 10 & 11: Office Space
With our office space in Myles' mom, Samara's basement carved out we've spent the last two days working pretty hard in it. Our general proposal to show to potential investors is done and sent to the agent PJ has hooked us up with, although we may have forgotten to take some of our crude jokes to one another out of the Google Doc. So we had to send a bit of a retraction on that until we could make sure we had taken all the instances of the words "fart" and "nipples" amongst others out of our very professional (I swear) proposal.
We have been spending a lot of time in very close quarters with each other. We've been pretty much sitting at our computers working on all the things that require our attention from the time we wake up until we go to bed, it's long hours, only punctuated by the occasional trip to the comic book store, the pub, and the photography store. But at least we have Samara's cats and her hilarious dog Stevie to keep us company. Stevie is probably the funniest dog I've ever been around, at any moment he can just do something that will make you loose your seat from laughing so hard. So that's good.
I've been working on putting together a little behind the scenes video to go on our newly minted facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lobsterincmovie) to hopefully give people a bit of a peak into the truly indie spirit and technology we've employed in our shoots so far.
Tomorrow we'll be working hard on setting up a network so we can all work with the same footage all the time, which will speed up production considerably, as well as shifting our focus exclusively to cutting a brand spanking new trailer which not only will look better, but more accurately portrat the ideas of the story we're trying to present, which our current trailer does not (There's a link to the old trailer in my first post if you're curious). We'll also be meeting again with PJ to go over our business plan.
Hopefully there will be some more crazy adventures soon. But then again this whole thing is a crazy adventure.
A1
-Matt
P.S. If you're a comic reader and haven't picked up Batman #14 yet, get your act together.
We have been spending a lot of time in very close quarters with each other. We've been pretty much sitting at our computers working on all the things that require our attention from the time we wake up until we go to bed, it's long hours, only punctuated by the occasional trip to the comic book store, the pub, and the photography store. But at least we have Samara's cats and her hilarious dog Stevie to keep us company. Stevie is probably the funniest dog I've ever been around, at any moment he can just do something that will make you loose your seat from laughing so hard. So that's good.
I've been working on putting together a little behind the scenes video to go on our newly minted facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lobsterincmovie) to hopefully give people a bit of a peak into the truly indie spirit and technology we've employed in our shoots so far.
Tomorrow we'll be working hard on setting up a network so we can all work with the same footage all the time, which will speed up production considerably, as well as shifting our focus exclusively to cutting a brand spanking new trailer which not only will look better, but more accurately portrat the ideas of the story we're trying to present, which our current trailer does not (There's a link to the old trailer in my first post if you're curious). We'll also be meeting again with PJ to go over our business plan.
Hopefully there will be some more crazy adventures soon. But then again this whole thing is a crazy adventure.
A1
-Matt
P.S. If you're a comic reader and haven't picked up Batman #14 yet, get your act together.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Day 8 & 9: Trading Spaces
Monday morning found us once again in Grammy's house. So we spent the day planning and budgeting and off loading the hours of footage we've taken from around Nova Scotia. The plan was to meet with PJ that night when we made the journey to Myles' mom's house in Lower Sackville, very close to Halifax. So we worked on our proposal for getting short term funding from PJ to get us to the end of the month, because going home on Wednesday as planned is out of the question. We're not going anywhere, not if we can help it.
I did research on James Mood and the 1688, to provide more information to us when we go back and interview him personally. It's always a good idea to do some back to someone after reading up on their history, and James Mood's 1688 has quite a history to say the least.
After out proposal was done we headed to Lower Sackville, but on the road got a call from PJ saying that the next morning would be a better time to meet, we were pretty ok with this as we had wanted to see the new James Bond movie for a while and this would give us some free time to do so. Before we went to the theatre though we stopped by a grocery store in Halifax to meet Myles' 17 year old sister, Marissa. We introduced ourselves and then headed to the theatre, killing time before the show with some arcade games. Skyfall wasn't bad, Brad hated it. We then got to Myles' mom's house and hung out in the basement before going to bed.
The next morning we headed out, (after some confusion as to when we were supposed to) to PJ's house in Halifax and met with him and his marketing guy Harm Geurs. Together we worked out a plan for going forward. That plan is to spend this week editing some promotional video, a trailer and crafting proposals to go after funding, because we're going to need a pretty hefty bunch of cash to go after this story for real, and you can't get money without doing some serious leg work. That's what our next week is focused on, business. We're probably going to form an actual production company as well to handle any incoming revenue anyway.
We're looking at apartments.
I think I'm going to end up moving out here.
I'd be pretty ok with that, it's a heck of a place, and I could definitely see my self living out here, the ocean always just minutes away, the people are nice, I found a comic book store, pretty much everything one could want.
After the meeting with PJ we picked up an extra Macbook from an electronics store to edit on this week (we already have 2 but this one allows all three of us to be working at the same time) the plan is to take it back to the store in less than 30 days and get our money back, so that we can buy a computer with the funds we're hoping to get, which means we can get a better computer. We need this third one only temporarily is what I'm getting at I guess.
