Locations Line up

 When I have gotten all the footage that I needed at Yosemite, the next location to shoot would be at the beach in Big Sur

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 4

The beach is a great place to show all the ways that waves, rhythms and vibrations interact. 

Surfing is a great method to get in tune with those rhythms and train your reflexes to act in harmony with the waves and the vibrations of nature.

What would be great would be to have a drone with a camera on it to be able to shoot footage of the actors surfing from the angles that would be available from a drone flying close up to the the waves where the actors are that would show all aspects of what they went through in acquiring the skills necessary in the experience and be entertaining to watch.

The Esalen Institute has a 50 year long tradition of being the "Olympics of the mind, heart, body, spirit, and community, committing themselves to a deeper, richer, more enduring in the fellowship of other seekers." that makes it the perfect location for shooting episodes of My Fair Guru with ten actors attending all the workshops  to show the progress they make in growth and development in Stages, States, Levels and Lines of the AQAL Map.

So the area around Big Sur is the best way to show how all the actors can practice the elements that make up Integral Life Practice because it allows for all the modules to be pursued. 

 
Yoga and Surfing for the Body Module,  the workshops at Esalen for the Mind Module, the expansive vistas and effects of the waves on meditation for the Spirit Module and the community around a campfire on the beach for sharing in the Shadow Module.

Roles Reinforced

 With the funding accomplished to enable the production with the actors hired from wherever is best then the shooting on location can begin.

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 3

Since the locations include places like Yosemite, it would be more effective to bring my trailer along to be able to have all the necessities of shelter, food and supplies all in one place that is easily transportable and close to the wilderness areas that will be chosen for the production. It's a lot more comfortable than just camping and easier to hold everything needed.

Taking the trailer along would even allow a green screen studio to be set up inside with appropriate lighting and also have my computer equipment easily accessible as close to the shooting locations as possible to be able to animate, composite and edit the footage to be certain that the production had what it needed while we were there.

The first thing to shoot at Yosemite is the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls since it will give a chance to show the importance of maps to be able to find your way, how to check for landmarks to make sure the map shows is translated to what you experience and how different maps show different information that can be used in different ways.

Some maps are easier to follow but show less information, it depends on how much is needed to reach the destination, then add in the lesson of how this relates to the Scientific Method that following the path from a map is like following the injunction, straying from the path is like checking for falsity to find out if the map is accurate and asking others that have used the map and reached the destination without incident is like verifying the results of an experiment and gotten the same data from a "community of the adequate" 

That shows the need for context because a map of California would be too general and won't give the details of how to find your way around Yosemite and a map of only Curry Village is too specific to show what is outside of it's range to find anything else. In every facet of perception like getting information from shadows, the amount of context is crucial because that knowledge and how to apply it will be the difference between wisdom and mistakes

Context is also important in being able to tell the difference between theory and practice when you can have all the knowledge of the optics that makes rainbows but that won't give you the wisdom that comes from actually experiencing them. 

People could tell you all they want about the double rainbows at Vernal Falls and even show video but that's not nearly the same as experiencing it yourself. I remember when I first saw them and my reaction was profound even if it wasn't as extreme as some others.

Chapters Converging

There are a few more branches that the plot could take after first chapter depending on how committed the actor is or if they'll just  agree to only performing in the video for the Kickstarter campaign

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 2


When I've found someone in the acting class that is willing to perform in the video, I'll take them to the spot next to the Nature Center to use the water fall next to the salmon hatchery as a back drop, so that will have some impact for the exercise with the naming of the different shades of green and use the picnic tables for the examples of the different categories to put objects according to different parameters. 

In addition to the examples of things not being only one thing, I can use the fish ladder as an example of the Hero's Journey that the fish take from the hatchery to the ocean and back through all the stages and challenges they face that can be described by the formulas in the the Hero's Journey that I can illustrate in the video. 

It has a lot better chance to have a positive impact on people with better actor than I was even with that good of a background. 

So the thing is that if I can convince at least one actor to help me with the video then they can do a much better job to convince everyone else. Especially because it's a lot more difficult to convince strangers on the internet to put their money into something than it is to convince someone that you've gotten to know in person to put some time and effort into help with a project.

But getting an actor to show how sincere the people are that want to project to succeed so that it can be made would go a long way to convince those strangers to put money in it.

After putting in the graphics and editing the video together to fit in with the other details on the project page, the next thing would be to promote the campaign to get donations. Hopefully the other people in the class would help spread the news on social media among their friends and the actor that appeared in the video would have a good reason to get the word out about it, like the other film and video projects that get featured and were funded

That's where the branches in the plot come in when the project is funded, would the actor be willing to go on to perform in the next phase of shooting on locations at Yosemite, Big Sur and Vasquez Rocks? Also when there is more money to hire more qualified actors should that be considered instead? What would be the amount of dedication of those who were in it from the start? Would that be of more benefit to the project than the qualifications and experience of professional actors?

