Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A short trip to Lausanne

I went to Lausanne last Wednesday to meet some old friends and discuss my current and upcoming film projects. Business trips in a different city are good, for they push you to develop your sense of orientation.


With an hour to kill before my first appointment, I decided to visit FINA Headquarters. It didn't seem far on a two-dimension map. I just forgot center Lausanne was built on a slope and anything but flat. Visitors there should make a note as to which plane of elevation they are on and where they want to go, or they otherwise find themselves tens of meters below or above the street which they are trying to reach. Which is exactly what happened to me. I found myself lost (or thought I was... :)) in a maze of terraced dead end streets and had to go back before getting late. Anyways, it wasn't a complete waste of time. Weather was crap but Lausanne residential area near the lake is just so beautiful and so much quieter than Geneva...

I later joined freelancing cameraman and editor Pat at his place. He worked on several occasions with RED cameras and editing systems. I heard terrible anecdotes on RED and I never really thought of using it as a possible option, but after watching one of Pat's demo and listening to his experiences, I am seriously reconsidering it. I mean, why not? We'll see.

Second appointment was sound engineer Wolfgang. I worked with him before, on Metastruments. Like Pat, it was nice seeing him again. Wolfgang just founded a new studio and according to the amount of absent calls he received on his cell, it's a success and more and more clients keep coming in. We talked about his projects and mine. And like Pat, he seemed pretty open for a future partnership.

Trip ended up well, and in the evening, on my way back to Geneva, I recalled all the insightful conversations I had that day. I realized how good it felt to have in-depth conversations about film projects with people. Oh wow, I miss that...