There's a thing that happens sometimes, when you start making something. What you thought you were going to make is not what start to take shape. I've seen this when building a website about photography, only to find the true form of the content emerge from the scattered pieces I throw onto the screen. When curating a collection of images for a magazine, I often find that a much more interesting story presents itself amongst the arrangement of photos. And when shooting a documentary in the Himalayas, it should come as no surprise that real life events can take a project into new directions that I had no anticipated.
Always in Nepal, we expect the unexpected.
When I wrapped filming for the documentary at the end of April I was spent. Exhausted. Drained. Pummelled. There was nothing left of my brain, or my budget. I needed a little time away from the project to recharge and refocus. That took a while. I distracted myself with shoots for a travel company in The Outback, recipe videos in our kitchen studio, and sliding deep down the rabbit hole of my YouTube channel.
Eventually I had to take a deep breath and dive back into the doco. That time away from the project helped me gain a little perspective, and coming back into the edit desk allowed me to bring fresh eyes to familiar footage. I had hours and hours worth of interviews to review and cut, to extract the most engaging aspects of the story. A lot has changed between starting filming and starting editing, and a very different story arc became evident.
I built out a new story arc, pulled together the dialogue that fits around it and started filling in the gaps. Keep in mind that "The Joy of Tashi" was originally planned as a 10-part TV series, but instead what we have is a 90min feature. And having stepped about a third of the way through the first edit, I'm starting to wonder if I can really keep it down to 90mins. We will see.
Right now I have a little over 30mins of the edit laid out. I expect a lot will change in the coming months, but first I want to complete one span of the story. With each "chapter" that pulls together I start seeing how the next one will change shape a little too. I've already rebuilt the story arc twice, and there's a good chance it will get more revisions.
One reason for this is because when I came back to Nepal in late October I got a chance to record a few more interviews. One was short but pivotal. The other was long and foundational. I'm dying to dig into the recordings and start piecing together the new narratives. There is nuance and depth coming out of these discussions that I simply hadn't appreciated when I started the project.
Yes, this has become a very different journey to the one I started. But it's also a much better one. I mean that both on a personal level for me, and in terms of the story I hope this documentary will tell. March and April were two of the toughest months of my entire life, and I hope I never have to go through anything like that again. But perhaps it will have all been worth it after all.
I'm stepping away from editing for four weeks now, as my annual photo tours in the Himalayas get going. I need to focus on the tours for now. The documentary work is incredibly intensive, and there is no such thing as "I'll just take a little look". I need to be 100% present and immersed to do anything useful for the doco.
I will get a chance to do that again in December. It will be scary stepping into the edit desk once more. Exciting, but scary. As I pull on threads and weave little pieces together, it feels I'm making something that once constructed cannot be undone. Once the story takes shape, it cannot be reversed. It exists. It's real. And all this happens at the insistence of my own hands. Never before has my identity as a "creator" felt so literal.
At this moment I still cannot say precisely what the ending will be to this story. The winds of change are still blowing, and I have to follow. But I am grateful for all those who have been joining me on this journey. Thankyou all again for the support, and I hope the next update to this blog will be sooner rather than later.
– Ewen
Joy of Tashi
The story of a young monk in Nepal, on a journey to discover where photography and Buddhism come together.
Meet Tashi
