Yesterday John wrote on his facebook that it feels like he's on a rock tour. I've never been on a rock tour myself, but it feels like we're on something, that's for sure. We'd been out of internet range from Winnipeg til now, and I wasn't a good little blogger keeping record of what we did when, even if there wasn't net access. As a result, I'm sitting here furrowing my brow trying to remember what happened when.
Everything blurs. At some point, after a very successful screening in Winnipeg, we left through the night. We managed to make it to Fiske. Once there, we played with a hyperactive many-toed cat, successfully got the car mount shot, ate summer sausage with the no longer a stranger Darren, and headed on our merry way.
With all the Jurassic Park references that are being thrown around all trip, (Hold onto yer butts) it was only fitting that we drive through Drumheller. We got some over the shoulder shots in the car, gawked at the world's largest dinosaur, and picked up some groceries while being stared at by a pretty awesome statue of a JP style t-rex breaking out of the IGA wall.
We bypassed Calgary and headed into the mountains. For me, it felt like I was heading home. Rob was seeing mountains for the first time.
Banff was a whirlwind. Somewhere in all that, we mapped and filmed another action sequence, Rob and I climbed the same mountain at different times (I took a trail, Rob didn`t), we filmed the emotional climax of the film, Rob had a birthday, and we made a whole bunch of new friends.
Some of us stayed with a ranger named Simon, finding spots to sleep on between the lamps and balancing objects. The rest of us stayed with an awesome young woman next door who`d just moved to Banff three weeks earlier.
Our days were long, our sleeps were short, and I kept lying down on the couch thinking I`d conk out, but the energy, the atmosphere kept me on my toes. This has been the most physically active we`ve been all trip. Filming, hiking, art shows, drinking, long conversations into the night.
More than any other place we`ve stopped, it feels like we were absorbed into the culture of Banff. I think the nature of the town made this easy... It`s a mixture of itinerant students stopping through for a summer job, parks staff that have settled for longer, and artists from the Banff Centre staying for various lengths of time.
The screening went brilliantly. Our hosts and friends brought in all their connections, and we had many more people than we were expecting. We showed the movies in a hair salon, and the conversation and questions after each piece were as vibrant and informative as any of our stops yet.
After a beautiful sunny driving day through the mountains, we`re in Abbotsford. I got to sleep in my own bed, and spent a day taking care of business at home while the rest of the guys did some scouting and filming in Vancouver. I confirmed that I do still have a job waiting for me when I come back in a couple weeks, picked up my next script (Victoria Fringe, here I come!), and hugged many of the people that make this place home for me. The guys got lost in Vancouver, went swimming in the ocean, and got some amazing footage.
We`ll be filming a couple pick-ups in Banff, but in terms of actual scenes, we`ve got two we`re filming today and that`s it. Finito.
There are some pictures from Quebec up on our facebook page. Because of my broken camera, I haven`t had any newer pictures to post, but hopefully we`ll get other people`s photos up soon. Dave has been taking some absolutely amazing black and whites. Keep your eye out for them.
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