Slow and steady

It’s always entertaining to go back and read all the posts I’ve made up ’til now.  Actually, it’s kind of frustrating.  Well… frustrating and entertaining.  And inspiring.  This whole idea went from nothing to something pretty quickly, and though it’s been about 3 years I’ve been working on it, I’ve accomplished quite a bit.

Just today I got permission from Sub Pop records to use a song by TAD for the fundraising trailer (which I think can realistically be finished within 6 months– really!  I know I said that same thing more than a year ago, but… really!), and I had a nice back-and-forth email exchange with Mark Burgess of The Chameleons, who I think is not only brilliant, but a genuinely nice guy.

About a year ago (seems like yesterday), Cheryl and I took our honeymoon through the Southwest, and I was able to get an interview with an amazing Lakota man who runs sweatlodges, and is working towards a degree in social work, with a special emphasis juxtaposing Western and Native healing methods.  Honestly just an astounding time.

Beyond that, I reconnected with my friend Tim, and we got some good footage down at Western State Hospital… well… we got some shots across the street, since you can’t film on campus.  I also had an amazing interview with my friend Erin, who has Borderline Personality Disorder.  I didn’t know much about it, but she filled me in on a lot, and shared some touching personal stories.  I’m pretty sure she is a genius, like literally, and she’s really funny.  Pretty much I just have to get interviews with my mom and dad, Cheryl, my daughter, and some person-on-the-street type stuff, and then a few location shots, and I should have what I need for a kickass trailer.

Anyhow, onward and upward.

Editing the trailer

This doesn’t mean I finished the thing- far from it.  This is just the 7-10 minute piece I cut together as best as I can to show to people, essentially saying ‘look at this… it’s pretty good, right?  You like it?  Howzabout you jump on board with me, or pitch a few pennies my way?’

Essentially, I’ve been doing this thing all by my lonesome, with a little help here and there from friends who have spare time.  It’s a huge amount of work, and there is absolutely no way I’ll ever finish it unless I get some dedicated help in the form of someone who can focus better than I can, and who is equally passionate about the subject matter.

I actually have a lot of faith (given what I think about what I’ve been able to put together so far) that the help I need will appear right at the perfect time.

If this is your first visit here, welcome, and keep your eyes open for the trailer to be done in about 3 months.  Between now and then, I’m hoping to get a few more interviews and random footage in the can.  I have some super awesome interviewees who have let me know they’re willing, and I’m pretty honored they even returned my emails.

Many many thanks to everyone who’s helped me get to where I am.

Jim Woodring

Gaahhh!  (That is the sound of flabbergasted amazement… a very good thing… tired now… more soon.)

Norm Stamper

I know I keep posting about these great interviews and how great the footage was, and promising to post some, but honestly, I’m switching to new editing software, and the learning curve is pretty steep, not to mention all the tech stuff that goes into the seems-like-it-should-be-simple act of uploading it.  Really, I don’t want to put up crappy video, ‘cuz that’s not fun to watch, and it’s not good advertising.

Okay, so Norm… man… he was cool.  He had a huge freakin’ beard, and almost shoulder length hair… all of it white.  You’d never guess he used to be chief of police here in Seattle.  He was warm, friendly, clever and quick.  I don’t think he stumbled once with anything he said, but it didn’t seem rehearsed, either– like it wasn’t stuff he’d said a million times, and was just parroting himself.  He was really relaxed, go-with-the-flow.

We talked mostly about how folks who are in altered states have historically been treated by law enforcement, and how that has been changed– by programs within many police departments, focusing on understanding and compassion.  A lot of progress has been made– nothing’s ever perfect, of course (my own experiences bore this out), but they could be a lot worse.  If more folks in law enforcement strive towards the humility and introspection I witnessed from Norm, I think more great breakthroughs will be made.

I’ll put some footage up soon.  Promise.

Drs. Wilson and Wagner

The last two days have been pretty eye-opening.  We finally had a chance to sit down with Dr. Lawrence Wilson, a cross-cultural psychiatrist who has spent a large part of his life practicing and teaching in places like India, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Nepal.  Over the course of an hour, we got some serious insight into the workings of the mental health care systems in far-off lands, and boy… can’t wait to share some clips.

Then today, total happenstance in the form of Dr. Peter Wagner, who was taking a little road trip with my friend John (who by the way snapped the first behind-the-scenes pictures with his iPhone).  Dr. Wagner completely blew me away- right off the bat he started talking hard science (or at least as hard as it gets in the psychiatric world) in the form of glutamates, dopamine, serotonin, and a bunch of other stuff that I probably mis-remembered and misspelled.  From what I remember, he is fully engrossed in neuropsychiatry. Anyways, I really dig science, and it was cool to be able to talk to such a smart guy about a subject I’m totally fascinated by (at a picnic bench in Ravenna park no less!).

Both of them really brought a bunch of stuff to the table that I had never considered, and am inspired to research more about.  I’ll try and get some clips up as soon as possible.

Next up- Norm Stamper on the 23rd, and Jim Woodring… soon.  And then a bunch of other stuff.  For three years at least.

Doc Wagner, me, and Greg

Doc Wagner and I

Old footage

I’ve been digging around for months for little clips appropriate to the subject matter.  Here’s a good one.  Maybe I’ll have time to show it to Norm Stamper when we get together later this month, see what he thinks…

New equipment

So I ran into a few roadblocks that necessitated the buying of some new equipment.  Specifically, a 2nd Panasonic GH1 DSLR, some Tota lights, some ND filters for the GH1, and a follow focus rig and a few other bits and pieces so we can put together our own custom shoulder-mounted rigs that will make up for the weight lost by not using a full-size CCD camera.

