The Mountain and Gravity
In my life the mountain has been the 16mm footage and massive amounts of material that I have been gathering for my film. The other limitation in documentary filmmaking is money. Today I was thinking about Fitzcarraldo. I have been thinking about a boat going over the mountain. How does man overcome physical limitations that are seemingly rigid and unmovable? It is in the the belief that all is possible, and not only possible but absolutely what is needed and inevitable. It is the deserved and correct outcome to bring to boat over the mountain. It is our birthright to bring boats over mountains.
It is that physical challenge that brings us to the moment of truth that we are more then physical.
Gravity the film. is coming along nicely. We are most likely shooting this summer in Norway. I have transferred nearly 15,000 feet of footage and have another 18,000 ready to go to the lab. For me it has become about losing the anxiety of the doing of the task and just doing what is needed step by step. Everything is slow moving. Everything is very physical in the pre digital world.
In the early eighties Carl Boenish coined the acronym “BASE” (standing for Buildings, Antenna, Span, and Earth, the objects jumped) and invented a sport. Carl was the catalyst behind modern BASE jumping; an electrical engineer and filmmaker who believed that BASE jumping would allow mankind to overcome artificial limitations. He religiously chronicled the early days of BASE in beautiful 16mm film, often with cameras mounted to the jumpers’ heads. He saw BASE as the next amazing thing to film. Subscribe via RSS.