The inside jokes that have formed between the three of us are getting ridiculous, we don't even have to say punchlines anymore, the set up alone is funny.... it's a dangerous comedy game, because now everyone else thinks we're crazy because we die laughing every time one of us says something as simple as "listen....listen...listen..." What does that even mean? Why is that funny? What's going on?
After the laptop "purchase" we organized a corner of the basement into an office sort of space, and it actually looks pretty cool and as it turns out, quite practical. So that's where I am now, typing on our borrowed computer, trying to get my iTunes to work, and downloading editing software. We're going to be editing all week, so there may be fewer crazy adventures for a little while, but when you're around the people I am, there's never not going to be anything to talk about.
Take 'er easy, take 'er often.
-Matt
I did research on James Mood and the 1688, to provide more information to us when we go back and interview him personally. It's always a good idea to do some back to someone after reading up on their history, and James Mood's 1688 has quite a history to say the least.
After out proposal was done we headed to Lower Sackville, but on the road got a call from PJ saying that the next morning would be a better time to meet, we were pretty ok with this as we had wanted to see the new James Bond movie for a while and this would give us some free time to do so. Before we went to the theatre though we stopped by a grocery store in Halifax to meet Myles' 17 year old sister, Marissa. We introduced ourselves and then headed to the theatre, killing time before the show with some arcade games. Skyfall wasn't bad, Brad hated it. We then got to Myles' mom's house and hung out in the basement before going to bed.
The next morning we headed out, (after some confusion as to when we were supposed to) to PJ's house in Halifax and met with him and his marketing guy Harm Geurs. Together we worked out a plan for going forward. That plan is to spend this week editing some promotional video, a trailer and crafting proposals to go after funding, because we're going to need a pretty hefty bunch of cash to go after this story for real, and you can't get money without doing some serious leg work. That's what our next week is focused on, business. We're probably going to form an actual production company as well to handle any incoming revenue anyway.
We're looking at apartments.
I think I'm going to end up moving out here.
I'd be pretty ok with that, it's a heck of a place, and I could definitely see my self living out here, the ocean always just minutes away, the people are nice, I found a comic book store, pretty much everything one could want.
After the meeting with PJ we picked up an extra Macbook from an electronics store to edit on this week (we already have 2 but this one allows all three of us to be working at the same time) the plan is to take it back to the store in less than 30 days and get our money back, so that we can buy a computer with the funds we're hoping to get, which means we can get a better computer. We need this third one only temporarily is what I'm getting at I guess.
The inside jokes that have formed between the three of us are getting ridiculous, we don't even have to say punchlines anymore, the set up alone is funny.... it's a dangerous comedy game, because now everyone else thinks we're crazy because we die laughing every time one of us says something as simple as "listen....listen...listen..." What does that even mean? Why is that funny? What's going on?
After the laptop "purchase" we organized a corner of the basement into an office sort of space, and it actually looks pretty cool and as it turns out, quite practical. So that's where I am now, typing on our borrowed computer, trying to get my iTunes to work, and downloading editing software. We're going to be editing all week, so there may be fewer crazy adventures for a little while, but when you're around the people I am, there's never not going to be anything to talk about.
Take 'er easy, take 'er often.
-Matt
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Day 6 & 7: Running, Gunning and the Big Picture
Saturday had arrived upon us. The day we've been waiting for all week, because it was the day that we knew we would have some time off. We've been shooting pretty intensively all week as well as constantly talking over the project until the early hours of the morning everyday. We've had such jam packed days with PJ around because of the incredible speed and enthusiasm, he took us places we had no idea existed, and introduced us the people we never would have met, and it's been an incredible experience the whole way through, but it left us with no time or opportunity to step back, look at what we're doing with clear, well rested, heads and make some progress, plans and decisions. In short, we needed to take a break from production and start our pre-production.
It's weird because normally one does all the things we still had to do (budget, shot list, schedule, structure possible story ideas, research, etc.) well in advance of just showing up somewhere. But not us. Instead we were doing a practical fact finding mission in unfamiliar territory, but then also filming it.
All week we've been wrestling with how we would present this project, a documentary as planned, a TV series, a web series, made for TV documentary... we could do so many things with a story like the one we'd uncovered and we were largely undecided and in the dark about our own plans because we'd been so sleep deprived and busy shooting that we just never had an opportunity to sit down, just the three of us, and have one, single production meeting.
God bless PJ, he's given us so much, and moving forward, he's going to be a massive part of the project, and very intimately involved, however he was throwing a lot at us very quickly. That's how he works, a hundred miles an hour which is awesome, and just what we need, it's just something we're not used to yet. I mean hey, we did just meet the guy this week. How can you anticipate anyone's reaction or next move on a professional level after only 2 days? And on almost no sleep, no less.
