Time for a million dollar geography question: Can you locate the
Canary Islands on a map? Hint: Ask your kids. Unlike my generation
who had a tough time finding Fresno, my own children chided me when
I admitted my ignorance about the Canary Islands.
Time for a million dollar geography question: Can you locate the Canary Islands on a map? Hint: Ask your kids. Unlike my generation who had a tough time finding Fresno, my own children chided me when I admitted my ignorance about the Canary Islands.
“Mom, it’s off the north coast of Africa,” they chorused. I was pleased as punch to have them show me up. And now we have friends to visit when we pack up to go to the islands some day.
This past weekend at the Poppy Jasper Film Festival we met the lovely filmmaker Isabel Sánchez-Melo from the Canary Islands, who submitted her first film short and won a spot in the festival screenings. This is where it gets a bit confusing. Isabel traveled to the festival with her mother, also named Isabel, her brother, Jose, and her boyfriend also named Jose. Isabel’s (the filmmaker) film was titled “Lewis.” You know me and names; I was utterly confused all weekend, but with the help of returning San Martin native Terry Windell, we managed to have a great time with our Canary Island friends swapping comparisons of each other’s cultures.
Isabel comes from the island of Tenerife, sometimes known as the Happy Islands. Some historians guess these islands are the possible location of the legendary Atlantis. Enough with the classical lesson! Isabel, Isabel, Jose and Jose were a delight to meet and the possibility of Poppy Jasper exploding into an International Film Phenomena is outrageously exciting.
For Windell, it was a chance to visit friends new and old after leaving South County many years ago to pursue an impressive career in movies, television and commercials. Windell has worked as an animator and special effects director on such films as “Ghostbusters,” “E.T.,” “Star Wars Return of the Jedi,” and directed episodes of “Enterprise” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
At an intimate dinner hosted by Brent and Jan Bear at Mama Mia’s Saturday night, members of the women in film panel, Louise Rubecky, Mari Marchbanks and Jessica Janos, joined keynote speaker Victor Miller and his wife Tina. While passing plates of pasta and gnocchi served family style, the group discussed their love of story and how that translates into film making. The group agreed on the “addiction” of making movies, and how once infected its difficult to leave the genre. After sufficiently filling our minds and stomachs with sustenance, the group headed to the Morgan Hill Community Theater to hear the insights of screenwriter Miller.
Ever wonder how Kevin Bacon managed to get a hunting arrow shoved through his chest while serving as a camp counselor in “Friday the 13th?” Starting his keynote address with that scene in a clip from the movie, Victor Miller let us in on the behind-the-scenes special effects of the stabbing. Having a limited budget for the film, a fake “Kevin Bacon chest” was created and the intention was to get the shot in the first take. The special effects creator, Tom Savini, hid underneath the camp bunk with the arrow and tubing connected to a bladder of sheep’s blood. When the shot was filmed, the take was perfect and Savini emerged from under the bunk with blood covering his face. When asked what happened, according to Miller’s eyewitness account, Savini explained the tube disconnected from the bladder and he had to blow the sheep’s blood with his mouth to create the spurting effect on the chest.
Whatever it takes to get the shot was the lesson Miller conveyed to his filmmaker audience. Wonder if they have sheep in the Canary Islands? Ciao for now.
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