Photography moves to the backburner as I try to make my first documentary

My bags are packed. I hope five pairs of underwear is enough. In just eight days I'll be embarking on a month-long journey with about twenty other people I barely know. Many people have studied abroad, but few like this.

From July 13th to August 14th, I'll be travelling by van through six states in the American Northwest. Led by an experienced natural science professor who's been taking students on this trip for over twenty years, we'll be touring through the greatest natural landmarks the area has to offer including Mt. Rainier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mt. St Helens, and the Grand Tetons just to name a few. It'll be the longest time I've ever been away from home, and I'm sure it'll be a life-altering experience.

So why not film it? For the last several weeks I've been preparing in all kinds of ways to make a documentary of this trip, and particularly the people involved. I've never made a documentary. In fact, ironically I'll be taking an intro to documentary film making course this fall semester immediately after returning from the trip. But I've been teaching myself on my own time, studying films and reading books about documentary structure and storytelling and I think I can do it.

With barely any real knowledge of the experience that lies ahead, I don't really know what kind of movie I'll come back with, or even if there will be a story worth telling at all. I'm mostly interested in documenting how a trip like this affects the people involved, myself excluded. This isn't gonna be a Michael Moore or Supersize Me type film and I'm not interested in being in front of the camera for this one. Instead I want to be an observer as friendships, cliques and other interactions develop among the trip-goers. Will there be arguments? Fights? Danger? Jealousy? Relationships? I sure hope so. If not, there may still be some Kodak moments in the stories told around the campfires, or in the phone calls to friends and family back home. Heck, this may even turn into an environmental film.

As you can tell, I know very little about what lies ahead, but I'm going to try my best to make a movie worth watching. Never know. It could be my big break.

If you'd like to keep tabs on my experience, you can bet I'll be tweeting about it at twitter.com/johngallino
I've also spent some time mapping a rough itinerary of the trip to Google Maps which you can view here:

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