This all meant that we were looking forward to saturday evening, a time to decompress, discuss and cut loose a little bit. But before we could do any of that PJ had a couple places he wanted to take us, so we thanked Lilly-Anna for her help hospitality, promised we'd return and hit the road, following PJ to an acadian town named Dennis Point, which was a little over an hour away. Once we got there he introduced us to a man named Vernon D'eon. Vernon was the man behind the manufacturing of Lobster Plugs, which are small wooden pins, which were inserted into the membrane of a caught lobster's claw, to stop it from opening. More recently these plugs have been replaced by simple and more cost effective rubber bands, wrapped around a lobster's claw. Since the plugs are now no longer in use, Vernon, among other things, owns a Lobster restaurant, named eloquently enough, the Dennis Point Cafe. While there Vernon showed us an 11 pound lobster that he'd bought to cook for a special occasion he had coming up. An 11 pound lobster is massive. Most lobsters you see in a grocery store are between 1.5- 4 pounds. This one was a sea monster. He also showed us a 5 pound lobster and even cooked it for us. We also had some of the Cafe's famous Hot Lobster Sandwiches, which will forever be one of the best things I have ever eaten OH MAN! It was so good, if you're ever in Acadia, or Nova Scotia in general, make your way to the Dennis Point Cafe and have a Hot Lobster Sandwich, it will make you rethink everything else you've ever eaten.
Vernon himself turned out to be an amazing interview, with knowledge of the Lobster fishing community going back to the 60's he talked for alost an hour about how tings are changing, not just for the fishermen, but the province as a whole. He also informed us about the many different ways to measure the quality of a lobster and the state of the lobster population as a whole (spoiler: there's a lot of lobsters), but as always, eventually it was time to move on from the Denis Point Cafe, and head to PJ's next destination, a lobster holding facility in Wedgeport, named (oddly enough) Wedgeport Lobster. There we got some great footage as well and saw the different methods buyers use to keep the caught lobster that were purchased from the fishermen on the dock nice and fresh for as long as possible. It turns out this is not easy, as lobster are not only extremely susceptible to becoming diseased, but are also cannibalistic, not an image one normally associates with this particular crustacean.
Then after a short trip to buy some extra hard drives we finally parted ways, if only for a few days, with PJ and headed back to Carl's house in Digby, to fetch the memory cards that Myles had forgotten there. It was great to see Carl again, and even better to see him sober! Carl proved once again that he was more than some random guy to us, he's our guru, basically a loud mouthed bearded Buddha, who we see very little of, but challenges us to consider more than we had thought too whenever we do.
After that we back to Myles' grammy's house, and ended up going to see a few friends of his from high school, a welcome break from the constant lobster talk we'd been partaking in all week.
Today has been referred to as our organizational day all week, and though it took us a while to get started, that's what we did. Our ducks are firmly in a row and we now have an action plan to get the funding that we need do this project any kind of justice. We also know how much funding we need, which is also key I've found. We pretty much went over all of our nitty gritty today, gear costs, living costs, long term and short term plans and much more, tomorrow we will be doing much of the same, it's incredibly important, but not that exciting to write about. It was all basically "office" work today, and will be much the same tomorrow. I can't say much, as we haven't made anything public yet, but I'm excited for the possibilities and I feel confident as of right now that we can meet the goals we've set for ourselves, in both the short and long term contexts.
We're making a film.
Film is a business.
We've finally started to treat this one like it deserves.
-Matt
P.S. We will probably go see Skyfall tomorrow, no one ruin it for me.
It's weird because normally one does all the things we still had to do (budget, shot list, schedule, structure possible story ideas, research, etc.) well in advance of just showing up somewhere. But not us. Instead we were doing a practical fact finding mission in unfamiliar territory, but then also filming it.
All week we've been wrestling with how we would present this project, a documentary as planned, a TV series, a web series, made for TV documentary... we could do so many things with a story like the one we'd uncovered and we were largely undecided and in the dark about our own plans because we'd been so sleep deprived and busy shooting that we just never had an opportunity to sit down, just the three of us, and have one, single production meeting.
God bless PJ, he's given us so much, and moving forward, he's going to be a massive part of the project, and very intimately involved, however he was throwing a lot at us very quickly. That's how he works, a hundred miles an hour which is awesome, and just what we need, it's just something we're not used to yet. I mean hey, we did just meet the guy this week. How can you anticipate anyone's reaction or next move on a professional level after only 2 days? And on almost no sleep, no less.
This all meant that we were looking forward to saturday evening, a time to decompress, discuss and cut loose a little bit. But before we could do any of that PJ had a couple places he wanted to take us, so we thanked Lilly-Anna for her help hospitality, promised we'd return and hit the road, following PJ to an acadian town named Dennis Point, which was a little over an hour away. Once we got there he introduced us to a man named Vernon D'eon. Vernon was the man behind the manufacturing of Lobster Plugs, which are small wooden pins, which were inserted into the membrane of a caught lobster's claw, to stop it from opening. More recently these plugs have been replaced by simple and more cost effective rubber bands, wrapped around a lobster's claw. Since the plugs are now no longer in use, Vernon, among other things, owns a Lobster restaurant, named eloquently enough, the Dennis Point Cafe. While there Vernon showed us an 11 pound lobster that he'd bought to cook for a special occasion he had coming up. An 11 pound lobster is massive. Most lobsters you see in a grocery store are between 1.5- 4 pounds. This one was a sea monster. He also showed us a 5 pound lobster and even cooked it for us. We also had some of the Cafe's famous Hot Lobster Sandwiches, which will forever be one of the best things I have ever eaten OH MAN! It was so good, if you're ever in Acadia, or Nova Scotia in general, make your way to the Dennis Point Cafe and have a Hot Lobster Sandwich, it will make you rethink everything else you've ever eaten.
