loaded the camera gear and spruce into the tesla and headed north. it was afternoon and wasn’t in much of a hurry. cinematographers know the light in the middle of a bright day is not great for recording because without clouds, dramatic shadows form which makes getting the right exposure damn near impossible. and so we drove slow. every minute our arrival was delayed meant the light would be getting incrementally better as the sun worked closer to the horizon.
the brakes had started smelling of smoke a couple weeks earlier and our mechanic didn’t have any open slots so decided to purchase a month-long subscription to full-self driving for about a hundred bucks. this temporary workaround theoretically meant the car would not actually need the brakes because the computer would slow the vehicle down.
‘driving’ a car that is driving itself is a bizarre experience. there’s a camera above watching your eyes. if you pick up a phone, it scolds you with a loud beep and threatening words on the screen. if you glance out the window too long at a beautiful bucolic farm, the warnings flash again. so the end result of this mode of transportation, if one does not want to be bothered by constant nagging, is sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead at the road with hands folded in the lap. you’re required to pay attention and yet there’s nothing to do. after thrity or so miles of this on interstate 91, it felt more like i’d been forced to participate in a meditation in a buddhist temple than any kind of driving experience.
eventually we arrived and was pleased to see a well-kept farm store with a standard red, white and blue ‘open’ flag. there was a stretch of trees with plenty of shade~ pulled in parallel to give spruce a cooler spot on what was becoming a hot day.
this place had a welcoming energy and a friendly fellow in the farm store told me to head down the road to the barn or something like that. i didn’t really understand but didn’t want to admit ignorance so walked slowly down one of the farm paths until i eventually ran into mark and his cousin whose name currently escapes me. the three of us talked for awhile about the liberty food fest and educated each other about the various happenings of agriculture in the area.
soon it was time to milk the cows and mark hopped on the four-wheeler and headed out to the pasture, about a half-mile away. during the journey i would film on foot for awhile and then mark would come to a stop, wait for me, and i’d hop on the back and start filming as we bounced on the dirt road. it’s usually tricky filming from the back of an atv, and this particular one had very little to hang onto. this, combined with the chord from my headphones getting wrapped in the tire a couple times, meant i opted most of the time to remain on foot.
at any farm, it takes awhile to get acclimated to the pace and mood of the land and people. at one point, i ran across a stream which had swelled up with rain from the night before. the water felt cool in my boots. i balanced the camera on a stump or rock, setup the shot, and then hit record as mark drove the atv through the stream. we then rode up the hill to the herd. they were happy where they were and not immediately ready to go in for the day’s second and final milking. mark drove the atv in a crescent path around them, eventually getting them to head back down the hill and towards the stream…
(to be continued)
