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| Filmtrips
Tech Page |
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| It has taken quite
a few hi-tech gadgets and a solid vehicle to make Filmtrips
happen, and since the beginning of the adventure there have
been many upgrades and whole lot of planning to make it
work smoothly with the smallest possible staff. |
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As if a website weren't
enough, solving the challenge of DRIVING to South America
from the good 'ol USA became the highest priority when drafting
the initial ideas. The equipment for the photography was
another issue... film or digital? Trying to figure out a
way to catalogue all those photos on the road... in a third
world country! How is the webmaster
going to get the pictures and update the website in a timely
fashion?
Who is going to build and maintain the site? What if there
aren't any phones that work for a hundred miles? What if
there aren't any hotels or places to bed down?
As you might guess, just thinking about all the things that
could go
wrong make the mind reel. It's funny though, three words
were all that need explain the solution to nearly all these
dilemas- Macintosh, Nikon and Toyota. |
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The Vehicle |
| 1985
Toyota SR5 4x4 Longbed |
| 4-Cyl 22R |
| 5-Sp. W
/ hi-lo |
| Base model,
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| no power
windows, doors etc... |
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| Wouldn't a new Range
Rover be better you say? Or a Hummer? Sure, and how about
going to a biker bar wearing slacks and a turtleneck while
out cruising your Vespa?! No, it was key to blend in somewhat,
and be able to easily find a part for the vehicle if needed.
Not to mention the simplicity of an oil change, or replacing
a fanbelt. The Toyota we found was an excellent choice.
And, it didn't break the bank. It needed some help mind
you, but the six million dollar "We can make it better
stronger faster" man mentality was in high gear with
the hands she was in. |
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It
needed a motor. No problem. A brand new OEM 22R was
installed with all the new goodies attached. The transmission
was replaced with a less used one, and it was refurbished
from clutch to shifter. Brakes, universal joints,
exhaust, tires + spare, lubricants, grease and extra
parts were all taken care of. |
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| It needed a tad more
security than just an alarm, so padlocks were welded on.
Hood, doors, rear hatch and the spare on the roof all had
the ability to be locked down. It seemed like overkill,
even when the trip was in full swing. But at one point the
locks did thier service when the rear hatch was assaulted.
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| Storage
and a place to sleep were also taken care of with
an old camper shell from a local dealer. And cheap!
It was great how old it was as it had wood construction
which allowed for fabricated rought iron bars to be
attached covering the windows as well as other ammenities
on the inside. Sorry Mark, no bathroom though! |
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| The interior of the
"Camper" was complete with a simple cot, a diamond
plate steel lockbox tucked in nicely for the high dollar
items, lighting and 12 volt jacks for tech items to be plugged
into. She was ship shape, broken in and ready for sailing!
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| Photography |
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I have used Nikons
for nearly all my work, but the difficulty of using film
during the trips presented a problem, if not an overwhelming
cost. Processing and sending photos or even negatives via
FedEx was risky and expensive. If the package was lost or
damaged, all is lost. The time factor was also a
problem. Processing, mailing, scanning and posting on the
web would eat up a lot of time and cost a bunch. Initially,
this is how it was done.
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trusty Nikon N70 35mm camera works well and still
gets alot of use, but for the website a high-end digital
would be needed to better serve the purpose.
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This problem was solved with the 'digital edge'. Though
it was an investment to completely convert to digital, the
money saved over the years could be seem imediately. And
what's more, the images could be previewed in a very short
time by using state of the art software and a laptop. |
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My
Nikon D1 Digital Camera, simpler backup Olympus "Camedia",
a few tripods and 4 lenses are all I need to capture
all the shots seen on the website. All the frog shots
and the awesome views from afar were a snap with the
digitals. |
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| From Technophobe
to Technophile |
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| Mega byte ram memory
chip forward slash send download UPload...
click... where does it all end?!? From not even knowing
how to turn on an office computer in the past has led to
learning more about computers and software programs than
well, at least as much as the average 6th grade student,
but it has been a complete 180 in only a years time. |
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| During the 1st filmtrip
in '99, the hardware was an modest IBM compatible laptop
with the necesary software to make nice with the Olympus
camera. It worked well enough, but it was obvious that an
upgrade was needed to be able to get along with the new
monster at home, "Webcentrals" Powermac G4, but
we're getting ahead here... more on that later. Another
piece of equipment that was nixed was the sattelite phone
for those "emergency" situations. Yea, right ...
overkill! The thought of being anywhere in the world and
being able to 'phone home' was neat though, but at about
four bucks a minute, I could wait till the next town.