Vernon himself turned out to be an amazing interview, with knowledge of the Lobster fishing community going back to the 60's he talked for alost an hour about how tings are changing, not just for the fishermen, but the province as a whole. He also informed us about the many different ways to measure the quality of a lobster and the state of the lobster population as a whole (spoiler: there's a lot of lobsters), but as always, eventually it was time to move on from the Denis Point Cafe, and head to PJ's next destination, a lobster holding facility in Wedgeport, named (oddly enough) Wedgeport Lobster. There we got some great footage as well and saw the different methods buyers use to keep the caught lobster that were purchased from the fishermen on the dock nice and fresh for as long as possible. It turns out this is not easy, as lobster are not only extremely susceptible to becoming diseased, but are also cannibalistic, not an image one normally associates with this particular crustacean.
Then after a short trip to buy some extra hard drives we finally parted ways, if only for a few days, with PJ and headed back to Carl's house in Digby, to fetch the memory cards that Myles had forgotten there. It was great to see Carl again, and even better to see him sober! Carl proved once again that he was more than some random guy to us, he's our guru, basically a loud mouthed bearded Buddha, who we see very little of, but challenges us to consider more than we had thought too whenever we do.
After that we back to Myles' grammy's house, and ended up going to see a few friends of his from high school, a welcome break from the constant lobster talk we'd been partaking in all week.
Today has been referred to as our organizational day all week, and though it took us a while to get started, that's what we did. Our ducks are firmly in a row and we now have an action plan to get the funding that we need do this project any kind of justice. We also know how much funding we need, which is also key I've found. We pretty much went over all of our nitty gritty today, gear costs, living costs, long term and short term plans and much more, tomorrow we will be doing much of the same, it's incredibly important, but not that exciting to write about. It was all basically "office" work today, and will be much the same tomorrow. I can't say much, as we haven't made anything public yet, but I'm excited for the possibilities and I feel confident as of right now that we can meet the goals we've set for ourselves, in both the short and long term contexts.
We're making a film.
Film is a business.
We've finally started to treat this one like it deserves.
-Matt
P.S. We will probably go see Skyfall tomorrow, no one ruin it for me.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Day 5: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Carl told us we were on the cusp of something big. We thought we had something on the drive out. Everyday here we've grown more and more convinced that this is a long term project. Today we started to quantify those feelings.
What we've got here isn't a ten day shoot. It's gonna have to be a lot longer than that. We're going to have to find a place. We're going to have to roll the dice. We're putting our cards on the table and going all in.
The story we've uncovered is beyond what we thought we would find, and we're the only outfit in town.
We had planned to wake up earlier today than normal. We were aiming for 8, but when you factor in how late we stay up talking/blogging and the fact that the Stagecoach Inn, where we're staying, has amazingly comfortable beds... we woke up at 10:30. But when we got up we found that PJ had pretty much our whole day planned out for us. That's the awesome thing about PJ, he's got an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, at the mere mention or an idea or concept, he's on his phone, texting and calling and setting up an interview with someone, this particular time it was an extremely well informed deck hand named bailey and the municipal tourism promotions manager who were in our kitchen before we even know they were coming, and we got a great interview out of it. PJ's got an insane network, and he's behind us and our idea one hundred percent. It's awesome that the's got such an insatiable passion to see the lobster industry grow and change to help the communities that are really struggling.
And he knows about struggling communities.
Because after our interview with Bailey, PJ had us get into a van with our gear and the woman who runs The Stagecoach Inn, Lilly-Anna, who drove us to down the road to Clarks Harbor. Clarks Harbor is not only PJ's hometown, but the hometown of his family going back generations. He started telling us about the town as we drove into this picturesque location. So we rolled on him. He told us every story about the town as we got out and explored it's warf, streets and shoreline. He explained how the only boats in the warf were lobster boats. He told us how lobster alone sustained this small town for generations, and with all the fishermen leaving (for various reasons, I don't want to spoil the show for you) the town had shrunk. Their convenience store is gone, the town's amazing b&b is gone, the movie theatre and parlour his family once owned is gone, even the elementary school is gone. It's all slipping away, leaving the only businesses left here being lobster buyers and a bait shop. Because the only industry in that whole town is lobster, and it's not providing enough for these fishermen anymore, so they leave, so the town shrinks, and shrinks until there'll be nothing left.
It was a great morning of shooting, getting to know everything about PJ's backstory and his family and the home they made for themselves that's largely been sold off to the highest bidder. We got great footage too.
PJ then took us to dinner, and along the way we met more people, got more contact information and ended up having dinner with James Mood and his right hand man at 1688, Steven. But of course we had thought this was a dinner run, and we didn't have our cameras. But it was still a great conversation and we learned a lot about what James Mood is actually like, and what his viewpoints are. He wants to get the price per pound of lobster from the buyers to 5 dollars per pound and to do that he says he needs to unite the fishermen. But beyond that.... I don't know what his plans are, I don't think anyone knows exactly what he'd do if he managed to unite the fishermen under his 1688 banner, other than call for a strike, which could work, but from what we've seen and heard at the 1688 meeting tonight and the night before, he doesn't have much of a plan to win back many of the fishermen he's alienated with his extreme and brash viewpoints and conduct. But his heart is in the right place, and what he's asking and proposing is not an invalid option, if it were successfully implemented it could very well sustain many in the community who would not be able to with out a buying price increase. He's a tough man to read. I'm still not quite sure what to make of him. He's very passionate, that much I can say for sure, and the meeting we just filmed is proof positive of that in more ways than one.
