Yesterday I got to shoot footage at the Washington State Fire Fighter Academy during training sessions with Bob Pennington for a great project he and Jen are doing through their company Rhizome Designs. It was cold and wet but we got some great footage. It was rather surreal sitting by the big door of their training building where they had live fires and new recruits getting real experience fighting fires, with their masks and the view I had through my camera it was like I was filming in the trenches during World War I.
This winter our film making team (Sandy Asher, Kris Browne and myself) has completed the first phase of making our documentary on the story of wildlife passages came to be included in major highway renovations on I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass.
We now have ten new interviews filmed with people from all angles of the story: Brian White and Randy Giles of WSDOT, Patty Garvey Darda and Peter Singleton of the US Forest Service, Washington State Senator Curtis King of Yakima, Representative Judy Clibborn of Mercer Island, conservation leaders Mitch Friedman of Conservation Northwest, Jon Hoekstra of Mountains to Sound Greenway, and Gene Duvernoy of Forterra, and Janet Ray of AAA.
Additionally, I’ve spent many days shooting footage on the ground and in the air, flying with LightHawk pilot Lane Gormley and UAV operator Richard Gillette.
We are excited to begin shaping our story and to continue filming through the coming months. The film is scheduled to be completed later in 2017.
In recent times I took to the air for two projects shooting aerial footage, the first being for Forterra. Forterra is a fantastic conservation organization working to both protect lands and enhance communities living on them. I flew with Charlie Raines, Director of Forest Conservation, and pilot Lane Gormley of LightHawk, up the Great Northern Corridor which runs up from Everett, WA, up to Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains, following US Hwy 2 and the Snohomish and Skykomish Rivers. We documented a number of sites along the way where Forterra is making an impact for Washington State residents and wildlife.
The other flight was to capture footage of I-90 from Seattle up to Snoqualmie Pass for “Cascade Crossroads”, the documentary I’m working on for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. While it was a challenge fighting some stubborn clouds, with Lane’s expert piloting I got some gorgeous footage showing why this particular point in the Cascades is so special.
I can't say enough great things about the work and generosity of LightHawk, an organization of pilots who donate flight time and resources for environmental causes. Thank you Christine and Lane!
So cool to have my 3D video, "Eventually They Melt" featuring music and performance by Seattle artist London James, is playing in the LA 3D Movie Festival this weekend. The festival is organized by Eric Kurland, who is also the creative energy behind the 3-D Space as well. Other 3D gems showing this weekend include Nick Cave's new film 'Once More With Feeling', which I hope to see soon as I suspect it's pretty intense...
