Sam-K.net

Today, Cary and I woke up at 6 AM, had a nice breakfast at the hotel with cooked-to-order egg white omelets, packed up and hit the road by 7:30. We planned to visit a couple of national park sites, Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot, two ruins originally built by the Sinagua people. We had expected to spend about $20 visiting both sites, but because the National Parks department was having some kind of mandatory employee meeting, we got into both sites for free. Montezuma Castle was first, followed by Tuzigoot.

Montezuma Castle — which actually has nothing to do with the Aztec emperor with whom it shares its name — is a multi-story home set high in a wall of a limestone cliff. . The ruin itself has been off-limites to visitors since the 70s, but I’m not sure I’d want to climb up there, anyway.

Tuzigoot is the remains of a pueblo on a hill just outside of the mining town of Jerome. The stop at Tuzigoot was a quick one. We snapped a few pictures, then headed up to Jerome for lunch.

We shared a burger at the Mile High Grill & Inn, bought some Prickly Pear Cactus Candy at the Cactus & Curiosity Shop, took a few more pictures and got back in the car for a short drive to the Red Rock State Park.

Entry to the park cost $6 per car load. We arrived at the visitors center at around 1:40pm. After a quick tour of the visitor center, we headed out on the Bunkhouse Trail. From there, we crossed the Kingfisher foot bridge and took the Apache Fire trail. This trail passes by an abandoned adobe house known as the House of Apache Fires. It was built in 1947 by Jack and Helen Frye. Jack Frye was the president of TWA during World War II; he built the house for Helen. They divorced in 1950, and the story of the house that follows is an interesting one. Now, it lies abandoned behind an electrified-barbed-wire-topped fence. At first sight, it looks as if it has been well-maintained, as if the residents are just away for the weekend. But the plants growing through the patio betray its true state.

More tomorrow.

Cary and I have arrived in Phoenix, after a couple of uneventful flights. Not much else to say at the moment. It’s 84 degrees and dry here, so we’re not complaining about the weather. At least not yet; in a couple of days, we’ll be back in the 20-degree weather. We’re loading up on sunscreen and getting ready to head out into the world.

Cary and I are going to be on a plane to Arizona in about 8 hours. This is sort of an early anniversary trip (hard to believe it’s been almost a year already).

We’re going to try to post details of our trip every day — but we intended to do that in Italy, too, and look how THAT turned out — so here’s hoping for reliable internet connections at the hotels.

I love movies and television as an art form. One of the reasons I enjoy watching DVDs is for the behind-the-scenes material: commentaries, documentaries, film diaries, etc. Not only do these resources give insight into the art of filmmaking, but they’re a way of paying tribute to the hundreds of artists and craftsmen who work to bring a film or television series to life.

Apart from huge innovations like computer graphics and the move from traditional film to digital media, I think one of the most influential inventions that has changed the way films and TV shows are presented is the Steadicam. Invented in the 1970s by cameraman Garett Brown, the Steadicam consists of a camera attached to the cameraman’s body via a harness and series of articulated arms, bearings and counterweights. This system allows the camera operator to move naturally through a set while the camera remains steady. The camera operator’s natural body movements — which would normally be translated to film as motion-sickness-inducing shakes and bumps — are dampened and filtered out of the system.

Today, I found a site called Steadishots.org a library of film clips that not only showcases the skill of Steadicam operators, but also demonstrates a technique used in many films that is often over-looked by viewers: the long continuous one-take shot.

When a director decides to film a scene in one continuous shot, Steadicams are often used because of the portability of the camera system and the natural smoothness of the shot. Scenes like this require a huge amount of planning, practice and expert timing from the entire cast and crew involved. Since the scene is filmed in one take, with no edits or alternate camera angles, the slightest mistake can require repeating hours of work. Actors and extras must know their lines and know their places for every second of the shot. Camera operators must memorize a path through the chaos of set, weaving their ways around actors, props and set pieces.

The unfortunate thing about these amazing bits of filmmaking is that when they’re done right, they’re so natural that viewers may not even notice them. So it’s nice to know that a site like Steadishots.org exists, to showcase these works of art.

One of my favorite Steadicam shots is from one of my favorite movies in recent years, Serenity based on the short-lived TV series Firefly. Directed by Joss Whedon,Serenity features a one-take scene which introduces the crew. The shot can be found here. The video clip actually contains two separate one-take shots. At the halfway mark, when one character turns a corner, there’s a very well-hidden edit which combines two long takes into one continuous shot. The reason for this take was because the two sets used for filming were meant to be connected by the hallway, but the size of the sets made this impractical. Still, even considering that there are two long takes in this scene, they’re both impressive; especially considering that Mark Emery Moore, the Steadicam operator, had to weave his way in and around the actors in a cramped spaceship hallway, ducking under pipes and awkwardly angled walls, climbing backwards down stairs and hitting the right marks at the right time, all the while keeping the camera pointed at the appropriate actors.

I’m currently eating lunch at Guy and Gallards, a nice sandwich shop on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. There’s a parade celebrating the NY Giants’ Super Bowl victory making its way up Broadway right now. I’ve managed to avoid the parade entirely as I walked through the city this morning. I can’t imagine what the crowds are like. All I can say is that it’s a good thing the Giants won, or else this city would be a lot less pleasant right now.