Birding with Kenn and Kimberly

Filmmaker Rob Meyer in action, on the set From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes:  Okay, here's the deal about being the director of a film.  It's like being God.  Only better, because people actually do what you tell them to do. Or at least, that's what I would have told you a couple of years ago.  That was just based on impressions from things I'd read.  Cecil B. DeMille demanding that Victor Mature wrestle with a real lion during the filming of Samson and Delilah .  James Cameron screaming at the extras bobbing around in the water during the sinking scenes in  Titanic.  And so on.  But until I visited the set of A Birder's Guide to Everything , I wouldn't have guessed that a movie director could be the most decent, kind person you could hope to meet. I first connected with filmmaker Rob Meyer by way of an email introduction from our friend, the great nature writer Scott Weidensaul.  Scott told me that Meyer had a screenplay that...

Kodi Smit-McPhee, who stars in the forthcoming film A Birder's Guide to Everything , is a young actor with phenomenal talent and a brilliant future. From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes:  Last August, as I described in a previous post, I spent a few days with the crew that was shooting Rob Meyer's forthcoming film,  A Birder's Guide to Everything .   I was involved as a consultant on the film, which has birding as a major plot element.  But while I was there, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the craft of filmmaking. A movie looks very different when you see it from that perspective.  When you're in the theater, the actors and actresses loom larger than life, occupying all your attention.  On the movie set, there may be dozens of people hurrying around, focused on dozens of important tasks - lighting, sound, backgrounds, props, script details, makeup, costumes, and so on.  Everyone is a professional, everyone's work is essential. ...

Katie Chang, Alex Wolff, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Michael Chen starring as young birders on a quest in the new Rob Meyer film, "A Birder's Guide to Everything." From out on the road, Kenn writes:  It's official!  The next birding movie will have its world premiere next month in New York City! You may recall that I've previously written about A Birder's Guide to Everything, the feature-length film-in-the-making by Rob Meyer.  Last July I introduced the film in this blog post .  Later I visited the set while the film was being shot on location north of New York, and I wrote about the experience (and about the amazing amount of hard work involved in movie-making) in this post .   Since that time I've been following the progress of the post-production work, as Rob Meyer and his team have worked through massive job of editing, mixing, and turning all the raw footage into a finished film.  Of course, I still haven't seen the finished product, but I...

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes:   Back on July 14 I wrote about a feature-length film, A Birder's Guide to Everything, that was about to start shooting under the direction of a remarkable young filmmaker, Rob Meyer.   If you don't want to scroll all the way back to that date, you can read my earlier post at this link. In August, at Meyer's invitation, I had a chance to visit the set for a few days.  Now, I've watched a lot of movies but I didn't know much about how they were made, and it was fascinating to have this behind-the-scenes view.  Although this isn't a filmmaking blog, this particular movie has birding as a main element, so I figured it was legit to write about it here.  To keep things manageable I'll break this up into multiple posts rather than writing one incredibly long post.  So, class, today's lesson: there is a HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK that goes into making a film! Seriously.  I was stunned to see the dedication and the att...

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes:   Almost a year ago, I was contacted by a young filmmaker named Rob Meyer.  He said he was working on a feature-length film that would involve birding, and he wanted my feedback on the draft of the screenplay.  Naturally I was interested.  At that time, we were all looking forward nervously to the release of the film of "The Big Year," wondering if it would simply insult birders (it didn't) or if it would become a smash box-office hit (it didn't do that, either).  The buzz about "The Big Year" had been going on for months, and birders were already starting to talk about the possibility that Hollywood might wake up and discover that we're out here.  So I started corresponding with Rob Meyer.  Turns out, Meyer has a lot of experience, having worked on award-winning documentaries at PBS and National Geographic.  His independent short film "Aquarium" won awards at film festivals around the world.  But even ...