The meeting was rowdy at times with PJ clashing heads with one of the boat captains and James Mood, for merely suggesting trying to work with the buyers. He then spoke about how the internet changes business and even made me speak up in a room full of mostly old, grisled fishermen, why the internet matters to the world.
I had to explain the internet's importance to a large group of people, in 2012.
Needless to say it was eventful, i could go on for a long time about it, but it's late and I must move on.
After all this we got back to the inn and after attempting to define PJ's and Lobster.ca/CAL's involvement in our project, Lobster Inc. it became clear to us that this is no short term project, this is no DIY home movie, it's a real project that if we're going to do it right, will probably take about 8 months of work to do. That's a real amount of time, for an incredibly real project. We need real money. So we've devised a plan to try to find some funds, and once we've outlined our objectives and put together som proposals and presentations we'll be hunting funding down, for cost of the film, and also the cost of sustain ourselves (Mom, that means making money, in film). Tomorrow we'll be doing some filming that we've already scheduled as we try to get our ducks in a row in the next week. You will all be hearing more about these efforts as they develop. But the point is that this just got real, and we may have bitten off a lot here, but that means we need to just chew harder. We're chasing a story and a dream, and we're not leaving until we've caught them both.
It's time to rock out, with the docks about.
Down.
Set.
Hut.
-Matt
P.S. I just want to thank everyone for reading, I've had over 300 total page views on here and that's all you, I love hearing feedback and your reactions to what we're doing, feel free to tweet at me (@brisbianajones) and follow my exploits on facebook. I also want to say a quick Hi to Ben, Hannah, Phillip, Mom and Dad who I know are reading these. I miss you all very much.
What we've got here isn't a ten day shoot. It's gonna have to be a lot longer than that. We're going to have to find a place. We're going to have to roll the dice. We're putting our cards on the table and going all in.
The story we've uncovered is beyond what we thought we would find, and we're the only outfit in town.
We had planned to wake up earlier today than normal. We were aiming for 8, but when you factor in how late we stay up talking/blogging and the fact that the Stagecoach Inn, where we're staying, has amazingly comfortable beds... we woke up at 10:30. But when we got up we found that PJ had pretty much our whole day planned out for us. That's the awesome thing about PJ, he's got an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, at the mere mention or an idea or concept, he's on his phone, texting and calling and setting up an interview with someone, this particular time it was an extremely well informed deck hand named bailey and the municipal tourism promotions manager who were in our kitchen before we even know they were coming, and we got a great interview out of it. PJ's got an insane network, and he's behind us and our idea one hundred percent. It's awesome that the's got such an insatiable passion to see the lobster industry grow and change to help the communities that are really struggling.
And he knows about struggling communities.
Because after our interview with Bailey, PJ had us get into a van with our gear and the woman who runs The Stagecoach Inn, Lilly-Anna, who drove us to down the road to Clarks Harbor. Clarks Harbor is not only PJ's hometown, but the hometown of his family going back generations. He started telling us about the town as we drove into this picturesque location. So we rolled on him. He told us every story about the town as we got out and explored it's warf, streets and shoreline. He explained how the only boats in the warf were lobster boats. He told us how lobster alone sustained this small town for generations, and with all the fishermen leaving (for various reasons, I don't want to spoil the show for you) the town had shrunk. Their convenience store is gone, the town's amazing b&b is gone, the movie theatre and parlour his family once owned is gone, even the elementary school is gone. It's all slipping away, leaving the only businesses left here being lobster buyers and a bait shop. Because the only industry in that whole town is lobster, and it's not providing enough for these fishermen anymore, so they leave, so the town shrinks, and shrinks until there'll be nothing left.
It was a great morning of shooting, getting to know everything about PJ's backstory and his family and the home they made for themselves that's largely been sold off to the highest bidder. We got great footage too.
PJ then took us to dinner, and along the way we met more people, got more contact information and ended up having dinner with James Mood and his right hand man at 1688, Steven. But of course we had thought this was a dinner run, and we didn't have our cameras. But it was still a great conversation and we learned a lot about what James Mood is actually like, and what his viewpoints are. He wants to get the price per pound of lobster from the buyers to 5 dollars per pound and to do that he says he needs to unite the fishermen. But beyond that.... I don't know what his plans are, I don't think anyone knows exactly what he'd do if he managed to unite the fishermen under his 1688 banner, other than call for a strike, which could work, but from what we've seen and heard at the 1688 meeting tonight and the night before, he doesn't have much of a plan to win back many of the fishermen he's alienated with his extreme and brash viewpoints and conduct. But his heart is in the right place, and what he's asking and proposing is not an invalid option, if it were successfully implemented it could very well sustain many in the community who would not be able to with out a buying price increase. He's a tough man to read. I'm still not quite sure what to make of him. He's very passionate, that much I can say for sure, and the meeting we just filmed is proof positive of that in more ways than one.