Also, I got a lower-middle-of-the-road new shotgun mic, a Tascam DR-100 portable recorder, and… ummm… I guess that’s about it.  So I’ve got a slightly more than bare-bones setup for a documentary production crew.  I’m pretty stoked!

Daniel Pinchbeck, Joao Amorim, and 2012: Time For Change

So, we got the interview, and although we had a few technical issues, everything worked out for the best. Daniel was gracious, thoughtful, and patient with my rambling interview style. He had quite a bit to say about mental health and how it relates to the (some would say) oppressive way our country has matured, psychedelics, and ancient cultures. He also shared some personal stories of his own outer limits. One of my favorite parts was Daniel’s friend Jenny, who inserted herself into the conversation here and there… kept things loose and informal, I thought.

Over the weekend I helped a little with the 2012: Time for Change booth at the Greenfest, mostly talking with random people about a wacky assortment of new-agey topics. All the freaks seemed to gravitate to our corner of the fest. Fun! Had a few good moments with the director, Joao Amorim, about technical stuff involving cameras and mics. It’s nice to meet people who are willing to share their expertise with a relative newcomer.

Hopefully we can get a bit of of the shoot up in the near future. We’re just waiting on a little tape transfer, and then we can get some ‘A’ cam goodness for y’all.

Margot Kidder

I can’t say enough good things about her… Margot Kidder has been a tireless crusader for mental health for many years, once even coming to Seattle at the invite of some local activists in support of a mental health ordinance that might not have been passed if it weren’t for her support.  She’s a smart and sassy lady, and she’ll be in town next month.  Here’s hoping she’ll say yes to an interview.  Stay tuned!   Here’s a nice little bio.

Update: So I back and forthed with her rep, and then things went where I didn’t think they would.  I was pretty sure something fishy was going on when he right away went from nay to yea on me when I mentioned possibly paying for an interview.  I thought it was kind of absurd that she would want money for a cause so seemingly near and dear to her.  Honestly, I thought he didn’t forward my note to her at all, and all sorts of semi-paranoid thoughts went through my head, so I figured I would go to the Crypticon in Everett, talk to her in person, and get to the bottom of things.

So I did, and I walk in, and what do you know, her rep is sitting right there next to her.  “Shit, what do I do now?”  I walked around and around the site (which was a zombie/horror fest, the main part of which was held in the appropriately creepy garage of the Everett Hilton), perusing the human skull replicas, latex masks (and full-size latex creatures), and comic artists; also horror film celebs signing autographs and taking pictures with fans– like Ernie Hudson (the black Ghostbuster, who seemed like a really friendly, down-to-earth guy), Kane Hodder (the guy behind Jason’s hockey mask), Amanda Wyss (you’ve seen her in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Nightmare on Elm Street, Better Off Dead, The Highlander tv series, etc.), and a few others.

Anyhow, so I’m circling, circling, waiting for a chance to maybe swoop in and talk to her while her rep is on a bathroom break, reveal the whole ‘cash for time’ scam he was trying to pull, and we would bond over our mutual… whatever.

God, I’m really shortsighted sometimes.

I come around to her table once again, and realize she’s not there. Then I remember she’s going to be doing an interview in the conference room upstairs momentarily, so I rush off to find the way up to the main halls. Some kid in a hastily-applied ghoul getup tells me if I just go up these stairs here, I’ll be out front of the building and can just go back in the main entrance.  At the top of the stairs, another junior ghoul who’d snuck up behind me asks if I have a VIP pass or not, and I turn around to show him my measly day-pass wrist bracelet.

When I turn back around, Margot comes walking around the corner, walking a dog (was it hers?  Did she not have the heart to leave her ol’ buddy at home?  Did some fan get her to walk their dog while they snapped a pic?  I dunno.).  So I say

“Hey Margot, I’ve been emailing **, did I see him downstairs?”, just to make sure it was him.

“Yep,” she says, distracted, as would be anyone in a place like that, about to go onstage– and walking a dog– with 20 people coming up to you and asking you questions all at once.

“Well I’m Dan, the guy doing the mental health documentary… I just thought I’d come down and say hi since I live nearby.”

She stops for a momentary storm calm, makes eye contact, sizes me up…  recognition.  “Oh yeah…”  She smiles. “Nice to meet you,” and shakes my hand.  I return the sentiment, and then she’s off.

It only occurred to me a minute later that, in large part, this is these people’s jobs. They are there to please the fans, sure, but… this is how they bring home the bacon.  I sure as hell wouldn’t be going around cleaning windows for free for every other random person that asked.  I don’t know what I was thinking.

Now I look back on her rep and her, sitting there, doing their jobs, just like normal people, like the rest of us do our jobs.  How did I possibly think they were trying to get away with something?  Like they owed me something?  Like what I’m doing is more important than the other myriad requests they get? If I wasn’t aware of my almost complete newbie-ness at this whole thing, I would feel pretty much like a jackass.  Live and learn, I suppose.

I did have the amusing idea, since I hope to be doing some interviews in the midwest later this year, that I could stop by her ranch and shovel horseshit for a day in exchange for an interview : )

(

Back in the saddle again, already? Craig Rennebohm blows our doors off…

Not really, since I/we’ve been working on random related stuff the whole time.  But we did do an interview today, with Craig Rennebohm, the Mental Health Chaplain.  What a kind and gracious man!  He was warm and funny and profound… we could have sat there for another few hours.  He told us some very personal stories, and filled us in on the adventures of his past and present, working with the mentally ill on the streets of Seattle– being a friend, offering a helping hand.  I hope I can achieve his kind of greatness one day.  Wow.