Never Surrender: The California Water Shortage

Everyone has been excited about the change that Obama’s being elected is expected to bring to the world, especially regarding environmental policy. I’m all for the environment—I first started keeping Shabbat when I read that if the whole world wouldn’t drive for a day, the ozone layer would heal itself. “Hey,” I thought. “There is a day like that when people don’t drive, and it happens once a week!” This movie highlights a new environmental policy whose effects were clearly not thought-out beforehand.

As we know, California produces one third of the US’s produce. A dramatic drop in crops could mean a dramatic change in America’s diet, as well as the price of produce, and this at a time when affording groceries is getting harder and harder throughout the world.

Shmuel made this video through MaxFilms, our beloved friends Michael Fenenbock and Daphne Weisbart of the 18 and of www.denukeiran.com. Their client, Jim Costa, a California Congressman, wanted a movie made that documented the struggles of his constituents in the current food and farming crisis in California. This movie was shown to President Obama in order to get him to revoke the policy that brought this crisis about.

Shmuel used some new exciting techniques to get the look he wanted. One was the SmoothCam feature that he used to steady the camera in the aerial shots. Another is called Optical Flow, which made the slow-motion shots look like still photos.

The coolest thing for me was when he showed me how he made the color effects during the slow-mo shot of the marchers. If you see the original, and then this, you really get to understand how much work and thought Shmuel puts into making everything just right. Perfection and precision is what you get when you’re dealing with a German Jew!




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