Story-A-Day #119: Axel Heiberg

AXEL HEIBERG

--SECURE TRANSMISSION--

Log #1: March 10, 2011
Location: 79°26′N 090°46′W

There’s not much up here; so little in fact, that I was starting to doubt the validity of this excursion. The thought had occurred to me, and not for the first time, that we might have been mislead.

I flew into Toronto almost three months ago and met up with my team at the Royal York. We spent a day gearing up with deep Arctic equipment: clothing, tents, sleeping gear, non-perishable food. We collect the rest en-route, but we needed to ensure the base supplies. We spent a week in the city drinking and doing some light site seeing. I figured it was okay to let the team blow off some steam because it could be the last chance they had for quite some time. Six angry men is not an efficient team, and I needed each of them, and their specialties, to be prepared. Against my better judgment, I have also added two women to the team, a geologist and a doctor. I am hoping that professionalism will overrule any potential friction between the different members: call me old fashioned, but on an excursion such as this, men and women often mix like oil and water.

On our last day in Toronto, I spoke briefly with our expedition’s benefactor (he says hello) and he directed me to a contact who would meet us in a place called Cochrane and take us the rest of the way from there. He also said that he had secured the McGill Arctic Research Station, which would act as our base of operations.

We took a chartered flight from Toronto to a place called North Bay, then transferred over to two smaller planes that got us to Cochrane where we met our contact at Ducks On The Roof, a rundown sports bar. The following day, we traveled to Moosonee by train. From there we flew to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, then on to Repulse Bay where we refueled before continuing to Pond Inlet at the Northern tip of Baffin Island.

A plodding boat ride eventually landed us in Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island where our guide discretely inquired about our destination. The people he talked to said they had seen no one in these parts, but that weird lights had been noticed on Axel Heiberg. They also mentioned rumblings in the ground (from the digging, or could it simply be related to the growing instability in the earth’s plates?) and seemed concerned.

That was nearly nineteen days ago and we have traveled by every means known to man to reach our current location. We are at the Research Station now and while there’s not much to it: a small research hut, cookhouse, and pair of temporary structures easily accommodates our team and it is nice having a roof over our heads.

The weather has been miserable and upon our arrival on the island, we were snowed in for eight days straight. We set up shifts to keep the door clear of snow, and also to ward off the polar bears that we have spotted periodically throughout our journey.

The thermometers have registered an average temperature of -42°C and we have been operating in whiteout conditions since we left Ellesmere, but I am optimistic that the tides will soon turn. We are nearing the mid-point in March and this cannot persist much longer. The team is tired already, but they are looking forward to the mission.

Today is our first clear day, and by extension, the first time I have been able to uplink to send you a report. We are doing some preliminary recon today and will follow up with a field excursion over the next few days. The meteorological centre is calling for a week of clear skies and we do not want to miss this opportunity.

Have faith in the mission. If they are out there, we will find them.

--END TRANSMISSION--

Story-A-Day #58: Bomb

BOMB

A low-flying jet screamed by overhead, ripping a wake through the clouds and tearing a new hole in the sound barrier.

I've been told that this city was in the top ten on the Soviet hit list during the Cold War. I guess it's plausible.

We've got the military base, a pretty big deal back I the day, even though most of it has been shut down since those days of paranoia. There's also "The Hole", which used to be the premium security post buried under the pre-Cambrian rock of the Canadian Shield. If you take them for their word, it is bow just a hole.

It is quite the thing to realize that this mostly sleepy little community used to be so significant - and such a threat. We were the only thing standing between the mighty U.S.S.R. and the tenacious American superpower.

That's a wild thing to think about. There are still shrines scattered around the city to that storied past as well. Military jets like the Voodoo and Bomark missiles up on big cement pedestals. All that despite the fact that our city might as well be a DMZ compared to the halcyon '80s.

If you were to ask around, most people here would probably tell you that the base had been closed for years. Not technically true, although job well done for being so under-the-radar.

We're not the only thing that has changed though. The U.S. Is now waging war on the army they built to combat the reds and the U.S.S.R. dissolved.

This entire military history flooded confoundedly through me as I watched the jet. In the distance a gleaming object separated and dropped from the jet. A moment later, the ground beneath me leapt upward and my knees buckled. In the distance, a bright fireball mushroomed up from the horizon and all I could think was how weird it looked.

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North Bay: An Industry Town?

There has been a great kerfuffle in North Bay of late, one that centres around the idea that this is an "ideal filming destination". While it is true that this past year has seen an unprecedented amount of productions filming in and around our fair city, I am not sure that everyone is seeing the big picture. North Bay has been used as a small town location in the Kids in The Hall: Death Comes to Town, Oliver Sherman (with the awesome Garret Dillahunt), and in some minds Running Mates (with Henry Winkler, although shot mostly in Burk's Falls), and a northern Production Company and Talent Agency did spill out of Dark Rising 2: Summer Strikes Back, and the accompanying miniseries that was shot in town (primarily on sets built in a warehouse). It is great to see our community embracing this new potential, but there are people worrying that dollar sign pupils are obscuring the vision of this new directive. It is fun and exciting to see famous people walking the streets of North Bay and relishing all we have to offer, but it is not necessarily a guarantee of a bright and prosperous new film industry future.

Death (and the Kids In The Hall) come to town = Fun! Exciting!

Film making is definitely a big-money industry, but it is also one filled with passion and vision. North Bay needs to maintain a clear line of sight and not get too far ahead of itself. Jim Calarco, who has always maintained a passion for the industry even when the glory and riches were not guaranteed, and his niece Brigitte Kingsley who brought the Dark Rising 2 production to town, realize the potential that our community holds and the need to build up the industry essentially from the ground up. That is the kind of vision that North Bay needs. It is great that we have experienced success over the past year, but the film industry is a fickle mistress.

I know this not through experience, but from general knowledge. The beauty of no-budget film making is that there are no stakes and nobody to answer to really but ourselves. For our team, the process is about passion and artistic gratification more than anything. The best reward isn't awards, or even nominations; it is the satisfaction that comes from seeing a few ideas on a page turn into a solid finished product after so much hard work.

I want to see North Bay succeed with its film aspirations. I want a thriving community to grow. When we launched About The Girl out into the world, most of the feedback we received was about the dynamic presentation and great locations. I wrote that script based around those specific locations with a full appreciation of what each location offered. North Bay has those locations, and so many more to offer, but we need to maintain realistic expectations.For the industry, the tax incentives are great, but when the expenses involved in importing qualified personnel outweigh the financial benefits of filming in the north, this perceived money train will find a new station.

About The Girl was never destined for Cannes, but one of our future projects might be. It will just take a bit of time before we have refined our process to that point. I hope that our passionate and committed film community, as well as our civic leaders and champions, can maintain a similar outlook.

Let's make it work!

ADDENDUM: There have been other films produced in North Bay and surrounding area including Captain of the Clouds, That Beautiful Somewhere, Grey Owl and more - but this really has been a good year hasn't?