The meeting was rowdy at times with PJ clashing heads with one of the boat captains and James Mood, for merely suggesting trying to work with the buyers. He then spoke about how the internet changes business and even made me speak up in a room full of mostly old, grisled fishermen, why the internet matters to the world.
I had to explain the internet's importance to a large group of people, in 2012.
Needless to say it was eventful, i could go on for a long time about it, but it's late and I must move on.
After all this we got back to the inn and after attempting to define PJ's and Lobster.ca/CAL's involvement in our project, Lobster Inc. it became clear to us that this is no short term project, this is no DIY home movie, it's a real project that if we're going to do it right, will probably take about 8 months of work to do. That's a real amount of time, for an incredibly real project. We need real money. So we've devised a plan to try to find some funds, and once we've outlined our objectives and put together som proposals and presentations we'll be hunting funding down, for cost of the film, and also the cost of sustain ourselves (Mom, that means making money, in film). Tomorrow we'll be doing some filming that we've already scheduled as we try to get our ducks in a row in the next week. You will all be hearing more about these efforts as they develop. But the point is that this just got real, and we may have bitten off a lot here, but that means we need to just chew harder. We're chasing a story and a dream, and we're not leaving until we've caught them both.
It's time to rock out, with the docks about.
Down.
Set.
Hut.
-Matt
P.S. I just want to thank everyone for reading, I've had over 300 total page views on here and that's all you, I love hearing feedback and your reactions to what we're doing, feel free to tweet at me (@brisbianajones) and follow my exploits on facebook. I also want to say a quick Hi to Ben, Hannah, Phillip, Mom and Dad who I know are reading these. I miss you all very much.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Day 4: Chasing Tale
This being the second day of shooting on our documentary it's becoming incredibly clear to me that a lot can happen in one day here in Nova Scotia so don't expect a short read from me, especially on a day like today.
We came with a story in mind, today was the day we started to find our characters.
The morning started us off at Carl's house in Digby, where we had stayed the night before. The plan was to go out into the community nearby and shoot some b-roll, or stock footage of local warfs, boats and seasides, later to be used to bridge the gap between interview shots or set a specific tone in the editing room. Basically, we were looking to capture a small taste of the local culture. The plan was to do this for an hour or two and then be in Wedgeport, to interview a young lobster boat captain named Lucien, and then stick around for the 1688 metting in the Wedgport firehall that night.
That morning we only thought we were going after a small taste of Digby, but the thing is, with Carl around, there's no way you're ever going to get a small taste of anything. The man's got a personality twice the size of any mortal man. So when we announced to Carl and his son our intentions for our morning and day he declared in a loud, slightly inebriated voice, "I'm comin with you bays, and we're takin my truck.... but you're driving!"
So we grabbed our gear and threw it into the back of Carl's dilapidated Ford Transit, and then piled ourselves in as well. Brad, however, was in the driving seat, and forced to take Carl's poorly timed and demanding directions. It was a hilarious drive with Carl and his son constantly ripping into us and each other for just about everything they could think of (It is true about sailors and foul language, it's pretty much a straight blue streak with those two around) but eventually we arrived (after a trip to the liquor store, I might add) at an abandoned warf Carl wanted us to see.
And see it we did.
The views would have been picturesque on a day with blue skies and sunlight, but instead we were blessed with high winds and an overcast sky. It gave every shot an amazing sense of realism, it was incredibly raw, haunting and beautiful. The warf was crumbling and broken and obviously hadn't seen use in a couple decades, the tracks to load boats and skips into the water was rotting away quickly and covered in seaweed, there was even a washed up, rotting, plant infested 30 foot fishing boat. It all looked amazing and we could have shot there all day, but Carl had something else in mind. Carl started talking.
He talked about how this was a place built by men, fishermen of old with their hard earned money, by their blood, sweat and tears, because they believed in the dream that is fishing on the wide open seas. How the men who built this were young men, and now with all the problems in the fishing industry the young people of today, the ones with the passion and ideas were leaving. They are leaving. They all go west, to the oil sands because they can offer something that a lot of these young fisherman can't get out here; a steady and extremely lucrative pay-check.
In short, Carl did what he did best, he told stories.
And we filmed it.
After the warf, Carl took us to the currently working warf to get some more basic b-reel and then to the local tavern, where he talked up the bar-maid, told more tall tales and where we had an amazing plate of scallops, haddock and clams, all caught right there in Digby (apparently they're pretty famous for their scallops). It was my first time having both clam and scallops, and they were absolutely delicious, if you're going to loose your scallops virginity, do it in Digby.
We stayed at the tavern for a short time, but it was getting pretty clear that it was time for us to be moving along for our interview with Lucien, scheduled for 4 o'clock that afternoon. we said our goodbye's to Carl at his place and re-assured him that we'd be stopping by again before we left the province all together. So to the road we went again. The drive to Wedgeport was not a long one, only taking about 45 minutes, but finding Lucien's house was something else entirely, as all of our phones either had no service or were out of charge (It's pretty common place for Myles and myself not to have any reception where we are, we're both with Rogers and their coverage of the south western half of Nova Scotia is notoriously terrible). We had driven in silence most of the way, exhausted from our time with Carl (He's a great guy, but to match his level of intensity requires a lot of mental fortitude) so we pulled into the Wedgeport warf and, well we just sat there for like 20 minutes and power-napped. We were too early for our appointment with Lucien anyway and by the time we awoke we still had about 20 minutes to kill.
