Nature and Constructed Space: Filming, Fallbrook, Fires, and Finales

Where does all the time go? This question seems to be at the top of my list. Time flies, and flies, and flies like a beautiful little bird that will never stay in one place for too long.

Fallbrook: Since time is such an issue for each of us in our group, we have chosen to be very creative about how and when we can film. Two weekends ago, I was in Fallbrook scouting and planning at my wedding location and brought the camera along to get some shots of “nature” and human development. It was great practice for me as I tried to capture landscapes, trees, houses, clouds, abandoned rod-iron wheels with greenery growing through it, tractors, wind rustling through the trees, etc.

Fires: This past weekend, Rachel took the camera to film while she was hiking in Chino Hills, only to find Chino ablaze like the rest of Southern California. When you do a film about “nature” and human development, it seems you can find a story idea in anything. Though Rachel was not able to capture the destruction of the flames taking their toll on our human, constructed spaces it got me thinking of yet another way to tell our film's story.

Finales: I watched the final celebratory episode of the iconic TRL (Total Request Live) last night on MTV. I am already someone who loves history, memories and talking about ‘the way things were’, so to say I went into ultra-nostalgic mode last night is a big deal.

As I watched pop music videos on TRL reveal its tiny history for the past 10 years (1998-2008), I was blown away by the transformation of style, popularity of artists, shifts, and movements of not only the music industry, but myself and the broader culture we live in.

Taking such thoughts of one, measly decade of change a step further (since I had 3 hours to think about it during the TRL finale), I thought about something our Shell Collector said during our interview with him on Wednesday evening last.

Context: the Shell Collector was discussing his presidency of the Pacific Conchological Club. Discussed at one of their recent meetings, there was an article that talked about the different reasons why shell collecting clubs have diminished in membership and why young people aren’t interested in collecting shells. Some reasons included:

• restrictions on collecting live mollusks
  kids are less interested in outdoor activities and more interested in video games
• kids don't want to hang out with adults and grandparents
• shell clubs are boring
• climate change has led to dearth of shells in many places
• life is too busy to have a hobby like shell collecting

You'll notice some reasons given have social roots while others deal with environmental changes. My connection between the finale of TRL and the slowly-fading shell collecting hobby was simply about "all things" having a life cycle.Eras come to an end, empires fall, babies are born, people get married, people get divorced, fires consume, plants grow, TRL ends, and Wii replaces the hobby of shell collecting for youngsters and families.