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I loaded up my car with a bevy of camera and video equipment on Friday night before driving to Oakland to meet up for dinner and planning. I realized that I need to get a new bag to hold all of my stuff, as it all adds up to a very heavy and bulky set up!”

On Saturday, we spent a good portion of the day going through the storyboards and figuring out what types of shots we needed to take. Filmmaking is a lot more difficult than photography, I’m finding. For starters, there’s a lot more upfront planning you need to make before you go off and start filming. Photography’s a lot simpler to deal with, though it too often requires some planning: what lenses to bring, is there a flash required, batteries, etc. Like Arnold’s character in T:2 says, though, “The more contact I spend with filming, the more I learn.” Well… not exactly Arnold, but close enough.

We went over to San Francisco later that evening to catch the Fiery Feminist Freedomfest, an event celebrating Women’s Rights Day. It was held at the Women’s Building in the Mission. Among a sea of nondescript buildings, the Women’s Building stands out with its vibrantly painted walls. The featured performers included:

• Nellie Wong: Revolutionary poet and activist
• Karen Chin: of the Sabah Ensemble belly dancing troupe
• Eighth Wonder: Filipino American performance poetry collective
• Merle Woo: Rebel educator and writer
• Veronica Black: Afro-Latin rock band

I’m not used to attending these feminist gatherings, so I felt somewhat like a fish out of water. But, you know what they say about the impressionable rabbit and Pisces… always eager to learn new things! Most of the performances were pretty good, but the ones that stuck out in my mind included Eighth Wonder and this 86-year old lady who performed the last act. There she was singing these folk songs that we all know and love, but the lyrics were decidely bent on a leftist front! It was hilarious to see an 86-year old lady talking about the Catholic Church and how, “you can’t be a priest if you ain’t got a penis!” Let me tell you, you had to have been there!

Eighth Wonder was also very good. They are an ensemble troupe that typically has four men in addition to the four women. But, this being the Feminist Freedomfest, the guys were left out. Spoken word groups are very interesting because of the intensity of some of the performances. They worked very well as a team too; it’s definitely something that they’ve been working many hours on.

I did some filming while in Minnesota for the wedding, but most of the time there, my cousin had the camera. I didn’t bring a tripod with me and I regretted it. Even with the steadycam features of the video camera, shaking images are a common occurrence. The Gitzo tripod that I have is optimized for photography, so it looks like I’m going to be purchasing a heavier one with more video features, like a fluid head. Here we go again!

On Sunday, we went to lunch at the Left Bank Restaurant. Left Bank is a self-described authentic Parisian-style brasserie with locations in Menlo Park, Larkspur, and Pleasant Hill in California. Rae and I met up with Steve at the Menlo Park location.

When I was living in Paris, I used to take frequent long lunches with my classmates. In Europe, people work to live, as opposed to people in the US, who live to work. Part of working to live includes taking extended lunches. Steve, Rae, and I spent over two and a half hours at the Left Bank, enjoying the ambiance, lighting, and conversation. Steve has a very sharp mind when it comes to Star Wars and Star Trek trivia. I think that he’s going to be one of people that I invite to my house when I crack open my unopened copy of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit!

In the evening, Rae and I continued our filming, now in location in Saratoga/San Jose! We got some cool pictures of her dressed up in kick-ass wushu garb. Filming took a long, long time for only our first shot! I can see that video is going to be much more difficult than photography. Yes, but as I’m now fond of saying, the impressionable rabbit is always eager to learn new things.