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The new Macintosh Powerbook
was the perfect tool to be able to view, manipulate, oganize
and eventually burn the photos on disk. Small, very powerful
and user friendly for a semi-computer literate, it's been
used to play music, surf the web and burn CD's all at the
same time! A genuine multi-tasking tool for a photographer
really "roughing it" in a third world countries!
Loaded with the same software programs as the Big Mac at
home, it's easy to read data back and forth between the
two.
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With
endless projects on the horizon for Filmtrips, a video
production might just be on the horizon. For practical
purposes on the road while travelling though, the
handy SONY DigiCam is a technological marvel. Record
anything you want, and it can be edited on the Macs'
Video Software or plugged and played or recorded through
a VCR. It's digital though, so it's so much easier
to manipulate on the computer than a tape.
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| The Website |
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Back at home in Tucson
is where the current and previous websites were developed.
The first site was born with a friend of a former roomate.
Michael Montagna has forgotten more about computers and
the web than many will ever know. With vast knowlege of
the actual languages computers speak, the site he and I
built was exactly what we had planned for Filmtrips in the
beginning. A platform to showcase my work, writing and travels.
The Flash Intro
Michael Montagna also built the original Filmtrips Flash
Intro which played on the 1st website. And the former
roomates boyfriend composed the music track for the intro,
as well as the background music that plays on the websites
pages. If you have the Flash Plugin you can view the Intro
and the !st website by clicking the banner below. If not,
get that here too! I want you to see it!
(FYI: Two pages will pop up when viewing the intro. The
front page will load and play the Intro. When finished it
will load the older, original site. The second new page
will be the current site, which you can close as it is already
up behind it. Confused?)
Upon leaving for the second Filmtrip, Michael had too much
on his plate to stay on as webmaster, and the scope of Filmtrips
had changed somewhat as well. I wanted to update the site
in "real time" so to speak, with my journal entries
and photos appearing soon after they were written and the
accompanying photos taken. The task was handed off to my
trusty roomate Jeff who built the truck for me and as a
graphic artist himself, was no stranger to working on a
computer. |
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Filmtrips Webcentral
These days this is more or less where all the "tech
stuff" comes
together. All the gadgets and the process come together
so that
friends, family and the "filmtrippers" get to
actually see the spoils
of all this traveling! The beauty of the Filmtrips setup
now is that
digital edge. Everything is digital from the beginning of
it's
creation so getting the data back to the webmaster and onto
the web is so simple, it's funny. Gone are the labs, the
waiting
for a scan, the "didn't turn out rights" and the
monotiny of film photography.
Don't get me wrong, there are many times I shoot regular
film
shots, but for this project, digital is what works best.
Take a
lo-res or hi-res picture, see it within minutes on the laptop
and
decide which ones to use. The hardest part is finding an
Internet Cafe' that stays open late enough! Once the
"package" is ready to send back to webcentral,
text for
a journal entry and photos for those entries all burned
on
a disk via the laptop, all there is to do is head to the
Cafe'
and Email it out to Jeff! It's a tough job...
The heart of the websites newest construction is a
Macintosh Powermac G4. It's been hopped up a bit to
handle all the work with extra memory and large drives.
Programs used to create the site were Macromedias
Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Image Ready, Adobe
Illustrator and Fetch to take it out to the web. Photoshop
and Image Ready are invaluable I'm told, and Dreamweaver
is supposed to be one of the best. Aside from the over
5000 images collected on the laptops hardrive from the
recent Filmtrip, there were about 3500 images on the G4!
With a huge amount of data transferred over the web for
the
site, it's amazing what one can accomplish without actually
stamping an envelope, faxing or talking on a phone.
And the journey continues.... |
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