Trip Planning

I met yesterday with my DP for the Sweet Home video shoot. We mulled over a number of shots that we agree are necessary to capture the feel of the narrative. We also planned an itinerary and specific route through the portion of the state I'm concerned with in this segment of the shoot.

We'll stop in Albany first, where I attended a junior college for one year before transferring to the University of Oregon. There, we'll photograph a plywood mill where I worked coming out of high school and on two other summer occasions. I want to go inside to grab some shots of the machinery used in the plywood trade. I'll try to set that up for the morning of the first day.

From there, we'll drive over to Lebanon, where I lived in the summer of 1977 and briefly tried to sell cars before going to work in a mobile home factory. I see a few shots coming out of that environment as well.

Then it'll be on to my hometown, where we'll shoot some of the project's most crucial video.

I told Terence about the old, wooden-covered bridge on display in Sweet Home's city park, moved there when Foster Reservoir went in on the Santiam River. It is very iconic and odd-looking in a park without a river flowing through it.

A must image for this project. One of many.

We'll shoot as much as we can in Sweet Home and environs and spend the night there, camping if the weather suggests it.

The next day we head into the Cascades, which play an integral part in A Marvelous Paranoia. I lived, for the first year of my life, in tiny Cascadia, in a house adjacent to Cascadia State Park. The family moved to Sweet Home after my father's death, but in the ensuing years I spent a great deal of time in Cascadia among a throng of cousins and extended family.

A must stop for images.

The rivers, lakes and terrain after that are other important aspects of the story. We'll gather those images on the way to Sisters. It'll be an intense and grueling day-long shoot, so the itinerary calls for a second night of camping (or a motel) in Sisters before driving the following morning along the McKenzie River to Eugene.

In Eugene, we'll need to capture the university aspects of the story. Looking forward to that.

In fact, I'm looking forward to this entire project. I'd like to bring it out this time next year. That might seem like a long gestation period, but consider that the entire project will have to be taken piecemeal on select days that fit the schedules of those involved.

In addition, a lot of legwork and and gathering need be done.

Onward!


TS