docublog

Pervasion

We charged all batteries, packed up my car, and took off for a 12-hour day of filming. The first scenes were all about a cute guy in a cute car, who takes his journal to the beach. My beloved neighbor Richard Preston and his 1969 Karmann Ghia fit that description. Lucky Ralph, he got to ride shotgun.

Yeah! Ralph got that shot.

Richard's been following the production activities very closely. As we've been traveling for most of the year, it was great to know he's around to take care of things. Of course he got to peek in a few journals, too, but he's still chewing on an idea for his own entry. "Story of my life," he said. "I just can't make up my mind."

We continued south to meet Gary Baseman at the Laguna Beach Art Museum, which had recently opened the show "Pervasion: The Art of Gary Baseman and Tim Biskup." Gary was giving a lecture about his work, and we didn't want to miss that. Gary has designed the cover for Journals 941 to 950, and Someguy wrote this mini profile: "Gary is the artist behind the award winning animated television show Teacher's Pet, the board game Cranium, and about a thousand other things. He's as close to being a rock star as one gets?" In any event, if you get a chance to see Gary's lecture, go.

Gary's curator at the Laguna Museum, against the backdrop of the more permanent collection. Below's the reverse angle.

The sisters

I arrived back home late last night, and didn't even unpack. The next interview dates are scheduled for today, and all day and evening Sunday. Mindy Carpenter and Kelly Zamboni, who both work for Cavallini, an Italian paper and art supplies company, were coming in from San Francisco, so we could speak about the business aspects of arts and crafts in the context of projects such as 1000 Journals. Mindy and Kelly are quite a team. The two look like sisters, and have worked out a beautiful dynamic between them. They're completing each other's sentences, are laughing on cue, and can easily entertain a crowd of art supplies buyers at the trade shows they attend with stamps, stickers, stationary, journals… Mindy said: "What we do doesn't exactly change the world, but it puts a smile on your face, and it tickles your creativity."

Solo Travel

It was quite weird to pack up the Baby and one of the lavalier sound kits, and be on the way to the airport without Ralph, without all our bags, and without an extensive schedule. Truth be told -- if I could've skipped this last trip, I would have. But the short in-and-out stint in Toronto gave me the chance to meet up with Kathy Grant and her friend April, and then travel home with Journal 950.

Journal 950 had a glorious start in the hands of Gary Baseman, but things have been a bit stop and go ever since. We will interview Gary in a few days, to find out why.

Century City

As soon as we came back home from Phoenix and the desert, all I wanted to do was catch up with Josh and dive into the editing. Meanwhile, Josh has seen about half of the footage, and made rough assemblies of a few stories. Thanks to the internet, I was able to see and comment on this work from the road, but nothing beats working together in person. Poor Josh -- as it is, editing is a pretty solitary job, and then he was all home alone here, running the ship by himself.

Today, Ralph and I loaded up my car and drove just a short distance, to Century City (as in the 20th Century Fox film studio, which is close by), to interview Rich, the current keeper of Journal 707. Rich works as an IT go-to guy on the 37th floor of one of the high rises. He had arranged for a Sunday parking permit, opened the doors with his magic key card, and helped us sneak by the security guards.

Rich can fix almost any computer problem, but the best is, he designs and binds amazing books. He's a board member of the Los Angeles Book Arts Center, and chatting after one of the LABAC events, he was more than surprised when Journal 707 was pulled out of someone's bag and handed to him. 707 made its rounds among book arts lovers in Los Angeles, went overseas, was temporarily MIA, but is now back in Rich's hands.

Sonora

July 19th must have been the hottest of all production days on this film: it started nice and early with temperatures in the mid 90s, and peaked at 128 degrees when we crossed the desert (that's 32C to about 49C). Shvitz!

Meeting DaNelle (a/k/a/ Sonora) was a special treat. She's a poster-girl for the world of art collaborations and art retreats, and of course an Artfest veteran. DaNelle's come to realize her creativity and artistic talents relatively late in life, and is pursuing art making with a vengeance, and zero attitude. She converted her garage into a studio, and paints, pastes, draws, writes, and cuts things with the most amazing scissors collection. She just launched Journals 1025 and 1197 on 1001 Journals, and in 2004 she added to Journal 988. Interestingly, she said that her 9 to 5 work in a cubicle farm adds balance to her creative side, and that each part of her life enables the other.

In DaNelle's street, we found a few Arizona car culture still-lives:

This had to be DaNelle's car! She drives out to the desert a lot, and equipped with several gallons of water and invaluable survival tips, Ralph and I went looking for cacti.

