It’s been a great year. We’ve been driving, flying, biking, walking, and just moving in general Burning Torch Productions has been logging miles and footage all year. Here’s a glimpse into the world of Mark Pedri.
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Going Out
The weekend started Friday by working on the story structure for EOE until 3:30 am. The next morning came much too early and was followed with more progress on EOE. With all of this work, I have been neglecting from my leisure time and haven’t stopped to smell the roses. Saturday night I decided to take a break from editing and I went out. I didn’t “go out” in the way that you may think. “Going out”, to many people means going to the bars. “Going out” to me means venturing out into the world to experience something great. The traditional expectations of going out seem boring to me. I don’t like limiting my experience based on what’s popular or easy to do. Whether it’s a bar or simply walking down the street, going out is an opportunity to experience the uniqueness of each moment in a setting outside of your house.
I took a drive around town just to see what was happening, to see what I wanted to do while I was out. Living life means opening your self up to the spontaneity that it may bring. Saturday night it brought me to the University of Wyoming campus. It was freezing, the wind was blowing, and I was completely exhausted from the last few months of editing and shooting. That wasn’t what was on my mind though. The moon was low in the sky, spilling perfectly balanced light onto the symbolic Bucking Horse bronze sculpture of Wyoming. I found my experience for the night. At first I just looked at the scene and then decided to take a few photos to share the experience with others. Here are a few shots of “going out” this weekend. For me, it was incredible. It gave me a well-needed break and reminded me that simply opening your eyes to the everyday beauty of living can be the inspiration that can’t be found anywhere else.
Mark
Tired, sleep deprived, and inspired at Sundance Film Festival
These three words can sum up this weekend. Tired, sleep deprived, and inspired. Despite the predicted record snowstorm, Carrie and I still decided to make the drive to Park City, UT for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Everything that was predicted, was delivered, and then some. The snow came in huge wet flakes that covered the bustling town of Park City. Along with the excitement of extra 50,000 people in town for the festival, the snow made sure that our car got stuck at least 4 times. The films also lived up to the ongoing hype of Sundance. We had the opportunity to see the premieres for two films including Bones Brigade, which I have been looking forward to seeing ever since it was announced as in production. This was skateboard and filmmaker legend, Stacy Peralta’s newest film. I actually fell into the opportunity to ask Stacy a question about passion and filmmaking during a morning Q&A session. That’s a whole other entry though. The other film we saw was Declaration of War. The weather was so bad that the director couldn’t even make it in for her own premiere.
Of all of the celebrities wandering about, I found my highlight of the weekend. I had to opportunity to talk face to face with Glen Friedman. If you don’t know who Glen is, a quick Google search should do the trick. Basically, he is one of the most influential photographers of the last 30 years. His roots are in the early skateboard and music scene of Southern California. I’ve been looking at his photos in magazines since I was little and to get the opportunity to meet him was incredible. Once again, that is a complete other entry for another day. Rather than talking all day about the festival, I’ve decided to just show you some pictures.
This Tuesday I’ll be headed to Cheyenne, WY to interview Governor Matt Mead for Energy! O Energy! Check back for details on what he says about energy in Wyoming.
What’s in a story?
I have been hitting the editing pretty hard these last few weeks, maybe a little harder than I should. Between the stack of hard drives to my left and the server to my right, I would say that if megabytes were Big Macs, I could feed the entire country for a year. The amount of footage is irrelevant though. The story that is emerging is what’s important.
On these long days that consistently drift into even longer nights of editing, I’ve found myself pondering the idea of a story. What is it about a story that makes us so attracted to it? There are so many exciting things happening every second of our lives, but every now and then, we choose to tune it all out and tune into a story. Whether it’s a book, a film, or someone telling it to us, a story has the power to show an aspect of life that often goes unnoticed. A story conveys truth.
At the root of every story is truth; the truth of human experience, the truth of emotion, the truth of life. This is what brings us back, time and time again. Life can be overwhelming, and as a result, one can become numb to the everyday experience. Stories are where we run to replenish our soul of human experience. This is what makes the “story” one of the greatest tools ever utilized by humans. Even something as powerful as fire or electricity can’t reach the level that a story can. Fire, electricity, and steel are all tools of a physical world. A story is a tool of the mind. As powerful as these energy producing machines that I have been studying are, they can’t do what a story does.