We did eventually find Luciens house and after waiting a short time for him to get back from his cottage, He invited us inside, offered us a beer and immedietely began talking about the Lobster Fishing industry and the imbalances, problems in it, and how he thinks they should be fixed, in fact, I was worried that he was going to say everything he had to before we got the cameras rolling (he was also incredibly amused and strangely impressed with all of our makeshift camera gear), but we did get rolling and my worries proved to be unfounded as he was very eager to talk about every aspect of what he's been doing in the industry both as a boat captain, and as a member of the Lobster Pricing Committee where he volunteers as a board member.
Lucien was extremely open and honest with us, he's 22 years old, making him one of the youngest of the boat captains in his district, and the youngest member of the Board, but he speaks with the maturity and wisdom of a much more experienced fisherman. He was an amazing interview and it's become clear that he's going to be featured fairly heavily in our documentary. He's extremely relatable and incredibly smart.
Lucien was also the first one to ask us to stay longer than we've planned.
He said that we were going to be leaving to soon, that we'd miss a lot if we left.
Maybe he's right.
After Lucien we went to the Fire hall where the 1688 meeting would take place, about an hour and a half early to meet and talk to a guy named PJ Swim, who's working to rebrand Canadian Atlantic Lobsters which will subsequently grow the demand and the industry (check out www.lobster.ca for more details on his plans). PJ has turned out to be a great guy to hang out with and has hooked us up with lodging for the night, and a little food and drink (somethings we always appreciate). He really cares about what he's doing and he's a really exciting person to have around. He's also got ins with some of the big lobster buying companies in the Maritimes, and he's hoping to be able to get us in to check out the massive lobster holding facilites they have to keep the surplus lobsters fresh for when the season's over.
PJ was also there for the 1688 meeting, which turned out to be my highlight of the day. James Mood's 1688 organization is calling for a strike. A strike to start the day the season opens (commonly referred to as "dumping day") so that the fishermen of the 33 and 34 LFA (Lobster Fishing Areas) located on the south west tip of Nova Scotia can secure a better price per pound for the lobster they catch. Right now they get around $3.00-$3.50 a pound and that's not enough to support many (not all, but many) fisherman, who are struggling to get by at the current price. There were around 55 fishermen and captains in that meeting, including our new friends Lucien and PJ, and every one of them had something to say, they were very passionate and all spoke for hours. I don't have time to get into the details of all of their ideas, or any of the great back and forth we caught on camera, because it's 2:30 in the morning and the others have gone to bed. Besides, it'll all be in the doc, you'll see what I'm talking about... hopefully.
The one thing I will say is that we have made a lot of strides today, and Identified three key "characters" for our story. I have no doubt Lucien, PJ, and James will all have a lot to give us in this thing. they've each got their own idea on how to help the parts of their communities that are really struggling finacially, and each idea could work... but good luck getting everyone on the same page, or even at the same table, yet, that's what needs to be done. United these fishermen will stand tall and overcome, no matter what they decide to do. Divided, they fall.
As Canadians, we can't afford that.
G'night
-Matt
P.S. No pictures tonight, even though I took a bunch. Check my instagram (@brisleyadams) they're all there. I didn't want to do any extra transferring tonight.
We came with a story in mind, today was the day we started to find our characters.
The morning started us off at Carl's house in Digby, where we had stayed the night before. The plan was to go out into the community nearby and shoot some b-roll, or stock footage of local warfs, boats and seasides, later to be used to bridge the gap between interview shots or set a specific tone in the editing room. Basically, we were looking to capture a small taste of the local culture. The plan was to do this for an hour or two and then be in Wedgeport, to interview a young lobster boat captain named Lucien, and then stick around for the 1688 metting in the Wedgport firehall that night.
That morning we only thought we were going after a small taste of Digby, but the thing is, with Carl around, there's no way you're ever going to get a small taste of anything. The man's got a personality twice the size of any mortal man. So when we announced to Carl and his son our intentions for our morning and day he declared in a loud, slightly inebriated voice, "I'm comin with you bays, and we're takin my truck.... but you're driving!"
So we grabbed our gear and threw it into the back of Carl's dilapidated Ford Transit, and then piled ourselves in as well. Brad, however, was in the driving seat, and forced to take Carl's poorly timed and demanding directions. It was a hilarious drive with Carl and his son constantly ripping into us and each other for just about everything they could think of (It is true about sailors and foul language, it's pretty much a straight blue streak with those two around) but eventually we arrived (after a trip to the liquor store, I might add) at an abandoned warf Carl wanted us to see.
And see it we did.
The views would have been picturesque on a day with blue skies and sunlight, but instead we were blessed with high winds and an overcast sky. It gave every shot an amazing sense of realism, it was incredibly raw, haunting and beautiful. The warf was crumbling and broken and obviously hadn't seen use in a couple decades, the tracks to load boats and skips into the water was rotting away quickly and covered in seaweed, there was even a washed up, rotting, plant infested 30 foot fishing boat. It all looked amazing and we could have shot there all day, but Carl had something else in mind. Carl started talking.
