I began by writing a loose outline of 5 dreams I had about birds. You might call this a screenplay and you might just call it an outline. Either way, my cohort, Josh Fiedler and I began making it this weekend.
On the off-chance that a nearby bird-handler and breeder might not think I was crazy, I ventured an email to Ted Golka of Double T Farm in Glenwood, IA - a mere 1.5 hours from my recent home in Lincoln, NE (I've been in Nebraska a year as of this week!). What I got after a few days was a response from his wife Janice about my request for collaboration. They did say it was a request they'd never gotten before, but didn't think I was crazy. Josh and I went down to meet them.
We found a great spot to make the scene I wanted, and I agreed to make them a promotional video of their bird release in return for allowing me to film my strange dream with their white pigeons.
After much work with the help of This YouTube Video and my darling Dimitri Titov, I built a camera dolly, loaded it up and headed to Iowa.
Without giving too much away, here is the time-lapse shot of sunrise at the farm on August 10, 2013 - the precursor to the end of the film.
Time Lapse at Double T Farm, Glenwood Iowa - "How Bluebirds Are Born" from Lexi Bass on Vimeo.
Excerpt from upcoming film, "How Bluebirds Are Born" by Lexi Bass. Photography: Josh Fiedler. Filmed at Double T Farm in Glenwood, Iowa with help from Ted and Janice Golka.
I have much more work to do, but I have good feelings about this film. I'm getting better at making true friends all the time - which to me is the real skill of filmmaking.
