Two Chicks and A Camera

Well, really two chicks and two cameras (four if you count our little Sony HC9s), but we thought “two chicks and a camera” sounded catchier.

As we get ready to shoot the final footage for our film, we can’t help but reflect on the journey leading up to this point. We started from scratch on this project. We had NO cameras, no crew, virtually no money, and no funding options. But, what we did have was a mutual love and passion for storytelling, a real interest in the preservation of the culture and heritage of the people of the Cinque Terre, and, a lot of perseverance and determination to finish this film and bring this story to light.


So, we got to work. We bought our little Sony HC9s and shot a bunch of stuff. We bought Macs. We learned Final Cut Pro. Eventually, we bought better cameras – Canon HDSLRs – and shot even more stuff, learning our new cameras as we prepared to leave for our shoot in Italy last September. HDSLRs are great cameras for the money and they really produce beautiful images, but they are completely different animals as far as video goes, and they definitely have their limitations when you need to shoot something fast. And, they have a whole new set of rules for converting footage and editing with it in Final Cut Pro. We had ourselves and we had our cameras, some tripods and some basic gear. No follow focus, no matte boxes, no dolly rigs. We didn’t have a traditional crew – we had a couple of fantastic people who showed up every day on our shoot and did whatever it took to help us get the job done. All we can say is, somehow it just worked.

Now, as we are nearing the home stretch, it’s almost surreal that we actually have an almost-completed film. We still have people who are just showing up and doing whatever it takes to help us get the job done (more on that later!). We really, really appreciate everyone who has done this and who believed in us. We continue to be inspired by the people of the Cinque Terre – this is their story, over a thousand years in the making.

We can’t wait to show you our film.