So as I sit here in front of the video footage of the last six months of my life, I am wondering what my story will be. A director has a unique responsibility. It’s the responsibility of creating a story for the world to experience, creating something for people to believe in. It’s the responsibility of creating truth.
Where has Marty been? Catching up with the other mind of EOE
Mark is lucky. While it’s true that the topic of energy has completely consumed his life for the past year, at least he put himself there voluntarily. I’m a different story. Every day at my job as an energy consultant I’m surrounded by discussions of energy, and then I come home, get on the phone, and talk to Mark about it for a few hours more. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m fascinated by the subject, but I just felt it necessary to start off the post by trying to rouse a little pity. Didn’t work? You still think Mark gets less sleep than me? Yeah, you’re probably right. And what’s crazier is that he probably does think about energy more than me, and he’s not even getting paid for it!
It’s been a while since I posted – my last full contribution was the post about Mark’s energy storage problem on his ride. And I know ever since that post all of the devoted fans of this blog have had a little thought in the back of their minds: Hey when are we going to hear from that Marty guy again? I can’t blame you. In that post I hope you had a chance to appreciate just how hilarious and clever Mark’s co-writer is. No? Jokes about mini-nuclear reactors aren’t that funny? Fine. You’re probably right. And actually, that’s exactly the point I want to make. No, not the fact that I’m not as funny as I think I am (though that is ego-breakingly true). The problem is that the subject of energysometimes just isn’t that interesting to people that don’t deal with it on a daily basis.
- Marty smiles big for the camera
As mentioned in my introductory post, one of the main things I do at my job is perform energy assessments on buildings. I spend a lot of time during the workday analyzing energy use in commercial buildings. And as I’ve dealt with various projects I’ve come across some interesting situations… Well at least I find them interesting. The thing is, not everyone does; sometimes not even the people that I think probably should.
For example: It’s so odd how a wild party just dies when I start talking about the decision for Boulder, CO to start the process of switching to a municipally-owned electrical utility. Ok, no, I don’t talk about energy on every Saturday night. But, even when I’m having lunch with a few friends that live in Boulder, if I try and throw that issue into the conversation, it’s met with stares and possibly eye-rolls. And these are the very people that I believe should care the most because it is going to directly affect them. I understand that at first glance the topic may seem very dry, but there are so many points to discuss and debate. And what’s more, it’s an issue that directly affects the citizens of the town, and the future of their electricity supply. But as I write those last five words I catch myself and think, “the truth is, not everyone finds the ‘future of their electricity supply’ all that fascinating.”
And really that’s fine. That’s one of the things that makes people, people. We all have our own lives, thoughts, curiosities and passions to keep us busy. But, what if we are overlooking one of the more determining factors on how we live our lives? The world is full of things that you never stop to really take a look at, and then one day something finally catches your eye. And from that day on, you care. It doesn’t matter what side of the argument you choose or if you choose not to argue at all. What matters is that something has pulled you in and now you care. How can you make decisions about something that you don’t care about? Would you act differently if you did care?
–Marty
***Editor’s Note- Marty was originally introduced in a previous post as having “pursued” a degree in Architectural engineering. The word “pursued” makes it sound like he tried it out one day. This couldn’t be more misrepresenting. Marty holds a BS degree in Architectural engineering and has been working at the forefront of the energy efficiency and assessment industry ever since. Just so you know that we didn’t just pull a random guy off the street 🙂
It’s not work
If you’ve ever wondered what the mind behind Burning Torch Productions thinks, this is for you.
With Energy! O Energy! in production and more projects on the burner, I’ve been working more hours per day than I care to keep track of. When you’re self-employed, keeping track of your hours is depressing. When it’s all said and done, the film is only about 90 minutes long, but the hours leading up to its completion will easily exceed 3000 hours. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Do you think I’m crazy? I don’t blame you. Let’s look at the math.
1 feature length movie running time= 90-110 minutes.
Hours committed to making the movie estimate= 3000 hours.
3000 hours = 125 days = 1/3 of a year.
