Volviendo: Documentary

Volviendo [English Version] (2007) from Lawrence Martin on Vimeo.

This summer my flatmate Laurie began his dissertation project for his masters in documentary studies. A 30 minute piece he shot this spring in London and Chile, the documentary followed Vladimir Vega a Chilean exile who was forced to move to London over 30 years ago after he was imprisoned for his political action against Pinochet. Vlad read a news story about the youngest boy killed under Pinochet's rule, a 13 year old named Carlos Furinia who's body was discovered last year. Vladimir wrote a song in honor of the child and took it to Chile to play it for Carlos' surviving family. Laurie followed Vlad on this journey recording over 30 hours of footage.

This summer he and I spent 3 weeks in a classy climate controlled edit suite in the media studies department at Goldsmiths reworking a mountain of footage into what we hope became a complex story of exile.

This was my first stab at editing something I hadn't shot myself. I also discovered (what everyone already knew) that I like to be in control of things. Luckily I found a great editing partner who is quick with the technical side of things, knows what I mean when I say 'no, make it half a step earlier and switch the 3rd and 1st clips' and has it done just in time for me to say ' no, no the 2nd and 1st would be better' and does it all without protest or pause(and it doesnt even seem to phase him when I writhe on the floor when a cut doesn't work or do a victory dance when it does) Hopefully we will work on many more projects to come.

Time: N/A

Cost: N/A

Equipment: Sweet Suite G5 Mac with Avid and double screens; PAL monitor, Tape Deck, 30 hours footage on MiniDV (prelogged, binned and transcribed thanks to Laurie's super organization), 23 regular lattes

Level of Difficulty: (total project: 5 sawzalls) editing 3.5 sawzalls

Backyard Tilling

Backyard Tilling Photos

Making our backyard look nice really doesn't seem to be possible, but here's another try to plant grass, smooth out the dirt, and create of uniform look to the backyard. The yard was tilled, raked, smoothed, and planted. Weeks after, the result was a uniform dirt yard. The grass and clover that was planted never took.

Time: 6 hours

Cost: $300 - This includes the used tiller, the seed and fertilizer, and the gas to exchange the broken craftsman rakes!

Equipment/Tools Used: Craftsman Tiller (Thank you craigslist!), rakes, shovels, seed

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

Separation: Digital Short

This was a digital short to test my new HD camera. I shot and edited it while feeling a little homesick one rainy afternoon out of the windows from Batavia Mews (grad student housing) and set it to Sorry, Kevin's Separation. Unfortunately I cant figure how to export the HD quicktime to a format small enough to upload to the web without squashing the aspect ratio. (insert 'Back Burner' link)

Time: N/A

Cost: N/A

Equipment/Tools Used: Canon HV20, tripod, LaCie Drive, Mac G5/Final Cut (MAVis Lab @ Goldmsmiths), MiniDV tape

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

(only because of the frustration of only being able to log 10 second clips of HD footage at a time before crashing the computer)

Playhouse Teardown

Playhouse Teardown Photos

The playhouse that we built after moving to North Carolina we practically lived in as children. For almost 10 years it served as junk storage and began rotting. We took a few days, hired a dumpster, broke it down and said our goodbyes to our beloved playhouse.

Time: 2 days

Cost: $300 for dumpster

Equipment/Tools Used: Sawzall, hammers, sledges, and other demolition tools.

Level of Difficulty:

Garage Cleanup

Garage Photos

I took a few days to clean up the garage area. Built and rebuilt shelves. Organized tools. It's nice and clean. I know this won't last.

Time: 10 hours

Cost: $0 Used all scrap wood and paint.

Equipment/Tools Used: Craftsman 10" Tablesaw, Dewalt drill, Craftsman air nailer, hammers and prybars

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

Drill Battery

Drill Battery Photos

I love the Dewalt XRP drills. I don't like that after 4 years the battery goes dead really fast and that the replacement batteries are $70. I bought some new cells and replaced them myself. They're not pretty, but neither is the drill after 4 years of abuse.

Time: 2 hours

Cost: $30 for new cells. Enough for 2 battery packs.

Equipment/Tools Used: Soldering Iron, screwdrivers

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)

Desk with Shelf

Desk with Shelf Photos

I wanted more storage and I needed a desk so I decided to make a desk with an overhead shelf. I originally wanted this desk to have two deep shelves, but at 8 feet tall I really overestimated the height of my ceiling and the center of gravity a little to high and forward. The final shelf has one shelf capable of storing 3 roughneck rubber maids worth of junk!

Time: 2 hours

Expense: $20 of wood

Equipment/Tools Used: Dewalt drill, Craftsman Chopsaw

Level of Difficulty: (What's with the saws?)