Today Steve and I uploaded the last 5 videos bringing the total to 111. The project flagged 100+ videos. The average running time is 2 minutes. There are now 198 videos on my page.
Exactly 15 years ago to the day, filming started on this biodiversity video project. Wildlife camera man and filmmaker Glen Threlfo had helped select my camera, a Canon XL1, which served me until 2007. The project began as a documentary, the seeds of which were sown as ’Island in the Sky’, a Friends of Tamborine Mountain initiative to capture the interaction between the mountain’s residents and its flora and fauna. The camera man was the son of a friend of mine who was keen on videoing. The first entries in the Film Diary, dated 19 January 1998, were of sunrise over the ocean and illuminating the ranges to the west. My son Simon, then 17, filmed some early night sequences. I became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of making a documentary because I felt totally out of my depth. I needed to devise a project over which I had as much control as possible. The concept of creating a video archive devoted to the mountain’s biodiversity came to me. It proved to be the ideal solution.
This evening Steve and I finalised the sound and completed corrections to the remaining RADF funded videos. On 7 December Steve and I uploaded the first 25 HD videos before reaching our capacity limit on vimeo. Hopefully Steve will be able to upload the remaining 22 videos ahead of the 15 December completion date for the project. Most of the HD videos are of fauna.
Steve and I completed uploading 9 new videos, the last of 64 SD clips funded by the Regional Art Development Fund grant. Most of the recent subjects have been flora and fungi.
The Addition 6 exhibition opened this evening. Steve helped me set up yesterday afternoon and he and Paulina attended the opening which was a sterling effort. I thought that the standard was uniformly good. Vanessa and Kat’s work was excellent as was that of Ali Bezer and Lucas Davidson. There was a lively crowd of mostly young people and the weather was balmy. My work drew some appreciative comments. A modest occasion, but one I’m glad to have been involved with.
Gavin Bannerman, in response to my email this morning, sent me a pdf of the Deed of Gift this afternoon, duly signed by an official of the State Library of Queensland. The official signed the Deed on October 3, the day after my visit to the Library to sign the Deed and have it witnessed: see the October 2 post. The delay came from Gavin. The Accession Number is 29193.
Today I went to the State Library to sign the Deed of Gift, thereby formally entrusting my archive to its care, and concluding negotiations dating back to 2005. The Deed needs to be signed by a senior Library executive. Once that is done, I will receive my copy of the document. I also handed over the releases signed by the interviewees and a revised script that had not been among the items taken away by Gavin Bannerman and Zenovia Pappas when they came to my place on the 21st of September.
This evening I showed friends the 30 minute loop Steve and I have put together, minus sound, for the Addition 6 exhibition. It combines still frames and videos in what is a pleasing and dynamic presentation. It was well received, as it had been the previous weekend when I showed it to family. The sound will be minimal, but atmospheric. I feel I am onto something.
Gavin Bannerman and his colleague Zenovia Pappas duly kept their appointment at my place and we went through the associated papers which all refer to the SD footage. They departed with a document box of folders about ¾ full. The equivalent ‘paperwork’ for the HD footage, which the Library has already, is all digital. It remains for me to draft a statement covering the presentation of the interviews on their own. My concern is that should this happen, it must be clearly made known that the interviews are peripheral to a project devoted to biodiversity. Once the wording is agreed, I shall go to the library to sign the Deed of Gift.
Steve uploaded four more short grant-aided videos to Vimeo to add to the 8 he uploaded over the weekend. A week ago we finalised the sound for the first 25 tapes. I have shot-selected 61 SD videos and am waiting for identification on at least 3 more species. The 4 new videos bring my total on Vimeo to 103.