Stop! In the Name of... Editing

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I apologize for my slowness in updating all of you lovely folks regarding the movie - I recently acquired employment! Hooray! As what, you ask? A crossing guard for the Portland Public Schools, of course (basically my dream job). The job has brought on new changes in my life, such as getting out of bed before 10am, which is not something I've done for at least a couple of months. But I'm adjusting! Slowly. And so, unfortunately, I've fallen a bit behind as I acclimate to a new schedule.

So! Updates! I have completed the filming. Hooray! Last week I interviewed another Rabbi, and two community members who are congregants from local temples/synagogues and who are involved in the Jewish community in different manners.

My friend Patrick was a big help, as he filmed the interviews. I'm looking forward to having him by my side as a part of the editing process.

Editing. Ugh. I mean, the interviews were super interesting because I was able to learn many things about different people's experiences and perspectives regarding Judaism in Maine. I was able to talk to neat folks from the area! But... editing. During editing, I'll just be watching the same clips over and over and trying to figure out where they belong so as to make the most sense. Right?

Maybe not. I was speaking with one of the other crossing guards last week (his name is Mike), and he suggested otherwise. Mike happens to be a retired musician (of sixteen years!) who has experienced positive things during the editing process of his musical recordings. He mentioned that it is during this section of creation that one's uniqueness is able to stand out - the piece becomes a collection put together by individuals, instead of simply a conglomeration of bits and pieces. It becomes reflective of the people who are creating the narrative of the piece.

I think that Mike is on to something. Or at least, it'll be worth my while to keep an open mind about what the editing process is going to be like. Plus! I will have a friend wandering through the process with me. I'll keep all of you updated to let you know how it goes!

I hope that everyone has a pleasant Thanksgiving! Eat turkey. Or tofurkey, if you're vegetarian. Or neither of those, if you're vegetarian and also sensitive to soy. 

Two Rabbis Down!

I am going to be honest here, and just say that Rabbis, and spiritual leaders of all kinds, intimidate me in a way that few other things can.

Now, I don't want to delve into the deep-seated psychological reasoning behind this, but instead just say that it's been totally awesome to be interviewing local Rabbis as of late, despite that they nearly frighten me.

In school I studied Jewish Studies, so I am familiar with the differences in denomination, but what I learned was just set up in a fact-in-a-book-kind-of-way. So aside from these interviews with spiritual leaders being super applicable for the film I'm making, it's also been interesting to just be in a situation where individuality can be lent to the facts I learned previously.

So - two Rabbis down, one to go! And by that, I mean that I have interviewed local Rabbis representing two of the three majorly identified Jewish denominations from the Portland area, and hope very much to secure an interview with the third (if not even more Rabbis! You can never have too many Rabbis, right?).

Other news! I've recently switched to a new camera-person - my friend Patrick is taking over the filming for Zach, who is working on other really neat projects (like puppet shows!). Patrick has also kindly offered to help with the editing process, for which I am very grateful. It's so helpful to have another person's input and viewpoints while creating a narrative from clips of film. The editing process begins mid-November! And so I will continue to scramble to complete the interviews before the end of next week (hopefully).

I hope that everyone survived the bit of snow we had yesterday, and that November has started out well.

Cat! Click here.