This short film features footage that I took in the abandoned mining town of Swansea, Arizona. This is also the first film I’ve shot using my updated tripod with my homemade tripod arm extension. The new equipment brought with them their owns joys and difficulties. Concerning joys, I’d like to make note that my previous tripod setup had been malfunctioning for the better part of six months, forcing me to abandon it –for the most part– for handheld filming techniques. So, with a new tripod in hand, I was finally free to execute some camera movements that had previously typified my Korean short documentaries. However, I also found that, nearly one year on from the films I made in Korea, that my taste for certain camera movements had changed, so I tried to imbue my work with some other techniques I’d since developed, such as manually adjusting aperture within sequences. Difficulties, however, were also prominent, as the homemade tripod extension, while a perfect tool in set ups requiring the leverage it provided, also managed to get in the way of some of the sequences filmed in more cramped confines… forcing me to perform all manner of gymnastic movements in order to allow unrestrained manipulation of the arm extension. Simply put: the arm extension was so long that my body got in the way. I suppose this is the virtue of field-testing a tool. I just wish my experiment hadn’t spoiled such a special, rare opportunity. Certainly, I would’ve had more useful material if I’d decided to just shoot unfettered by “aid.”

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