Orcas Island
Just got back from an incredibly beautiful and wonderfully relaxing weekend on Orcas Island. We rented a cabin on the beach. Lisa's Mom and Andy came with us. The trip started with a stroke of luck when the mini-van I rented wasn't available so Hertz upgraded me to a Lincoln Navigator - the largest gas guzzling SUV on the market. I felt kind of sick driving it at first but I must say - it grew on me. Average gas mileage on that thing, 11 miles per gallon!

The cabin was situated on a stretch of beach between two bluffs facing west. The weather was perfect and the sunsets were to die for. With a thin a crescent moon that was out for an hour or two after sunset, the nights produced more starts than any of us had ever seen.

Muirenn and Aislinn paddled in the water all day, collecting baby crabs in rock pools outside our cabin. After sufficiently relaxing for a while rented a kayak and paddled up a bit. It was more tiring than I remembered but amazing fun.

The girls made pottery in a house next door run by an elderly lady. $5 each to make, paint and ship the pottery. I'm sure she hadn't raised her prices in 20 years.

We've found one place we'll be going back to year after year. Absolutely amazing.

Producing a job...

I'm in the middle of producing one of my own jobs as our producer is on maternity leave and her replacement is on vacation. I've just been yelled at and reminded that I promised they'd come away happy. They inevitably will go away happy but there's no need to get all emotional about it. One thing I learned recording literally hundreds of demos over the years was, 'you can't polish a turd' especially in this game of transfering home video to big screen 35mm glory...

Inlaws, iPods & Boise, Idaho


Lisa's Mum and step-father arrived yesterday afternoon. The weather couldn't have been better and Seattle was looking prestine for their first visit. They managed to stay up until 9 o'clock which was amazing considering their journey started at 4 a.m. - U.K. time! We've got plenty to do over the two weeks they are here. It's great to see them and just to have visitors!

We were given an iPod and I must say, I love it. Now I know there are a lot mp3 player fanatics out there and I have no doubt they are better, but this is my first experience with either. I'm really impressed with the sound through the earphones that come with it. Listening to songs I haven't heard in years is so refreshing. Now I want the car adaptor and home stereo gadgets....

So I went to a film festival in Boise, Idaho. It was the last thing I wanted to do last weekend to be honest, but it ended up not being too bad and I met some great young filmmakers who are working on great independent films. Nice to see many of them shooting on 16mm film which is my favorite format. It was more of a P.R. thing for my company as we are the closest lab to Boise. It was nice though, being back in the high desert. I had these pre-conceived notions that it was going to be red-neck Bush country but it was quite the opposite. If only the rest of the world could see the good side of the country...

The House That Took Away Summer!

So I finally got the cement counter tops poured for the kitchen. I hope to get them out of their molds Sunday after I get back from Boise, Idaho's film fest' (how exciting - not). We've been living in a kitchen without counter tops for 6 months now. It has been a little testing to say the least! (Although I've mastered the art of balancing plates on cabinets with no tops). Lisa has been painting away like mad. She's done half of the cabinets now which needed full restoration to boot. I've been dry walling in the hall and we're ready to paint the hall just in time for Lisa's Mum to arrive. I'm half way through our front garden fence which I had intended to have finished by now. Looks like it won't be done now until the girls are back at school. Oh well, there's only so much I can do... Before and after pictures will be posted soon.

IDA Docuweek in Los Angeles

A great week of documentary film starts August 18 in Hollywood. The week is structured to allow the films to qualify for the Academy Awards. Each film must screen four times in either New York or L.A. to be accepted for qualification.

Alpha Cine has worked and continues to work on about half of these films. The short 'Phoenix Dance' was my personal deal for the company. So anyone one in L.A. reading this should go see any of the films I mark with a *. These are really good independant films. Go see them.

Feature Films

Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
Directed by Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim

Black Gold*
Directed by Nick Francis and Marc Francis

Deliver Us From Evil*
Directed by Amy Berg

The Ground Truth
Directed by Patricia Foulkrod

Iraq in Fragments*
Directed by James Longley

Jesus Camp*
Directed by Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady

Purvis of Overtown
Directed by David Raccuglia & Shaun Conrad

So Much So Fast
Directed by Steven Ascher & Jeanne Jordan

The Trials of Darryl Hunt*
Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

This Film Is Not Yet Rated*
Directed by Kirby Dick

Toots
Directed by Kristi Jacobson

An Unreasonable Man
Directed by Henriette Mantel & Stephen Skrovan

Short Films

The Blood of Yingzhou District*
Directed by Ruby Yang

Half Life: A Journey to Chernobyl
Directed by David Bickerstaff & Phil Grabsky

Phoenix Dance*
Directed by Karina Epperlein

A Son's Sacrifice*
Directed by Yoni Brook