Plots Coalescing

 After writing that journal on 12/21/2007 almost a decade ago, I think I finally worked out how the plot fits together for the end of the auto biographical trilogy called Achieving Communion. At the end of the second part, called Attempting Symmetry, I'll have the Naked Angel finished and ready to be put into practice.

Achieving Communion Plot: Chapter 1


Then I'll enroll in an acting class at Butte College to find a student that is willing to help me film the video for the Kickstarter and Indegogo campaigns to raise the money to produce the movies, reality TV shows and video games. Krys took the Principles of Acting class when we were both going to Butte and she told me all about the assignments and she met someone there that became her friend outside of the class. Because of the nature of the class in cooperating on acting in scenes together it should be easy to get a chance to explain the opportunity to make a video with others in the class.

 
I could get to know the students for a while before finding out if any of them would be willing to help me with the video.  I could show my business card and use the DVD I made for The Writer's Nightmare and Affirmations with Animation as examples to show any of the students of the kind of work I do and a DVD of video clips to illustrate the idea for the Naked Angel. Using text animation to introduce the problems I had with the other DVD and the need to raise money to get better production quality so he first clip would be to show how kickstarter works to raise money from crowdfunding and why a video is necessary 

The next clip on the DVD would the example of the blonde stereotype and how that narrow view of only certain traits to describe the whole personality requires a dependence on binary choices that something has to be only one thing or another to restrict simple choices.  Blondes can be more than fun and more than dumb. Just because they are beautiful, doesn’t also mean that they can’t be smart since the aren’t mutually exclusive showing how false the stereotype is.

Using video clips from Legally Blonde would illustrate an example of Elle Woods showing how wrong that idea is and prove that concept of people being more than one thing at a time, so there are many more options than only binary. Legally Blonde also shows the transformation of Elle Woods from experiencing her growth from a sorority sister that put marriage to the wrong guy as a priority for herself to a lawyer that put serving justice as a priority for others that will help introduce the concept of the Heroes journey to transcend to a larger identity and include more depth from growth.

Then a clip on the DVD to show a couple of exercises that I want to put in the video for the Kickstarter campaign that I need an actor for. I'll show them clips from Maybe Logic with Robert Anton Wilson to give example of how there are more options than exclusively being one thing or another, with some motion text and a clip from Brain Games to show how perception can be fooled unless that is taken into account and adapted to it.

 

After that I'll be using video clips from My Fair Lady would show another example of the Heroes Journey and the transformation that Eliza goes through from a poor, simple flower girl struggling to survive to an educated well spoken lady with the expanded options of a duchess that highlight the stages of growth and clarify the reasons behind calling the reality TV show My Fair Guru with the steps along the Heroes Journey of Answering the Call, the Mentor, Central Ordeal and Returning the Elixir.

Then adding video clips from The Next Karate Kid includes Zen lessons into the Heroes Journey with Julie going through a transformation to integrate self discipline, balance and harmony into her life through practicing martial arts. This example shows how meditation and examples of Zen paradoxes fit into the journey to transcend and include more aspects than just simple binary fragments. The expanded awareness of surroundings with avoiding the sandbags blindfolded, the reflexes in harmony with catching the arrow and the visualization of the Zen bowling.

In order to show the path of the journey it is necessary to have a map to show the landmarks along the way. That's what the Integral Map is for to show "all quadrants, all levels and all lines" along the way to track of the progress in the development of evolution.

Attempting to expand to a wider audience for a deeper impact

Putting efforts into developing my own style that I'm happy with, doesn't always coincide with what others might find valuable. I know some of my work appeals to at least some people that I've heard from, so I have some fans out there but my a lot of my attempts to spread my art to an audience online don't seem to be reaching enough of those that could be fans.

So now that Mom has moved to Paradise, I figured that could be an opportunity to share our interest in art together and also to try and expand the audience for both of us. I looked up the Paradise Art Center and we joined. They have a members show in September so I had a couple of posters printed at Cafe Press to display there. 

Unfortunately the costs of getting them printed is not worth selling them directly through the Paradise Art Center so, the idea is to show examples of my work to more people so that once they are exposed to the kind of art that I do they will be interested in seeing more. 

I left a bunch of my business cards there with my contact info and address to this blog so people can order prints from Cafe Press and that way the manufacturing and shipping costs are part of the price instead of having to cover it by retail which is a lot more inefficient. It also gives people a much wider range of options than buying them directly from the gallery since Cafe Press offers many more products to print the designs on. Plus that way I can do custom designs to order, if they tell me what kinds of ideas they have in mind.

After all that worked out well for the lady who wanted bumper stickers, yard signs and t-shirts custom designed because I was able to design just what she wanted then it was easily produced and delivered to her

I'm not sure what kind of audience that the Paradise Art Center has, but hopefully it can get more people talking about my art and maybe more chances for networking with artists. At the very least Mom and I can share getting more exposed to the art scene there and having fun interacting with the artists there.