*This is for a film that’s only 2/3 complete.
Now you’re probably saying, “That’s impossible!” But it’s not, and here’s why.
When I’m working on a film, I become completely consumed and passionate in the production. Every thought in my head is somehow connected back to what I’m working on. In order to explore a topic, it must be looked at from every possible angle. The number of ways to explore a topic is infinite. Does this mean you shouldn’t try? Of course not. It just means that you’ll never run out of studying.
So in other words, making a film is a full timejob, literally. If I’m not spending my waking hours filming, editing, or producing, I’m thinking about the film in every part of my life and then dreaming about it at night (dreams weren’t included in the estimate above).Film is the creation of reality, which makes the human experience the ultimate guide to filmmaking. Film is the magic of watching realty unfold in front of our eyes. Even fictional films convey realty. At the heart of a film is emotion and the emotion is real, even if the story that evokes it is made up. Every second of every day is an opportunity to expand. It can be as little as seeing something in the grocery store and writing it down on the back of my receipt. It could be a conversation with a loved one. The possibilitiesare infinite. Nothing goes unnoticed.Actual deskwork may last from 8 to 6 or 7 or 8 or 9, but the deskwork is only a tiny part of the work that goes into making a film. I don’t make 8am to 6pm films. It’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because I can’t. I can’t take on a film and just forget about it at quitting time. I don’t leave work at work. I can’t leave work at work because to me, it’s not work; it’s my life.Some people might call it being obsessive. Others might argue that it’s not a healthy lifestyle. Call me insane. Tell me it’s impossible and that it won’t last. Say that it’s not worth it. Try to change me. It won’t work, because like I said before, it’s not work, it’s my life.
Mark
Thanks
It’s that time of the year. Everyone is traveling, spending time with family, and busy with the holidays. Burning Torch Productions would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season, and say thanks for all of your support. We have been traveling a bit ourselves, about 3000 miles so far. Carrie and I have traveled by train, bus, and car in our most recent adventure to the Pacific Northwest. Everything is finally starting to make sense. Having a large amount of the filming done, I have decided to dedicate a number of blogs to writing about the people who I have met on my travels. The list spans from energy industry workers to drifters on the street. There is an entire story alone about the people I have encountered. Make sure to check back to get a glimpse into the lives of some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.
In the meantime, enjoy the holidays and stay warm! Here’s a picture that hopefully brings a chuckle to your day. Whoever said making movies couldn’t be fun?
Mark jumps on down to Phoenix with Carrie
Pondering in the Mist
The trip to the Northwest has been well worth it. It has been enlightening, humbling, and inspirational. Between the huge change in scenery, the interviews with Bonneville Power Administration, and stumbling across more power plants than I’ve ever seen, I have finally found some answers. What is the best energy? Well, I have definitely come a long ways since I first asked this question. I have traveled coast to coast, through rain forests, deserts, canyons, and mountain passes. I’ve traveled by foot, bike, train, bus, car, truck, four wheeler, and plane. Now that I’ve journeyed over 8000 miles, it’s time to make sense of everything. The next few months are going to be busy editing interviews and piecing together the puzzle with Marty Pool. As much as I want to tell everyone what I’ve learned, I have to wait until the film is finished. As the footage unfolds, Marty and I will be blogging to keep the conversation going. We will also be blogging about whatever we feel is relevant to Energy! O Energy! I will be on the road for another 2 and a half weeks gathering footage. I’ll leave you witha few photos of the last two days. If you’re just joining us, check out some video clips from the first bike ride through Wyoming to explore energy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXCjbccG7c8
Happy trails.
Portland Pictures
We’ve made it to Portland and haven’t stopped shooting since we’ve arrived. The nice thing about traveling to make a movie is that you enter each location with a fresh perspective. Even the most beautiful landscapes can become boring if you see it everyday. The change of scenery from Wyoming to Oregon has allowed me to capture the surroundings with a new eye. The key to getting this perspective is to notice the small things and build with it. Every moment is different in its own way. The challenge of making films is making harmony out of those moments; all 29.9 per second. One of the things that the Northwest far surpasses Wyoming with is water. Check out our photo blog to see how I’m capturing this idea of water and how a society can be built around it, including energy production in the form of hydro power plants.
