It’s a Good Day!

Yep. That’s me (Michelle) getting ready to ship Don copies of the final film! He is planning to take a trip to LA this weekend and make a few (hundred?) duplications.

As far as we’re concerned: The more people who see LEiT, the better!

And on that note, we are now focusing on building the film’s complimentary website at www.thelastelephants.com . Participatory, activist media is a strong tool to raise awareness about problems that might otherwise not recieve a great deal of exposure. So in addition to the film, the LEiT website will be a resource for viewers to share their thoughts before and after the film, and learn feasible ways to become involved in the fight to save Thai elephants.

More on that soon. In the meantime, it’s a good day!

Update on Baby Mosha

This is an email we received from Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant and star of LEiT. Our thoughts are with Mosha and the family at FAE. Hopefully we will hear good news back from them soon, and if we do, we’ll keep you posted.

When Mosha walks I have noticed something is wrong on Mosha’s right hind leg. She has no pain, no swelling but it is as if her weight makes it difficult for her knee to hold. I shall try to send the VDO clip later.

www.elephant-soraida.com

(FAE) Friends of the Asian Elephant

The X-ray is scheduled this afternoon.

I am preparing myself, the vets and the staff for the worst( if Mosha’s legs could no longer bear her weight), she would not be able to stand. For the past few days Mosha has some difficulties standing up. Poor Baby! How she loves to walk, to run, to climb the fenced area to show the strength she has but she does not know what is happening. She sees other elephants come and go but Granny is always there, Palahdee is there , Mother is always there for her, comforting her.

She loves to see people visiting her, talking to her. She is a happy baby, loved by all.

We shall do our best, please join us to pray for Mosha that she will grow and survive. She fought for her life when she was seven months old. She is now almost four and may we pray she will enjoy more years of happy life with us, Friends of the Asian Elephant.

Please forward to people you know as many as you can.

FAE needs support so we could help, not only Mosha but other unfortunate elephants too.

Thank you very much.

Soraida Salwala, Founder

http://animom.tripod.com/faepage3.html

Burning the Midnight Oil

Considering we have not updated you since March 12th, here’s what is going on with LEiT:

1) It’s a Saturday night, and I (Michelle) am at home editing! Ahhh, it’s wonderful life. We are trying to get a final cut done by this Monday so Don can review it and take it to Los Angeles to run off copies. I will spend some time out of the house to celebrate Easter tomorrow – otherwise, it’s full steam ahead.

2) The next goal will be to get some festival entries in, and maybe cut another trailer. Ideally, you will find that posted here soon.

(Note: This is actually the editing set-up circa February, while I was in California. But you get the idea.)

Workshopping is Your Friend

Much has been happening with the film lately. We have overcome some tremendous struggles, and are surprised daily by the place we find ourselves. One day we think we’re entering a festival with our cut, as is. The next we realize that actually, the film holds more potential, and if we really want to see our job through, we will spend more time making improvements.

We always scheduled in workshopping the film – showing it to others to get feedback and advice – but in wrapping up this first cut, we definitely got ahead of ourselves and predicted an earlier finish. I would guess (hope?) this is common among people. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of “finishing” and you should be allowed to celebrate those small victories.

However, after all of the invaluable advice and wisdom that we received from people we’ve shared the film with, it’s clear that if we want LEiT to reach a broader audience, we have some serious work to do. Never underestimate the power of workshopping your film and getting input from peers. It’s humbling. It’s enlightening. It is what turns okay into good, and makes good even better.

It was interesting that people wanted to see more of what we, in the early stages of development, were actually going for, but somehow lost sight of. It’s a struggle to maintain a balance of providing important information verbally and then just letting images speak for themselves. So it is now reinvigorating to consider these insights and re-read our original notes and goals for the film – a bit like venturing out to find the answer, to realize that in some ways it was there all along.

What’s great is that we do have time and the footage to see this through. The nature of film making, at least with indies that are self-financed, is that deadlines are mostly self-imposed. Trust that we are not taking our sweet, precious time. But we are taking the time that that film deserves.

To those of you reading who have watched LEiT and provided feedback, thank you! You have been a huge encouragement.

Going Under the Knife

In order to qualify for film festivals in the “Short Documentary” category, LEiT needs to be under 40 minutes, or at about where that red star lies on the Final Cut Pro screen capture (above). As you can see, we go past this very important point.

Currently, LEiT is 44 minutes. Four minutes might not seem like a lot to sacrifice, but for a short film, it’s quite a large chunk. In those minutes, we are covering a lot of information, while trying to maintain thoughtful and consistent pacing. Trimming clips or cutting scenes, in order to save time, just feels so ... wrong!

Still, we are trying to regard this “festival requirement” not as a burden, but as a challenge to make our film better. Without compromising the style or the information, we will have to find four minutes to part with.

One of the biggest mistakes made in trying to meet this challenge, though, is cutting too much of the “human” out – those poignant pauses after Soraida explains the threats on her life, the shots of Dr. Preecha playing with the cuff of his pants, Lek Chailert’s knowing stare when she is asked “How do elephants learn to paint?” – they eat up seconds, but those are the moments that make documentaries authentic, and cannot be scrapped for time economy’s sake.

Wish us luck!