Pamela Jo Bowman

BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN, MESA ARIZONA – My business partner has been nominated for KEZ Woman of the Year. On Thursday they are having a big shindig to honor the 12 women who have been nominated this year. Cyndi does not expect to win but, after all she has been through, she does deserve some positive recognition.

Today, we were talking about how the Zambia project began. We recalled how naïve we were to think we could start the film industry in Zambia. Cyndi commented that she was always most excited about giving a voice to a people and culture that had not ever had been heard in the global cinema before. Now that this film — the first one written by a Zambian, directed by a Zambian and featuring an all Zambian cast — is almost finished, she feels a certain satisfaction that we made that happen. I think she should be proud of herself. I don’t know of anyone who rallied fourteen students, four faculty, a cast of more than fifty Zambians, and numerous supports in Zambia to accomplish such an endeavor. Do you? Didn’t think so.

BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN, MESA ARIZONA — We are so close I can hardly sit still!

I began the week by going through the entire movie … again … and listing all of the things that just have to be fixed or changed. It’s all the nitty gritty stuff that makes the final film more finished, more polished. This is a tad frustrating because once again we have limited clips to pull the scenes from and we have even fewer scenes to create the transitions from one day to another, one locale to another.

Today, I learned some cool Adobe After Effects tricks. If you look at the photo above, you can see how I turned a clip that was shot at high noon and made it look like it was shot at night (I lightened the night shot up a little so you can see it). I learned how to add lights that were emanating from the houses and street lights reflecting on the buildings. One clip even has moving cars! Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a moving car all of a sudden have its headlights on while it is traveling down a darkened road? Well let me tell you, it is harder than I want it to be but a whole lot easier than flying back to Lusaka to get the shot at night! After Affects is amazing fun! Tomorrow, we remove objects (like tape or extension cords) from scenes that were not supposed to be there.

I have another exciting task for tomorrow. I start laying down the subtitles. Not really looking forward to that, but someone’s got to do it! My plan is to have them written by Friday. That is my plan and I am sticking to it!

We will be mailing this puppy out to three major festivals (including Cannes) in about a week. It is as ready as it can get! No time to sit still now! Good thing because I can’t.

BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN , MESA ARIZONA – My office window faces east. Evidence of another day alarms me on the mornings that find me facing muted hues of color until my eyes are forced shut and I type in the blindness of light. Shut the shutters you say! But then you could not see the flints of green that only the sunlight can strike at the moment I look into your eyes and into your soul. Those who know me know the look that I myself have never seen. I know the reflection of sunlight on these eyes of mine have struck fear into the hearts of my children. I am also confident that it has assured them of my devotion to them. I will continue to filter the light through closed lashes because I love the warmth of the sun on my face. Spring is almost here again. New beginnings. Endings with their painful scarring deaths fade in memories of neverland.

BY PAMELA JO BOWMAN, MESA, ARIZONA — Today was the closing performance for THE MUSIC MAN. First, I’ve got to give a big shout out to Ciera Jo for a great performance! Not that I am biased in any way but I thought she totally stole the show!

I had attended all of the other performances including the final dress rehearsal. But, today, the Yo-Yo Flu took me out. I spent most of the day lying in bed, wishing I felt better and thinking that if I committed time to sleeping, I might finally shake it. Between the final efforts to get everything ready for the play, prepping the film for the crew screening, celebrating with family (Grandma and Grandpa came for Ciera’s big debut) and celebrating Ben’s birthday, I may have gotten a bit run down. So, the Yo-Yo Flue took hold of me. One day, I feel pretty good, the next day I feel terrible. Sometimes, the yo-yo gets moving pretty quickly … i end up feeling good one hour, poor the next.

So, this is a less than an exciting blog post. Maybe in a couple of weeks things will be more fun. I’ll be going to visit Wistie. That will be fun. The film will ship out. That will be fun. Cyndi will go to Indiana for a week. That should leave a little room in my schedule for fun. Of course, we will finally get to start the Ann and Mary story. That will be fun and self gratifying. I’m going to go back to sleep and dream about it some more.