Toward the end of the day, it felt and looked like we had driven all the way to Iraq.

Baghdad Diaries

Steve contributed to Journal 871, and found the concept of the 1000 Journals Project so inspiring, he had to launch his own: The Baghdad Diaries Project. His journals project intends to dedicate a diary for each killed service man or woman in the Iraq war, and already during the course of the first month of Baghdad Diaries, this number exceeded 1000 -- sign up and check the daily status of both the war and the diaries in circulation on Steve's website.

No cooking today: The center island in Steve's kitchen turns into a bookbinder's workshop, as he puts together a new batch of journals… No air-conditioning either, which was especially hard for Steve's dogs. Despite the triple digit heat, we switched off all appliances to record clean sound.

From 60 to 120 degrees

We cleared out of the hotel at just after 8:00 AM, picked-up Someguy, and went to downtown San Francisco, to the offices of Chronicle Books, where Someguy was meeting with the whole team of editors, and design and marketing people who are working on the 1000 Journals Project book. Then it was time to say good-bye and catch our flight on to new adventures.

Getting ready to hand-over our movable film studio to the TSA and airport workers, we have to securely pack and stow the camera tripod and light stand, spare bulbs, and the Kinoflo light, remove all verboten items such as tool kit, screw drivers, and Swiss knives form the carry-on camera and sound cases, pad the external firewire drive and printer with T-shirts, and lug the four overweight, 50 pounds bags to the counter. On all the many flights around the world, we've paid excess baggage fees once. I usually sweet-talk my way out of a paper bag, only the airline representative in Seattle didn't think I was all that sweet… As far as we know, today's flight from Oakland, CA, to Phoenix, AZ, was our last flight together to a 1000 Journals documentary location. We'll drive to the remaining interviews, and for the last trip to Canada, the Baby and I will be on our own.

Evening in Phoenix -- to the sound of ACs.

One more day

We had Someguy in front of our camera from ten in the morning to six in the evening, and he was on a roll. Tying up storylines, filling the gaps, a few new questions, revisits of older questions, at work on 1001 Journals, the book, the art show, plans for the next steps on the 1000 Journals website… we covered a lot of ground, and time was flying. When Ralph and I drove back to the hotel, we realized how exhausted we were. A quick snack, an hour on the computer, and I was in bed, with yet another Murakami novel. One more date tomorrow morning, and we're done here. Which is kind of a scary thought… do we have everything we need? What else will develop between now and picture lock? How can I possibly stow away the camera?

No spoilers

We crossed the climate zones of San Francisco several times today, from thickest fog and a light rain, to bright sunshine. The whole day was dedicated to Someguy and the present status and future of the 1000 Journals Project. I will leave the details a bit, well, foggy -- no spoilers.

In the afternoon, we met Someguy's research assistant Fred, who has been tracking down email addresses, people, and journals. The deadpan delivery of some of his finds made us laugh out loud after each take, and nearly choke as long as we were rolling.

After we had wrapped for the day at Someguy's, Ralph, Ben, and I drove to the hotel and continued with the behind the scenes shots. By the time we brought Ben home, Ralph and I were desperately seeking Sushi…

A- and Baby Roll

In the 28 month of actual, physical production of this film (not counting research and development), there was of course little time to think about behind the scenes footage and publicity photography. Even though I began taking pictures when I started the blog, those pics really are just on the fly snapshots. For today and tomorrow, I've hired Ben, a San Francisco based photographer and cameraman, to come along and click and shoot away while we work. We met him curbside at Someguy's and handed over our Baby. Suddenly Ralph and I became B-Roll co-stars… We picked up Someguy, and went to the SF MOMA, with Ben covering our every move. It's been a year and one week since we interviewed Ruth, who works as curator in the design and architecture department. Today, we met her again, to hear her advise on Someguy's proposal for the 1000 Journals Art Exhibition.

In the afternoon, we interviewed Mark, an avid journaler and true aficionado. He allowed us to see his stack of personal journals, the collaborative journal he kept with his kids while on vacation in Mexico, and two Victorian Friendship journals he bought at an auction. One of these was a collection of dedications to an obviously beloved lady:  It looks like her friends were given empty pages, and over the next 40 years, they wrote letters, poems, and made some amazing illustrations, and sent the pages back, to be artfully bound in leather. Mark added to two of the 1000 Journals, and participated in numerous other collaborations.