Making a Film
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Jeff
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Todd
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Todd: OK, now Jeff, you made a movie recently. Can you talk a little about what your movie is about?
Jeff: OK, Todd, I want to qualify that it is not a movie. It's a television documentary. Very big difference, but actually a movie and a documentary, there's not a lot of difference. I think the main difference is probably time. There's a beginning and a middle and an ending to both, but television documentary must be done in 46 minutes plus commercials and a movie is two hours or three hours.
Todd: OK, well thanks for that. OK so it's a documentary. What is the documentary about?
Jeff: Our documentary is about Indian life, and about our life interacting with the Indians. We're driving a small auto-rickshaw, which is a three-wheeled. It's a three wheeled car, a mini-three-wheeled car without doors and it doesn't go very fast and it's very uncomfortable and we drive that from the eastern border at Bangladesh to the western border of Pakistan, and we drive it straight across to Northern India.
Todd: Wow, that's some idea. Where did you get this idea? Why did you decide "Hey, I'm going to go film you know, going across India?
Jeff: Well, we'd been to India numerous times and it's an amazing country and we wanted to go back and we wanted to do something, we wanted to do some sort of video or documentary there and we wanted to do something unique that hasn't been done before there and this sort of just popped up in our heads through discussion and kicking around certain ideas, so it was just sort of an inspirational, spur of the moment thing. They're everywhere in India and we saw one and said "Let's drive one across India so it was sort of just came to mind."
Todd: Wow! Well if you had to describe your trip or sum up what the whole experience was like, how would you describe it?
Jeff: I think the best word to use to describe the trip was stupid! I don't think anyone would recommend doing it to anyone. I wouldn't do it again and it was very dangerous. It was very uncomfortable. It was very hot, very noisy. It did nothing. I think the main thing it did was take a few years off my life but it was an experience. It wasn't fun but it was a good experience.
Todd: Alright. Thanks Jeff.
qualify
I want to qualify that it's not a movie but a television
documentary.
When you put restrictions on information, you can say that you are 'qualifying' it. Notice the following:
- When you see an offer, it's important to read all the
qualifying statements.
- Let me qualify this statement by telling you that I have
never actually been there.
auto-rickshaw
We drive a small auto-rickshaw which is a three-wheeled car
without doors.
Traditionally, rickshaws are transportation with a cart and a bicycle used for getting around a city. Now, instead of using a bicycle, people are using motorcycles and these are called 'auto-rickshaw.' Notice the following:
- We rented an auto-rickshaw to tour the city.
- Most of the taxis here are motorbikes or auto-rickshaws.
eastern border
We drive from the eastern border at Bangladesh to the
western border of Pakistan.
The 'eastern border' of a country is the edge of the country on the east side. Notice the following:
- The mountain range along the eastern border is really
beautiful.
- There is very tight security along the eastern border.
kicking around
The idea just popped up in our heads as we were kicking
around certain ideas.
You 'kick around' ideas when you are just saying any idea that comes to your brain as an option. Someone says an idea, and then the rest of the people say what they think about the idea or how it could be made better. Notice the following:
- We are kind of kicking around the idea of going on a ski
trip in March.
- They have been kicking around ideas all week. I wish
they would just make a decision.
spur of the moment
The idea was just an inspirational, spur of the moment
thing.
When you do something 'spur of the moment,' it means that you don't plan it in advance, but just do something when the opportunity comes up. It is a spontaneous decision. Notice the following:
- I hate making spur of the moment ideas.
- Do you think it would be romantic to get married spur of
the moment in Las Vegas?
Vocabulary Quiz
kicking • moment
