Grand Canyon “Two Theories Raft Trip”
4,000 or 4 billion: you decide.
I had been dreaming of a film shoot in the Grand Canyon with the National Center for Science Education for over a year. When Dr. Eugenie Scott sent me an email in June 2009 saying the group agreed to let us in on the journey to the canyon core I forwarded the email on to Octavio Warnock-Graham, project cinematographer, asking if he would come along on spec. The electrons sped back to me with a loud yes! As he began to draw up a gear list, I began to think about finding a third crew member. When a cancellation opened up a place on the trip, David Behl, a still photographer who had worked on the project when we filmed interviews in NYC’s Central Park, signed up. I don’t think he intended to become a full fledged crew member, but as the three of us scrambled to pack the gear into water tight boxes, packing and unpacking, creating self contained shooting kits in cases labeled Itchy and Scratchy, it became obvious that David was central to our endeavor. Octavio trained David up as a boom/sound mixer and we were set to go. With me on second camera we were a high-def camera crew of two with a sound man and still photographer!
Eight days on a raft with no electricity posed a problem: we needed to recharge camera batteries every day and have power to run my laptop and hard drives for data card downloads! Octavio came up with a brilliant solution, utilizing pretty basic applied science. Solar panels. Richard at the outfitters Moki Mac was game to the idea of allowing us to tie solar panels to the raft. Although Octavio tested the solar panels in NYC and felt confident they would provide the power we needed, we could not be 100% sure until we got onto the river.
Melissa Cahill, Associate Producer, organized an event at the Ms Foundation to screen some footage “in the can” and get feedback from attendee’s, including one of our central characters: a biology teacher in an East Harlem High School. The gathering was a great way for me to present my ideas to supporters, field questions and energize myself for the trip. We raised enough money from this event and on line donations to fund the solar panels!
We hit the rafts on July 2nd, barely coming up for air or food for the next eight days. Working conditions were grueling — hot and very dry — so dry that sweat evaporated before you could see or feel it! These are the conditions that create dehydration. Our fabulous riverman chanted a mantra “drink water” ‘drink Gatorade’ — nothing prepared us for how much liquids that actually meant!! For those of us who were not accustomed to these conditions we learned a lot about how our bodies adapt to extreme conditions — some more rapidly than others…
Stay tuned for more project updates — and thanks for your support to-date! Visit our website, www.nodinosaursinheaven.org.
Greta Schiller, Producer/Director