goodfocus

We are not a company that likes to toot its own horn. We shy away from blatant self-promotion, shameless plugging and personal back-slapping. Alright, let’s be honest, any paragraph that starts like this one has only one place to go – straight into the slap-our-own-back, look-how-great-we-are slosh bucket. And this one is about to do just that. I apologize in advance.

Apparently the Maine Arts Commission has decided that goodfocus (3rd person self-reference) has, in fact, had a good idea. We thought we’d had a few recently, but apparently it’s really just the one. That one being our currently-in-production documentary ‘Designing Change.’ They have sent word regarding the goodness of the idea for this film in the form of their ‘Good Idea Grant.’

Aside from making us feel happy, warm, cozy and perhaps even smug, the wonderful aspect of this grant is that it is intended to be used to buy nifty gizmos to help one make their idea a reality. In our case, this means a small bevvy of filmmaking tools that we’ve been eyeing for some time.

To wit, we’d like to share this list with you so that you, too, may oggle the beauty and niftiness of each of these gizmos.

First, two 16GB SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash Cards for our new Canon 7D (video) camera. SanDisk is fond of saying that their cards feature a RTV silicone coating for added protection against moisture and humidity (perfect for mid-western Alabama). They are also tested to perform in extreme cold to hot environments (-13° to 185°F / -25°C to 85°C), such as are found nowhere we hope to be in the near future. The Extreme cards are subject to rigorous stress, shock, and vibration testing, which is very handy when rattling at great speed down the crevasse-laden byways of Alabama in our 1981 Volkswagen dasher (anything but) that we politely call sh*tbox.

Next, the very nifty Novoflex lens mount adapter for Nikon lens to Canon EOS bodies. Novoflex is keen to point out that although the lens will fit physically, automatic diaphragm (AE metering), or any other functions are not retained using this adapter. Unfortunately, this means that our Nikon lens with handy espresso-making function will not play on our Canon body. But our growing collection of Nikon primes will.

Possibly our favorite addition to the gear bag is another Sennheiser Evolution G2 100 Series UHF lavalier System. We’re getting this set in the new extreme lavender color scheme.

And to round out the gadgetry, a beautiful, midnight grey Zoom H4n Handy mobile 4-track recorder. The fact that it is both handy and mobile was what landed our interest. It’s so often that something is handy, but weighs ten stone, or is mobile, but never where it needs to be when it’s needed. This baby has both, in spades.

Thank you, Maine Arts Commission.

It is difficult to succinctly explain why we chose to make a documentary about a pie shop. It would be easy to say it’s because we love pie. I do love pie, but a gluten intolerance makes it difficult (actually impossible) to enjoy this sweet treat. Is there something about pie shops in general that peaks our curiosity or excites our imagination? No, not exactly. But there is something about this particular pie shop that we love and want to share. For a taste, watch this.

Today we opened the goodfocus post office box in our sleepy little town and found a small, but very happening party inside. Apparently LEF (we did 10 minutes of research and still don’t know what it stands for either) decided to host said party in our post box by awarding us a small pre-production grant for the feature documentary we are currently working on in Hale County, Alabama.

As excited as I am about the award, I’m finding it very difficult to put aside the question: what does LEF stand for? It’s a series of three capital letters, doesn’t that suggest an acronym? Interestingly, during a panel discussion about documentary film funding at the recent CIFF (Camden International Film Festival – they seem pretty open about their acronym) I heard LEF refered to as both L.E.F. and LEF, as in “lef”. As in, the word “left” with the final consonant dropped – precisely how we pronounce it in my sultry youth in New Orleans. So, is it L.E.F. or lef? And if it’s lef, what does that mean, exactly? Is it a, currently, non-sense word; the intended purpose of which is to add a new short-hand, linguistic concept to our American vernacular? Is the sound of “lef” to become synonymous with “good documentaries funded through the generosity of private sponsorship?” I’ve tried recalling similar attempts at this tactic and haven’t had much success; the obvious ones are “google” and “spam,” but both are “real” words simply appropriated by new concepts that overshadow their previous meanings.

How often are truly new words introduced into the English language? Yes, asking this question begs a plethora of tidy responses suggesting the commonplace occurrence of such linguistic parthenogenesis, but in the everyday scheme of things, it’s quite rare.

What does this suggest? That LEF is, in fact, an acronym – regardless of how it is pronounced? LEF or L.E.F., it is a series of letters that are the leading characters in an otherwise unidentifiable series of words which, when taken in whole, have a meaning that in some way suggests the goals, history or intended purpose of the organization. This being the case – why isn’t it obvious? Does LEF, or L.E.F., or lef intentionally obfuscate their meaning in order to save themselves from ridicule or, worse yet, base humor? What does that ‘E’ really mean?

Regardless of their meaning, however, we are, at present, very much enamored with these three letters.

Thank you, LEF (or lef, or L.E.F.) for seeing the possibility that we see in Hale County, and in us.

When we spoke to John Beilenberg, founder of Project M, before he left for Alabama he said he wasn’t sure what this year’s Project M south would be like. He told us to come down and see for ourselves. And, since we’ve recently undertaken the task of creating a documentary about designing for social change, we decided we should do just that.

John was heading to a piece of Alabama called Hale County – currently the second poorest county in the United States (more on that distinction later). This summer was his third in the small town of Greensboro. For the last three years he has spent a month in this small town of just under 3,000 with a group of young  designers from all over the country. His primary goal – to teach them to think wrong. In fact, we heard on numerous occasions that the process he goes through with these young designers makes them unemployable. Or, more precisely, that they leave Project M with the desire to not work within the traditional design industry. What, exactly, does that mean? We needed to find out; to experience John and his Project M’ers (as they call themselves); to experience Greensboro, Alabama.

So we packed our filming goodies and went south to find out for ourselves.