I am fairly set with my equipment and am ready to pack the boxes away. I am including a picture here to show how much "stuff" I have had to get to make this film. This is on top of what I already had!

I love my new camera and am getting really outstanding images out of it. The low-light performance is truly amazing too! My new post-production workflow is going well and I have already edited a couple of sequences. In one of them Bernd talks about his six years at the Goodwill School and the formative influence it had on him and in the other he speaks about writing. These pieces are almost complete, I just need some historical pictures to show what Bernd is talking about. I'll put some video up when it is a little more finished.

I am off to Bernd's cabin in Maine tomorrow to film him working on the construction of a new building there.

I'm still here; I've just been completely consumed with learning all of the new equipment and putting a new computer together and figuring out a new post production work flow.

Everything is working well and I have almost finished a segment that I shot in Maine a couple of weeks ago. In this 6 1/2 minute segment Bernd talks about his six years at the Good Will School in Hinckley and early lessons learned there. He also refers to the crisis the school is currently going through - they have had to temporarily close their residential program because of funding shortfalls. He talks at length about how if the school focused more on sustainability issues it might come back even stronger. There are a lot of values conveyed in this piece. I hope to be able to put the video online soon.

Yesterday was the first day of filming and very much a trial run. Everything seemed to go well though. I have a lot of experimenting to do with the camera to get the look I want.

Yesterday Bernd was going to release his pet squirrel so I decided to go ahead and film it whether or not my kit was fully together or I completely understood it.

The thing most notably lacking in my kit at this point is an on camera monitor which will help with focusing and being able to see the camera's image from positions other than directly behind the camera.

I will be filming Bernd in Maine this Sunday at the L. C. Bates Museum as well as at his cabin. I'll post pictures afterward.

This is Bernd's pet squirrel eating a cherry on the back of his chair as he writes.

Bernd has just freed the squirrel.

It has been a whirlwind few days. I recently hit the $20,000 mark toward my first stage fundraising goal of $25,000, so I have decided to start the film.

I have been busy putting together a new camera set up. I am going to be using a still camera that shoots fabulous high-definition video. It's a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The main reasons for using this camera are the wide range of lenses available, the ability to shoot full-frame 35mm video and the stunning images it produces.

I also need to get a sound recorder, as well as a follow focus unit, filters, compact flash cards and on and on.