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On Saturday August 21st there will a unique day at the Shambhala Centre titled: "AWAKE. NOW." This will consist of a day of mindful practice being filmed to produce a short film reflecting a typical practice of Shambhala sitting meditation. "AWAKE. NOW." is the working title of the film and will be directed by Peter O’Rourke, filmed by Lynn Pfeffer and sound by Krzysztof Szychowski. Following editing, the filmmakers hope to enter this informational "work of art" in various film festivals and other venues. This will be an all-day event starting at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m. Participants will need to commit to the entire day since the same people are needed in each of the scenes. A light lunch will be served. You should find this an interesting exercise, hopefully gaining some insights into how a film is made and what it’s like to be involved in one. As volunteer participants, in addition to being "practicing actors", you can also try your hand assisting the film crew if you wish (setting lights between takes, holding microphones and doing sound checks). While we will be sitting from time to time throughout the day but primarily practicing “mindful filmmaking” You will be filmed as you enter the centre, line up for sitting, enter the shrine room, take your places at a cushion and prepare as you ordinarily would to practice. We will film this from various angles and points of view so you will likely enter, line up and then sit more than once … or twice. The umdze will also be filmed as he or she enters, bows, lights the shrine candles and takes a position on the cushion … possibly more than once .. or twice. As a creative and cinematic addition, we will sound record (the same day or later) the thoughts that participants might have as they enter the centre, line up and are sitting on the cushion. These will be edited in during post production as "voice overs" representing people’s thoughts. As you can imagine, it will likely be an eclectic array of thoughts--from the absurd to profound--that will crescendo just below a chaotic level and then rapidly dwindle to silence at the first gong, at which time the film will end fading out to white. To assist us in the "voice over" narrative, please e-mail me in advance if possible your ideas for "thoughts", be they humorous or serious, in either English or French. There is no fee to participate.
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