Making Bacon

What is it that gets me out of bed on a chilly Saturday morning to crowd myself around others at the Dunedin Farmers market?

The quite sublime Bacon Butties and fresh coffee is the answer!

Cured and smoked, the bacon is quite amazing. I haven't bought Bacon from the supermarket for a while but from memory it never tasted this good. I have since discovered that the Havoc bacon company from Waitati have a rather unique approach to keeping pigs in this day and age of mass produced food injected with all manner of growth agents. After listening to a broadcast about their product and philosophy on National Radio last week I am encouraged to try and incorporate this example into a story that I am developing about the distrust of major food producers.

In other words, I want to focus a short film on the growth of Farmer's market concept as consumers seek a better relationship with their food providers. It seems that many people are suspicious of what they are eating and are embracing the chance to source fresh produce from people who are particular and passionate about the methods use to grow crops and keep livestock. This comes at a time when 'green' politicians in New Zealand are seeking better clarification of contents of food labeling, while over-zealous health and safety officials focus on Ma and Pa food producers selling their wares at weekend markets.

This is quite obviously a huge issues based project, so the plan will be to distill the ideas down and wrap the story around the character lifestyle pig farmers who call themselves Havoc. I'm sure there are other examples if such an idea proves fruitless. With a bit of digging I'm sure I can expose some disgusting food production practices balanced with a story of a farmers passionate about producing the best food possible.

The seed is sown

The heat is on, ideas are flowing thick and fast and just two weeks into our course in documentary filmmaking one can smell the anxiety in the Zoology Department as twelve minds turn their attention to crafting a story of their choice. Over the next few weeks I will add some of my musings to this blog in the hope that I can solicit some constructive feedback on the idea that I settle on for my story. At the moment I am torn between a project focusing on a topical isssue such as the us vs them debate that rages in New Zealand at the moment between the Environmentalists and sectors of the Agricultural community; or a character driven story focusing on the efforts to preserve the Otago Skink, an endangered Lizard that exists in pockets around Central Otago and the Maniototo. We have the opportunity to research our best ideas over the next couple of weeks and them pitch them to our collegues in the hope that we will settle of working partners for the filmmaking process. In the meantime I will be out an about the streets of Dunedin with a camera and tripod refining my skills and entertaining the curious onlookers. Also, this weekend I will be filming at the music festival being held at Bath Street in Dunedin on Saturday to celebrate the first birthday of dunedinmusic.com.

I'm not in it for the wildlife..

This profound opening statement from my student colleague Alastair Jamieson signifies the creative quandry that we will face when choosing topics for our films. Coming at you from the bowels of the Zoology Department located within the University of Otago in sunny Dunedin, this blog aims to detail the trials and tribulations of 12 would be filmmakers as we are put through our paces over the next 12 months in our Post Graduate Diploma in Natural History Filmmaking. Week one established the tone for the year with wine consumed on Day One courtesy of course co-ordinator Lloyd Davis, alias Dr Penguin. With the various strenghts and creative talents of the assembled 'Diplomats' (as we are referred to at Natural History New Zealand), hopes are high for our films that will be screened at The Regent in May 2007.
Along with numerous updates, progress reports, images and philosophical rantings I will sporadically review films and albums, and pass speculation on the latest television fodder. Hopefully,there will also be enough amusing anecdotes to keep even the most jaded web voyer interested.