Question is, will I beat you to it...

I met some new friends tonight who are avid bloggers. I thought I'd post links to the other trips I've blogged, one of which Jesse was on.

Namibia
Uganda

Pictures of the Mexico and Guinea trips are also up on the main Meiermg site linked on the right.

Tomorrow is 'Rwanda day' for me, picking up malaria medication, gatorade, powerbars, waterproof paper, and all the other little odds and ends we'll need. Most of the big details are in place. Now it's all the little stuff and the last bit of fundraising.

And Darren, pray hard for that interview with Paul Kagame!

Happy Easter!

Getting down to the wire

Hello all two of you reading this blog :) Thanks for stopping by.

No major news to report, just that we're still plugging away. I watched Ghosts of Rwanda (a PBS documentary) with a few friends on Sunday. It was both inspiring and sickening... the way the filmmakers told the story was inspiring, but the breadth and depth of the evil in those 100 days makes my stomach churn.

I honestly don't know what to expect when I get to Rwanda. How will I feel? I react strongly to places with a powerful sense of history. My one visit to a Holocaust concentration camp may be an indication... I became very serious and didn't say much for a few days. We shall see.

Chris is working on putting together the final audio package and cleaning & prepping our gear from the Canadian side. Stateside, Jesse is trying to get his camera serviced before we go, but doesn't have access to repair shops like we enjoy in Vancouver.

We continue to talk through how we're going to approach the shoot. Some things will just have to be left to when we arrive and start rolling tape. In the meantime we're trying to be as prepared as we can be.

Fundraising is coming along slowly. It's always great to see who gets excited about these projects and puts their shoulder to it. It's pretty inspiring to me that people believe in us and what we're doing enough to put their money behind it.

I suppose that's all for now... I'll keep you posted as we go.

Info/doc on Sunday

For all those in the Vancouver area, we're having a meet-up this Sunday at 2pm. I'll be hosting a viewing of 'Ghosts of Rwanda' (a 2hr PBS documentary on the genocide) and giving some info about the trip. The event will be in the Fireside room of Peace Portal Alliance Church.

See you there!

Bend 'Planning Retreat'

I just got back from a weekend away and I'm all wired from too many latte's on the road... So I thought I'd give a quick update.

Jesse, Lyn & Chris and I spent the weekend with a few of our friends in Bend, Oregon. In between carving the slopes and catching, "like, three feet of air that time" we made plans for our trip. We compared editing platforms for post (which will impact how we work in the field) and talked about what perspective we'll edit and shoot from -- is this an objective documentary, where you never see the people making the film? Or do we include our own journey of discovery as part of the final product? That angle might help make the topic relevant to a twenty-something audience, but it has it's challenges.

So... just some of the things we're chewing on.

For those who know about post-production, we were comparing Sony Vegas and Apple Final Cut Pro. I do most of my work in Final Cut, and Jesse works mainly in Vegas + AE. Both have their strengths (Vegas = FAST, Final Cut can work with large amounts of footage easily.) No conclusions yet, but we have both platforms available so we can decide shortly before we leave.

Support letter online

Hi folks,

As you've probably noticed, I've added a splash page as you're coming into the site. I've also posted my support letter. You can find it at the link in the sidebar on the right of the page, or by clicking the picture below:

Canada Council Grant

I spent my rare bits of time off over the last couple of days preparing a grant proposal for the Canada Council for the Arts. If accepted, we would receive a good amount of funding towards our little documentary. If not, it was a useful exercise, getting used to the grantwriting process, as I'm sure I'll be doing it in the future.

I hope by tomorrow to have my fundraising letter completed... only a month and a few days until we leave! Crazy. I can't believe I'm going back.