Cecily's Week 5 Update

I completely forgot about my blog post until this morning, which sent me flying out of bed the moment I remembered.  I may be fumbling along in this process, but I can complete my weekly blog post, dang it!!  Anyway, the fumbling was less so this week, and I am starting to see some definition to the tone of the film.  Going through my footage and finding material that matches the story as well as the mood I am trying to create is incredibly satisfying.  My work with creating a prehistory has been fun even.  I have made the decision to just go full force with humor...I am SO exhausted with the poor vanishing Indian gig that it actually made me kind of ill writing the two versions of my script that were serious in their tone.  As soon as I started to play with it, my brain almost instantly felt electrified.  I do not want to send out something boring or depressing, it has to be a new narrative about what it means to be Native contemporarily.  I think bouncing back between my prehistory and my footage is helping me understand what I would like from my pickup shoot in a couple of weeks.  I have confirmed Monday the 17th as the date I am going to do an observational interview with Chef Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef).  While I am back in the midwest I'm going to rent a car and drive around to collect more footage with at least two of my previous participants, and possibly all four.

But for now I am working with what I have in front of me, footage wise.  I think I am going to be able to briefly incorporate the lacrosse footage within my prehistory (maybe, still debating that), but for now I'm going to see what my peers and John have to say after analyzing my edit script for LTCR 270.  I realized the reason I was having (and am still having) difficulty with the footage is because I was rather clueless about what kind of film I wanted to make.  I feel much, much clearer now, and I know I have some footage that will serve that aspiration.  I still go through all the phases of the "creative process" which is bumping heads rather furiously with my perfectionist anxiety...not satisfying to have that mentality in something you've barely got a grip on.  Absolutely nothing in any of these processes has turned out how I expected, but I'm starting to get used to the roller coaster ride.