Production Diary Part 3: Sometimes, Hungry and Desperate^^^^, You End Up At Jack In The Box :’(
DAY 1 in Olympic (October 2015)
After spending the night at the intern house in Port Angeles, I drove to park headquarters to finally meet Kathy, the head of interpretation for the park, who I have been emailing and talking on the phone with for months. She is LOVELY. Very warm, and very helpful. I’ve been anticipating coming here for so long, looking at books, reading, checking #olympicnationalpark on Instagram to find good sites and check the weather...and now here I finally was, about to finally see it for myself! We talked about my shot list, went over maps, and made plans for how I would spend the next ten days. It was tantalizing to be so close!
However, I had made the gigantic mistake of eating cereal for breakfast, which has the bizarre effect of making me hungrier than if I had eaten nothing at all. When our planning was finished and it was time for me to head out and actually get into the park, I was so hungry I couldn’t think of anything but food. I jumped in my car and drank the 1/3 bottle of flat, warm Diet Dr. Pepper that was still in the cupholder from the drive up from Portland the day before, then drove back into Port Angeles looking for something - ANYTHING - to eat. Which is how I ended up at Jack In The Box. It’s not a place you mean to go, but sometimes, it’s a place you end up.
After that shameful detour, my energy restored, I could at last go into the park! At my first stop, a campground near the entrance, I quickly became infatuated with, of all things, the most beautiful mushroom! I filmed the mushroom - its delicate gills, surrounded by tiny drops of water suspended on blades of grass - and then wandered around finding other wonders, like single fir needles suspended by invisible threads, twisting in the wind, and lichen hanging from trees like streamers.
I got up before sunrise and drove up Hurricane Ridge to get mountain footage. I passed several pretty overlooks with interesting colored clouds, but I was determined to start at the top! Sadly, the top of the ridge was shrouded in a thick cloud, and it was very, very chilly. But I had a pumpkin spice latte in me, and I was going to make this work! And I did. After filming plenty of fog and, briefly, through a break in the clouds, actual mountain peaks (the Olympics, presumably), I set up a dolly shot moving forward down a wooded trail. I had just set my focus, when a beautiful doe walked perfectly into frame. It was magic. I hit Record.
After a few hours on the top of the ridge, I decided it probably wasn’t going to get much clearer and started making my way down the winding road. At one of the overlooks where I stopped to film, I decided to take a time lapse of the fog moving over a hillside. After a few minutes, I realized that a rainbow had FORMED in the frame I was already shooting. It felt like a charmed day.
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