He talked about how this was a place built by men, fishermen of old with their hard earned money, by their blood, sweat and tears, because they believed in the dream that is fishing on the wide open seas. How the men who built this were young men, and now with all the problems in the fishing industry the young people of today, the ones with the passion and ideas were leaving. They are leaving. They all go west, to the oil sands because they can offer something that a lot of these young fisherman can't get out here; a steady and extremely lucrative pay-check.
In short, Carl did what he did best, he told stories.
And we filmed it.
After the warf, Carl took us to the currently working warf to get some more basic b-reel and then to the local tavern, where he talked up the bar-maid, told more tall tales and where we had an amazing plate of scallops, haddock and clams, all caught right there in Digby (apparently they're pretty famous for their scallops). It was my first time having both clam and scallops, and they were absolutely delicious, if you're going to loose your scallops virginity, do it in Digby.
We stayed at the tavern for a short time, but it was getting pretty clear that it was time for us to be moving along for our interview with Lucien, scheduled for 4 o'clock that afternoon. we said our goodbye's to Carl at his place and re-assured him that we'd be stopping by again before we left the province all together. So to the road we went again. The drive to Wedgeport was not a long one, only taking about 45 minutes, but finding Lucien's house was something else entirely, as all of our phones either had no service or were out of charge (It's pretty common place for Myles and myself not to have any reception where we are, we're both with Rogers and their coverage of the south western half of Nova Scotia is notoriously terrible). We had driven in silence most of the way, exhausted from our time with Carl (He's a great guy, but to match his level of intensity requires a lot of mental fortitude) so we pulled into the Wedgeport warf and, well we just sat there for like 20 minutes and power-napped. We were too early for our appointment with Lucien anyway and by the time we awoke we still had about 20 minutes to kill.
We did eventually find Luciens house and after waiting a short time for him to get back from his cottage, He invited us inside, offered us a beer and immedietely began talking about the Lobster Fishing industry and the imbalances, problems in it, and how he thinks they should be fixed, in fact, I was worried that he was going to say everything he had to before we got the cameras rolling (he was also incredibly amused and strangely impressed with all of our makeshift camera gear), but we did get rolling and my worries proved to be unfounded as he was very eager to talk about every aspect of what he's been doing in the industry both as a boat captain, and as a member of the Lobster Pricing Committee where he volunteers as a board member.
Lucien was extremely open and honest with us, he's 22 years old, making him one of the youngest of the boat captains in his district, and the youngest member of the Board, but he speaks with the maturity and wisdom of a much more experienced fisherman. He was an amazing interview and it's become clear that he's going to be featured fairly heavily in our documentary. He's extremely relatable and incredibly smart.
Lucien was also the first one to ask us to stay longer than we've planned.
He said that we were going to be leaving to soon, that we'd miss a lot if we left.
Maybe he's right.
After Lucien we went to the Fire hall where the 1688 meeting would take place, about an hour and a half early to meet and talk to a guy named PJ Swim, who's working to rebrand Canadian Atlantic Lobsters which will subsequently grow the demand and the industry (check out www.lobster.ca for more details on his plans). PJ has turned out to be a great guy to hang out with and has hooked us up with lodging for the night, and a little food and drink (somethings we always appreciate). He really cares about what he's doing and he's a really exciting person to have around. He's also got ins with some of the big lobster buying companies in the Maritimes, and he's hoping to be able to get us in to check out the massive lobster holding facilites they have to keep the surplus lobsters fresh for when the season's over.
PJ was also there for the 1688 meeting, which turned out to be my highlight of the day. James Mood's 1688 organization is calling for a strike. A strike to start the day the season opens (commonly referred to as "dumping day") so that the fishermen of the 33 and 34 LFA (Lobster Fishing Areas) located on the south west tip of Nova Scotia can secure a better price per pound for the lobster they catch. Right now they get around $3.00-$3.50 a pound and that's not enough to support many (not all, but many) fisherman, who are struggling to get by at the current price. There were around 55 fishermen and captains in that meeting, including our new friends Lucien and PJ, and every one of them had something to say, they were very passionate and all spoke for hours. I don't have time to get into the details of all of their ideas, or any of the great back and forth we caught on camera, because it's 2:30 in the morning and the others have gone to bed. Besides, it'll all be in the doc, you'll see what I'm talking about... hopefully.
The one thing I will say is that we have made a lot of strides today, and Identified three key "characters" for our story. I have no doubt Lucien, PJ, and James will all have a lot to give us in this thing. they've each got their own idea on how to help the parts of their communities that are really struggling finacially, and each idea could work... but good luck getting everyone on the same page, or even at the same table, yet, that's what needs to be done. United these fishermen will stand tall and overcome, no matter what they decide to do. Divided, they fall.
As Canadians, we can't afford that.
G'night
-Matt
P.S. No pictures tonight, even though I took a bunch. Check my instagram (@brisleyadams) they're all there. I didn't want to do any extra transferring tonight.
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