Trade Route Stories

Rough cut assembled for Trade Routes Trans-media collaborative...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:47:27 -0400

Rough cut assembled for Trade Routes Trans-media collaborative show, February 2013. Narrated by the saltiest dog I could track down.

Transmedia Documentary Storytelling Lab

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:31:00 -0400

Here’s the latest with Trade Route Stories: I invited a group of 8 Oberlin college student-artists to collaborate over their month-long January term. We dove into my hard-drives of audio interviews, photos, video footage and writing. Each student transcribed one sailor’s interview… shared the transcripts with the group… and created all sorts of art-pieces to share and honor the sailors’ stories. The month culminated in an exhibit and performance featuring monologues, performance pieces, an interactive poem installation, songs, bound books, videos and sound pieces.

Incredible! I’m excited to take this model and implement it with other groups. More photos from the exhibit and the process here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.723879078404.2107497.4304977&type=1&l=ea993cdfc5

and here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.720982064044.2107162.4304977&type=1&l=be3bf38035

I finished the circle— back to the beginning. You can read/see/hear about my year on “A...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:43:38 -0400

I finished the circle— back to the beginning. You can read/see/hear about my year on “A Year At Sea” post archive on Transom.org. Check it out here: http://transom.org/?cat=63

Now I’m making the transition to production mode. I’m now on the hunt for collaborators, outlets, and funding. I want to create a team: a couple more producers, an editor, and a web guy/gal. Then, I’m going to need to round up funds to pay us well for our time. The first item in the line-up is a series of audio portraits of some of the men and women I sailed with. That will form the building blocks for other audio and multimedia work.

Get in touch with me if you want to collaborate and/or if you have ideas for where to look for resources (i/e, space, support, $$, etc!)

And stay tuned for more stories in the coming months.

Busan, South Korea. We arrive. We load cargo. We leave. In the...

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:26:59 -0400

Busan, South Korea. We arrive. We load cargo. We leave. In the meantime, some crew go home, new crew arrive, and spare parts are delivered on board. Otherwise it’s a pretty normal day in the life of the ship.

Back on land, and here’s my first rough cut. Working...

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:46:00 -0400

Back on land, and here’s my first rough cut. Working towards a longer film.

iMovie got funky with the audio at the end, it got disconnected somehow and I can’t figure out how to fix it. Sounds that aren’t supposed to be there—they don’t show up in the timeline but you can hear it (6:41, 6:45, 7:41). Anybody else have weird problems with ghost audio in iMovie, maybe could pass on some tips?

“Modern Day Sailors”—photo/audio montage, rough cut,...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:45:59 -0400

“Modern Day Sailors”—photo/audio montage, rough cut, work-in-progress.

Photos: Crew working on deck, M/T Korsaro.

Narration: Anti, from Croatia. Rosenhill Seaman’s Club, Gothenburg.

Music: “I Want to Break Free,” Queen. From Oiler Jefferson “Squidmaster” Prieto on CMA CGM Maupassant.

I boarded the RO-RO carrier M/V AutoBank in Oslo as they...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:43:35 -0400

I boarded the RO-RO carrier M/V AutoBank in Oslo as they finished unloading their shipment of cars. Then we sailed to Bremerhaven, Germany to load again. Here’s a short video clip I made with photos and sound from our 24-hour journey.

The sound is from a recording I made as we were pulling up the ramps, winding up the mooring cables, and setting sail from Oslo. The beautiful progression of tone changes is exactly as it happened— I just abridged it a bunch, taking it from 13 minutes down to 2 minutes.

Loading sand from a big ocean bulker into our barge. Antwerp,...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:36:05 -0400

Loading sand from a big ocean bulker into our barge. Antwerp, 1:00 a.m. on my birthday. The Filipino guys up on the deck of the salty ship told me they brought this sand all the way from Australia. Two months straight of sailing. Whew.

Birthday wishes from the deck above. Loading in Antwerp, 1 a.m.

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:57:55 -0400

Birthday wishes from the deck above. Loading in Antwerp, 1 a.m.

Video

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:31:58 -0400

Nothing is for certain, except the day you left and sausages for Thursday breakfast (the kind you...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:20:00 -0400

Nothing is for certain, except the day you left and sausages for Thursday breakfast (the kind you hate). We don’t count down the days til home, only can count up how long we’ve been here, been gone. Days stack slowly, but time is always running. Look over your shoulder, the pile is already a mountain. 146 days and counting….

Come on, why don’t you come with us to Amsterdam? Your...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:18:32 -0400

Come on, why don’t you come with us to Amsterdam? Your bags are back in the hostel? Aw, it’s alright. You can get new clothes.

"When I was in Brazilia, I jumped. I have only one life."

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:16:11 -0400

“When I was in Brazilia, I jumped. I have only one life.”

- Marcin, 23. Day 2. Thunder Bay.

Waiting in the harbor. For three months. For our paycheck. For...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:13:00 -0400

Waiting in the harbor. For three months. For our paycheck. For our plane ticket to Ukraine, to home.

"When do we leave here? Maybe tomorrow… Maybe day after tomorrow… Maybe day after after..."

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:06:42 -0400

“When do we leave here? Maybe tomorrow… Maybe day after tomorrow… Maybe day after after tomorrow… I don’t know… Nobody knows.”

- Voytek. Thunder Bay. Day 2. 10:43 p.m.

Mariusz, 21, motorman. From Sczecin, Poland. Looking forward to...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:04:00 -0400

Mariusz, 21, motorman. From Sczecin, Poland. Looking forward to playing soccer with his buds when he gets home.

Piotr, steward, welcomes me aboard. Piotr:...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:03:09 -0400

Piotr, steward, welcomes me aboard. Piotr: 48, Aquarius, unmarried (girlfriend), sometimes listens to Katy Perry when he’s doing dishes, buying a new sports car when he gets home

Waiting for our turn to load. Beating the next level of World at...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:56:00 -0400

Waiting for our turn to load. Beating the next level of World at War: Nazi Zombies. Antwerp, Belgium. Vigilia, Day 1, 3:00 p.m.

As far as I can remember, it’s rained every day here for...

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:13:51 -0400

As far as I can remember, it’s rained every day here for the last three weeks. The water is coming to me.

20 years too late?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:10:00 -0400

“We don’t have time for media these days. You’re 20 years too late. All across the industry, they’ve cut staff to the bone. People on board ships don’t have time to do anything other than their job.”

The agent at FreighterWorld didn’t sound too optimistic about the feasibility of my project. She certainly didn’t have time to help me contact shipping agents. And all this after being put on hold for three and a half minutes.

Writer Dick Pollack traveled from Hong Kong back to his home in NYC via container ship in 2001 and wrote about it. I emailed him for advice about getting on board a ship, and his outlook was somber.

“Security has been increasingly tightened since 9/11, subjecting passenger travel on box boats etc. to more and more bureaucratic hurdles, usually resulting in a thumbs down. Even if you do manage to ship out, your access to information in port would be minimal at best, because container ships only tie up for a few hours before moving on but also because of strict security. Anyone pointing a video camera would be particularly suspect, I fear.”

This is what I’m up against. I’ll find a way… just gotta keep trying a different approach to get my foot in the door.