Monday, June 20, 2011

Murphy's Law abated at last!

Most people deal with Murphy's Law in their lives -- the law that indicates if anything can go wrong, it will. When trying to film, Murphy's Law seems to rule the day, and held no exceptions for me with my latest project.

In January, I approached a small business and asked if they would be interested in a little bartering... I would make a short documentary of their business to post on their website and they could pay me in delicious natural meats. They run a local farm with chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows that graze on grass and are not given antibiotics or hormones.

They were excited about the idea, and agreed that the best time to film the livestock would be in the spring, so we waited for the snow to disappear and the grass to green up in hopes for nice shots with blossoms on the trees. May approached and the elements lined up. However, they were going on vacation the first week in May, so we set a date for the following week. Setting a date always triggers Murphy's Law into action.

That's when the rains started. The first appointment was canceled. Then the second. Then the third. Then we stopped making appointments and agreed to watch the weather and play it by ear. The rain lasted three weeks, only clearing on a few select days when I was unavailable. After that, it was my turn to go on vacation.

Long story long. Finally...today was the day! It happened! I went early this morning and filmed the animals. I am now in the process of logging and transferring my clips into Final Cut Pro, and hoping that I have enough decent footage to use. Take that, Murphy's Law!

(However, Murphy still got a last laugh since it rained heavily yesterday which forced me to walk through muddy muck to the animals.)

3 comments:

  1. Yay!! So glad you finally got out there to film! I'm excited to see the finished product.

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  2. Yes, yes! I, too, am excited to see the finished product. Did you film all the animals -- cows, chickens, pigs, etc?

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  3. I did film all the animals...cows, pigs, piglets, chickens, little baby chicks and even baby turkeys, I think the hardest to film were the pigs. It seemed like they always had their backside to me, and although their curly tails might be "cute" I don't think I want so many clips of their rumps! The pigs were also very curious and kept investigating me and the tripod, knocking us around. A lot of the pig "clips" are jumpy because of pigs bumping the tripod.

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