Returning from Utah 13 Shoot
Rise and shine to the smell of that camp coffee and bacon over the fire, thank you to the earnest crew member who woke up before the rest of us to stoke the fire. We have a new week and lots of exciting updates to share from the production of On Strange Soil (WT).
The Traverse Cinema Studio crew returns from a 5-day off-grid shoot in Cedar Mesa exploring sites and capturing b-roll of these fragile, ancient landscapes. This shoot marks the 13th trip to Utah, and the first of two or three remaining shoots left for this year to complete the film. We took a scaled-down crew of three, down into some remote canyons to explore more notable sites. On Strange Soil becomes a love story to this landscape, the shots we have captured from this most recent trip will help weave that visual story together, allowing audiences to explore this world from their homes in the hopes that they will take action to ensure permanent protection and proper funding for the two southern Utah national monuments.
Over the 5 days off-grid shoot, the team used the consultation knowledge from archeologists and other leading experts on how to visit with respect along with how best to capture footage given the sensitive working environment. Preserving and protecting these areas is the entire purpose of making this film, so we sought information to ensure we could obtain the footage we’d like to have for the film while being respectful at all times.
From the edit, the last 5 days have been spent organizing, assembling, proxying 6K raw footage, and transcoding time-lapses all in close to 2TBS of footage from this shoot. While the entire storyline of the film is at a 95-minute rough cut, the next step will be to cut down the amount of talking heads and build the character of the landscape. With the August 2022 delivery deadline looming not so far in the distance, frame by frame the film will be crafted together. The next step will be to create a full rough cut with all b-roll in place, the visual and narrative storylines woven together, and scratch track music and sound design for pacing all in the next couple of weeks, perhaps sooner.
