Home Again, Home Again: Ruby Slippers Edition

Our first finding is that, no Dorthy, Chad sure isn't Kansas, and despite that, ruby slippers are not, in and of themselves, sufficient to tackle the headaches associated with a lost ticket. For that, one needs a cell phone and airline personnel of extraordinary patience. And no, there really is no place like home. Or at least if your concept of home involves running water, paved roads, and things of that ilk.

Thus, we are back in the states, having just missed an actual newsworthy event in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. It seems that circumstance has conspired to firmly keep us in the camp of filmmakers, rather than war correspondents. The flipside being, however, that we've gotten some rather nice coverage (well, nice even if the article is titled "Bordering on Insanity") in the newsweekly, Time Out. Additionally, we're scheduled to appear live on WTTW, the Chicago PBS station, for an appearance on Chicago Tonight on Monday at 7 pm, so that way any anxious viewers can watch us make fools of ourselves Right Now, rather than waiting for the release of footage to watch us make fools of ourselves.

In any case, we're back, whole, with footage, our gear, and have been blessed by an unnatural quantity of dust and grime. As promised, I'm going to go back and reload higher resolution images, and clean up some of the formatting, as the return to the states has meant a return to unfettered, high-speed internet access.

I can say on behalf of all of us, Thank You All Very Much for your support during this trip - both moral and financial support have been of immense help. I would also like to thank the folks who responded to our posts, particularly those who have tuned us in to some additional efforts in Darfur. Once we get unpacked, decompressed, cleaned, fed, slept, watered, bathed, and burped, we'll be looking into that information right away.

As far as the current status of the project goes, we are already starting the digitizing, editing, formatting, and other relevant "-ing" activities (described by participles?) that are somehow involved in turning footage into film.

In the interim, I (as sound guy) have taken a look at some of the photos I took, and have realized (as a sound guy) that a picture (particularly when I've taken the photo) is not, necessarily, worth a thousand words. In fact, if one (i.e., a sound guy) shoots sufficiently lousy pictures, editing, captioning, and some narrative background are all pretty essential if the photos are going to actually be worth anything, let alone a thousand words. Upcoming blogposts (between actual film-related developments) will be narrating our trip and posting relevant photos.



Happy New Years, Thank You, and Good Night!!