http://stokastika2.googlepages.com/samshroutforsam.pdf
Vic forgot to ask Sam if he can bring his LOG BOOK. Fisheries data.
It's like my question lists end up being like essays. The questions I ask are the things I think about, the essays I pursue. Like the idea of rock crab representations in pop culture. Like how non-profits manipulate humans into donating money based on cuteness and aesthetics. Like how there's this illusion that science and knowledge is only pursued in the university, and that fishermen know quite a bit--like a lot--like fisheries biologists and invertebrate zoologists. And how fishermen perceive scientists as well as scientists perceiving scientists in their world views and modes of inquiry.... And why Sam Shrout likes to be a fisherman in the first place. The same reason why I ever wanted to be a grad student in environmental sciences. Free. Individual. Likes to be outdoors. Pursuit of adventure. Working for your self. Curiosity and learning new things. Same for ranchers (~#~ gave me some references, Frank Davis connection). I have more in common with a fisherman than I EVER thought. Perhaps even more so than a typical university scientist or even people from government or traditional bad-habit media.
All these questions I ask, you may think are so diverse and disparate but they are all these different dimensions of humans from different fields that have a spectrum of conclusions projected upon ONE COMMON RESOURCE: the rock crab. And to figure out the spacetime matrix of each person's life that allowed them to formulate this perception is just a jigsaw puzzle on its own. And that's what is so beautiful about all of this. Prism of place. Prism of resource.
The whole issue here is that I am doing film and I am SO glad I am doing film because it accounts for the HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE. AND THAT IN ORDER TO FILM SOMEONE, YOU MUST GAIN THEIR TRUST. And a bond forms. A friendship. An interaction. A dynamism, mediated with some extra hypersensory, hyper-recording equipment. And this stuff is NEVER talked about in scientific papers. NEVER. Except for the "acknowledgments" section, and that's not even the meat of the paper, but ultimatley the underlying buffer zone driver that allowed the paper to take form, publish, and exist.
[Pause] [More belch]
Today, despite my lack of sleep, I managed to crank out this morning an extensive question list for Sam Shrout, the pivotal point of this film. The hub of the Rock Crab Industry of Santa Barbara. The Zen of fishing and marketry. The Positivity of Personality. The Hollywood Stereotype of Handsome, Intelligent, Eloquent, Common-sense Fisherman. Fisherman Poster Child. I got him first before Hollywood gets their hands all over him. Ha ha! Same for the amazing dog Mini Miss Einstein! (Lisa's pet, another blog).
Hey, I am super complimentary of Sam Shrout. Everyone says he's handsome. It's not just me. That's old news. He's been featured in other videos and even in some advertisements! Geeze! He has a very cool wife--Sherry--and three kids, I think. I met two of them today--Kevin and Brian.
Actually, I think Sam's family is like the Ocean Version of Home Improvement.
So, I was supposed to interview Sam today--in the afternoon--but he was so tired and pooped out. I was tired as well. We agreed to meet up on Tuesday. I hand-delivered the question list because if I emailed it, he would be scared because it's so long. I had to ask so many questions so he can say exact things I can place in the film. So specific, that I even asked him about crabsicles. Crab version of popsicles. He's cool with it.
Sam said last night he watched my 7 minute film, and he had this look on his face, it was so confusing and impossible that I thought he hated it. I wailed and moaned, and said, I am so sorry. I had to make that film because I had to turn something in! I am starting from scrap! I have all the footage! I need new audio! And Sam stopped me in my moaning and said that he liked it, and it was very artsy, something he did NOT expect, but something to work with. And I told him that this is all about connecting the dots, and stripping the story behind the surface. And that I intend to connect common sense real world knowledge with the absurdity of academic knowledge, and yadi yadi yadi.... And he's all chill, like usual.... He asked me why I was all in an uproar. And I said because Phil Freeman (fisherman in the film) reemed me because I made this film that was my stupid romping around the grocery store and that it was nothing about them and that they only got half a second in the film and they "all of us" wasted their time with me, and that my film was a waste of time, and and--and I am exagerrating what Phil said but I was so sad, and I started to cry though Phil Freeman didn't see me crying over the phone... and I told him my mind was strapped with red tape from the university transferring the last 9 months (though Phil had a severe back injury, in the scale of human problems, his was far more serious than mine) but grad school transferring didn't put me in the appropriate mentality to pursue a rock crab film. Plus I spent MY OWN MONEY on getting very good audio equipment--not school grant money--and then Phil Freeman, said well okay, maybe I'll help you out with one more interview. Maybe by that time he was convinced that I am doing this out of my own pure pursuit. Not any intention for the university. And that EVERYONE hated me. Even Kent Schiff, who is sooo crucial to this film, everyone is disappointed? And I am just this WASTE OF TIME? And I am--but this is my FIRST film? And the first part? And I had bad audio? And you're expecting me to get the Super Film Award for the Universe of Spectoriko on my first film, and... Even right now I am crying--if only people knew how much their time and effort means sooo much to me--even if it took me 9 months to pick this film up again from RED TAPE HXLL. And I even put at the end of the film it's just 7 minutes and I want to make this film longer! And Phil Freeman even wondered whether anyone was even ENCOURAGING me to finish this film? And I said, everyone from the university is....
That day I told ~#~ that I got reemed by a fisherman... but I deserved it.... I cried to my dad.
But before I told Sam Shrout all this, he interrupted me and asked me what was Phil expecting? Some kind of advertisement for Phil's fishing? I said I don't know. I said ALL film is consequentially advertisement, but I know I AM FULLY AWARE I WILL GIVE GOOD TIME TO EVERYONE in a fully extended film!
Anyway, I am kind of pooped out writing here. Sam is gung ho for the film. He said it was very different and artsy. We'll be hooking up next Tuesday, and we won't have to deal with all these frickin' tourists making all this noise pollution so I can't get good audio... Happened last time with Kristine Barsky. I think now Sam knows that he's messing with a girl who's going through a rational mental trip without smoking weed, so I think he'll have fun.... He said some really off-camera mouth-offs today, and I said, "Well, Sam, we are going to have a very open-minded, fully exposed and revealing camera interview here!" I am glad and relieved he is so open and individualistic. Sherry was cool with the film, but she was in a rush. You can't watch the film in a rush though. Cathy Bogg's husband mentioned that the film has so many layers that it's not typical 5 minutes of information in a 50-minute stretch of film. It's five minutes of deep content in five minutes of film, that makes you watch it 10 times.
Insane.
Well, I have Sam Shrout on board. I'm looking forward to the interview. I can't wait to make amends with Phil and Kent. Because basically, Phil, Kent, Sam, John Downey, and Kamron the rock crab consumer are the five core characters of the film... *Sigh*
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