After more than a year of research and pre-production planning we finally began filming on March 21st, 2026.
My DP/Cinematographer Greg and I met at my studio and spent more than an hour loading up gear in the production van. We had watched the weather closely all week and had to be ready to go on short notice.
For our first day out on the river we selected Campion Park which is less than two miles away from my house. I drive by it almost daily but have never spent much time there. When we arrived I was reminded of two things: “reality eats the best laid plans for lunch” and “how do you eat an elephant?”
This project is huge. While Greg unloaded gear I just stood and looked at the landscape. Making an environmental documentary is different from filming a movie scene where you have actors and a script. For a movie, it is relatively easy to plan every shot. With an environmental film you can have some pre-visualization ahead of time but when you arrive at the banks of the river you can never fully anticipate what you will see.
The wind was blowing hard with clouds moving fast. I was mesmerized by how the light was constantly changing. It was sweeping across the landscape and reflecting off the water like a magnifying glass that focused the light on the sandy cliffs.
As a photographer this scenario can be frustrating because you have to constantly adjust the exposure settings to try to keep a consistent look to the images. However, in this case I asked Greg to just hold a single exposure and keep rolling as the light danced across the land. I could hear music in my head to go with the dancing light.
We spent 7 hours filming in one small stretch of the river. It was magic.
I made field notes of what I saw:
- King Fisher
- Mallards – Drake and Hen
- River Otter
- Coyote
- Hawks
- House Finches
- Cliff Swallows
- Black Cap Chickadees
The noise from Highway 195 was deafening. But when you dipped down to the riverbank in a ravine the sound of nature starts to emerge.
We didn’t capture much of the wildlife during this go around. Greg was rolling camera when I spotted the river otter behind him. As soon as Greg whirled around with the camera it dived and never re-emerged within sight. The birds were the same. The King Fisher flew across the river into a bush and disappeared.
I had never noticed all the holes in the sandy cliffs until all of a sudden a swarm of swallows emerged for a feeding frenzy. As soon as we had the lens changed on the camera to film them they were gone!
We will return to this place many times in the coming year to try to capture the varied life that lives along Hangman Creek.
We unpacked the gear in darkness and celebrated the beginning of this project. It is something that both of us are passionate about. We had packed chairs with us and I laughed at the fact that we never slowed down enough to use them.
Monday morning I got out to the studio by 5:30 am and sifted through the clips and put this montage together. For me the edit starts with audio. It sets the mood and everything else comes intuitively after that. I was able to put this draft together in a couple of hours and then let it sit overnight before refining it and sharing it here. This is how my mind can keep the clips organized in my head. The final film a year from now won’t look anything like this, but I will be able to draw upon the elements I need like a chef who reaches for spices as I make the final edit in a year or so.
Thanks for joining us on this journey of discovery.
Ira
P.S. – Speaking of journey’s of discovery, did you know that Lewis and Clark mapped Hangman Creek during their expedition?