The Process

Resident chickens at 20 Coop.

Since Thursday, the iBeat Reporting team has spent the majority of its time in front of the computers in the arctic chill of room 653.  We've spent long nights capturing, editing, re-capturing, and re-editing.

The process has been like brushing out a serious knot in  tangled head of hair.  There are so many tiny details in the editing process that you just have to keep combing through the sequences until it's perfectly smooth.  With two days left until we go live, I feel like my video has just some mild frizz (Final Cut and its finicky text feature- blast!) to take care of before it's a stylish do.

Also, still have to edit my voxpops (curses to them!!!), additional b-roll, the audio component, the written story... oh, it never ends.

I think it was Adrian who said, "You never finish a project.  You just abandon it."  It's true- we could go forever tweaking material and adding new multimedia components.  But we're down to the line now.  I think it was Adrian who also said, "It's good to have a goal."

I say, "It's good to have a vacation."

I've seen bits of my team members work and I'm feeling very optimistic about all of this.  It's going to be spectacular and worth every second of bloodshot-late-night-work.

On the Farm

Hugh and Hanna of the Threshold Farm were kind enough to share their home and their farm with me this weekend as I chased everyone around with the camera.  I was a media magnet- pulling in every image and sound I possibly could.

It was only a couple of days but it felt like a week or two.  I could ramble on about all the sights and sounds of my farm adventure, but that's what the iBeat multimedia explosion is for.  So instead here's a brief summary of the highlights:

Day One- Thursday June 4th (my birthday)

-Took a train from Penn Station to Hudson, NY.  Realized travel by rail is my new favorite mode of transportation.   

-Arrived in Hudson and  met up with Hanna who drove me to the farm in the village of Philmont.

-Greeted by a juvenile water gun firing squad upon my arrival

-Made hay, took photos, saw a turtle, learned how to thin apples, ran from a peacefully sleeping black snake, walked around in cow crap

-Had a very energetic discussion with Hugh about the politics of food production

-Canned chutney

-Met the WWOOFers 

Day Two- Friday June 5th

-woke up at the crack of dawn (approx. 6:30)

-filmed the WWOOFers having breakfast

-did Hanna a favor by making sure the kids got on the school bus while she and Hugh prepared bunches of vegetables for the CSA pickup

-hiked a mile or so to the farm (the house is in the village away from the actual farm land) schlepping my gear up and down hills

-filmed and did interviews in the orchard while the WWOOFers worked

-helped make lunch

-ate a giant feast of spaghetti with meat sauce, green bean salad, beet salad, and steamed beet greens: all of which was from the farm except for the noodles

-napped

-interviewed WWOOFer Andrea  a little more.

-WENT TO A HO-DOWN!!!!!  Learned how to contra dance and do-si-doed until midnight

Day Three- Saturday June 6th

-slept in (which on farm time means waking up at 7:45)

-Biked through the foothills of the Catskill mountains with the WWOOFers to another organic farm called Hawthorne Valley Farm

-went on a foraging walk led by conservationist Russel Cohen- ate flowers and grasses and such straight out of the ground

-learned how to make Dandelion omelets, Cattail biscuits, and Sumac tea

-biked back 

-filmed WWOOFer Mirabelle playing guitar and singing in french

-caught a ride back to Hudson to catch the 5:10 train back to the city

whoa.

that was quite the experience.

I had to pull my weight while I was there especially since Hugh and Hanna were feeding me and allowing me to stay in the farm house.  So, I washed a lot of dishes, thinned some of the apple trees, and tried to be generally helpful.

Needless to say, I got really immersed in the story.

Now I get to spend the next 6 days reliving it all as I begin the editing process.