Picture this...

I picked up a great piece of gear yesterday. It’s a JVC GY HM100U Pro Camcorder. This thing shoots beautiful HD, pro-grade video and it’s only 3.1 lbs. (4.5 with the extended battery pack). I thought, since I was traveling half way around the world to a very exotic location, I would try to bring back the best images possible. I’m actually thinking about doing a documentary about this trip and entering it into a few outdoor film festivals like the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride or the Banff Mountain Festival. I have no illusions that I will actually win a prize since I’ve seen films that do well at these things. Usually, the awards go to films about guys scaling shear walls of rock hanging, barehanded, from cliffs high above or strange people living with bears in the desolate regions of Alaska. Our trip isn’t going to be anything like that unless something really dramatic happens. Something like being captured by African rebels in the jungles of lower Kilimanjaro or getting caught in a massive snow storm and forced to resort to cannibalism as we wait things out in a remote snow cave near the summit. These are great themes for a film and would definitely increase my odds of doing well on the festival circuit but nothing I really want to live through (or not). I think I’ll do a film about how our world is changing. Maybe the title will be “The Lost Snows of Kilimanjaro” which has a slightly dark, forlorn, indy feel. That could work but, right now, I need to think about other things. I have to learn this camera and make it to the top of the mountain. After all, “How I climbed half way up Kilimanjaro” isn’t much of a film title.