I hope there will be some interest. I am really pleased with the way it has turned out. Feels like I made the film I set out to make. Thanks to everyone here for your support and encouragement over the past couple of years and a special thanks to forum member Justin Lovell who let us sleep at his place in Toronto when we were in transit and also loaned me some camera lenses to take to South America!! The moral of that story is if you are going to shoot Bell and Howell Filmo don't forget your viewing lenses.. I did. I know Justin is on the road in Europe right now and I hope he is receiving the same hospitality that he gave us when we were in Canada. Thanks Justin.
Steve
[synopsis]
Ice Merchants of Huandoy is a short, linear narrative documentary that offers a rare glimpse into the ancient Andean tradition of extracting glacial ice for trade and subsistance. It is a tale told in the voice of Maji, an 82 year old grandmother who has walked the same ancient mountain trail with three generations of family. Photographed in classical 16mm, this color film offers insights into the sights and sounds of life in the high Peruvian Andes in vivid cinematic detail.
[Production Notes]
[Pre-Production]
The project began as a dream in a cinema café in Huaraz Peru. I propositioned my friends that own and operate the café to work with me on producing short documentary films based on a South America palette. Ice Merchants of Huandoy was the idea of Jim Sykes. He learned about the ice merchants and pitched a scenario to me in an email. That email was our script.
[production]
Production was completed in one month. In September 2006 my colleague Stan Dunster and I traveled to Peru to meet up with Jim Sykes and Gladys Jimenez to make the film. After spending a few days acclimatizing to the high altitude environment, we began making trips up to the valley where the mountain climber had seen the ice merchants at work. On our first encounter with them we immediately expressed our interest in the work they were doing and explained that we wanted to make a documentary film about why they do what they do and how they do it. We negotiated a contract with the ice merchants and then the actual filming took place in about 12 days.
[post-production and technical]
Ice Merchants of Huandoy was shot using two cameras. The (a) camera is a 16 mm Bell and Howell Filmo DR with Angeniuex 10mm F1.8, 15mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8 The (b) camera is a Beaulieu 4008ZMII with a Schneider 6 -66 F 1.8 lens all footage was shot at 24fps using Kodak color negative film stocks. The bulk of the film was shot on Kodak 7201 50D with some scenes shot on 7205 250D. S8 footage was shot on Kodak 7217 200T, with a daylight filter. Film processing and preparation for telecine was done at Alpha Cine Labs, Seattle. The film transfer and color correction was done by Eric Rosen at Flying Spot Film Transfer, Seattle. The transfer was mastered on Digital Betacam 4:2:2 for 29.97. Dubs were made to DVcam for off-line editing. Field audio was captured at 48khz with 16bits on a Marantz PMD660 (solid state) and a Sennheiser MKH 60 P48 that was well protected from wind noise. Voice recordings were made on a mono Nagra tape recorder. Sound was engineered by Mark Clem at Soul Kitchen Studios, Seattle.
[Film Credits: a partial list]
Producer, Director, Camera, Editor: Stephen J. Hyde
Location Sound: Stan Dunster
Colorist: Eric Rosen, FSFT
Music: Jim Sykes, Stan Dunster
2nd Unit Director: Jim Sykes
Translators: Gladys Jimenez, Carlo Zinzani, Jim Sykes