Conversations
For the first time in 6 months I’ve been able to sit down and take a second to think. I spent my first weekend at home in I don’t know how long. The topic of energy is grazing in more headlines than ever. Between pipelines being proposed, talk of exporting natural gas, new wind development, solar plants being constructed, and the never-ending debate about coal and nuclear, it seems that we can’t get enough (news about energy). There’s a reason for this though. In order for something to be news, it has to be relevant to people. In a discussion with the cowriter of “Energy! O Energy!”, Marty Pool, we talked about how energy has become something that we need. It started out as a luxury and it has become something so integrated into our society that the world as we know it would cease to function if our energy system were to fail. Is energy comparable to any other “product”? It’s obvious that we need food and water to survive but would we be able to get this without the large-scale energy production of the modern world? Think about farming, livestock, processing, transportation, purifying… They all require massive amounts of energy.
I have been trying to strike up this conversation with some people while I am home and this entry is essentially a columniation of how that conversation has been going. Could we survive without the energy production that we have come to expect? A common answer, especially in Wyoming, to this question has been, “I could live off of the land. If the world fell apart tomorrow, I could provide for myself and my family by hunting, chopping wood, planting food, and building a house.” I think this is great and everyone should have some kind of basic survival skills. However, my question is, how many people could truly sustain their self, based on their surrounding environment. In Wyoming it would be easy. We have plenty of land, natural resources, and wildlife. You could cut down trees to make a house. You could hunt elk and deer for food. You could grow a garden with all of the space. You could get water from a near by river. You could heat your house with wood that you chop down. All one would need is the knowledge on how to utilize these abundant resources. Think about how much space it would take to do this. Now multiply that times 7 billion and you have planet earth. What about places New York City though? How many people could Manhattan support without importing anything? What about any major city? Without the large-scale production system in our world, cities would cease to exist.
Let’s bring it back to energy. If you were responsible for generating the energy that you use, could you do it? I think this is a fascinating question because it takes something that we never think about and makes it relevant to our every day life. The same question exists in every suit. Could you grow as much food as you eat? Could you carry or pump as much water as you drink? We have created a magnificent system of trade that allows us to not have to provide everything we need for ourselves. This couldn’t ring any louder with energy. There are those select few who do choose to generate as much power as they use and that’s great. It is often cheaper in the long run, has environmental benefits, and gives you a sense of accomplishment for being self-sufficient. The only issue with this is that it isn’t accessible to everyone. You can’t put a wind turbine on your apartment in downtown Salt Lake City. It’s not easy to build a nuclear reactor in your garage. You can’t build a dam on a river that you don’t own. You can’t put solar panels on your dorm. Even if you could, our energy demands often dwarf what is realistic for each person to generate. I was talking to colleague about generating power using a generator hooked to a bicycle. It sounds like a great idea! You can get a workout, save money, and create your own energy! Where is bad? The issues start rise when you consider how much power you use on a daily basis. According to a number of sources that I have interviewed for the film, the average person can generate around 70 watts of electricity. That’s enough to power one standard light bulb. Ask yourself; do you use more than one light bulb? What about your computer, TV, dishwasher, dryer, washer, AC, stove, phone, toaster, coffee pot, and everything else in your house that plugs into the wall? Who is going to pedal the bike to power these things? Even Tour De France athletes can only produce 300-400 watts. Your air conditioner can use as many as 4000 watts. That means that 10 world-class athletes pedaling like made would be able to power that one thing. I’m tired just thinking about it.
In conclusion to this thought, I want to say that it is interesting to think about if you had to make everything that you use. I am by no means asking anyone to generate their own power or grow their own food. It isn’t my place to tell anyone what to do. I just enjoy the conversation and find it interesting to think about. Until one understands the magnitude of this idea of “energy”, it’s hard to effectively make decisions about how to use and generate it. I have been tirelessly learning about energy for the last 6 months. The more I learn, the less I discover that I know. I will never know everything about energy, not even close. No one will but that’s not the point. After putting in all of this time these last 6 months, I don’t regret a second of it. Everything I learn applies directly to me because I use energy. That’s why I’m interested.
Burning Torch Productions 