KNOW // it’s (almost) here!

we can’t believe that we’re so close to the start of the KNOW tour! we’re just two days away and it feels like just yesterday it was September of last year when we started putting puzzle pieces together for this journey.

today i flew into Las Vegas, our first city on the tour. this Saturday we’ll be joined by supporters and attendees for the first of 37 intensive workshops. but in the meantime, the rest of the team is making their way in from San Francisco and we’re tying up some loose ends before our marathon begins!

one thing we’re giddy over is the fact that we got to see the KNOW books in person for the first time today! actually, i have yet to see them and i’m DYING over here… but the team sent me pictures and holy yowzamoles do they ever look sweet! but more than that, we’re really excited to share them with attendees of the tour. we talked about the book in a previous post and how it bloomed into a 380-page field guide (it was originally going to be a 70-page workbook). what’s great about it now is that while it certainly ties into the content of the workshop, and the two are meant to go together, the book itself is packed with practical information that will be valuable for a ton of people, even those who can’t make it to the tour.

once the rest of the team arrives in Vegas, we’re going to start unboxing all kinds of goodies that will be shared with everyone. our supporters have sent us mountains of gear, from lighting and audio equipment to camera support tools and accessories that make filmmaking more creative and fun. we’ll be talking about all of this gear, doing live demos, and best of all, if you’re coming to the tour you will have the opportunity to play with, test out, and evaluate everything that’s there. you’ll also be able to ask us questions about it all, and talk directly with the manufacturers too – they’ll be at every stop with us…

how’s all this gear getting around from city to city you ask? camels. we’re going to be in the desert after all, right? k, maybe not. so actually, we’re tugging it across North America via hitch. which brings me to the next big aspect of our adventure: the RV and its captains. or perhaps the RV itself should be named “The Captain”? we shot a wedding not too long ago that involved a Winnebago named The Colonel, so this seems fitting. let’s take a little detour from this post for a sec and get some thoughts from ya’ll on this… if your vote is in support of The Captain, please leave a comment saying so. otherwise, leave a comment with a different name suggestion based on what you know about us and the tour. deal? then we’ll make it official.

k. back to the topic at hand: The Captain, errr, the RV. the RV sleeps three to four people, has a roomy dining and kitchen area, and has faster internet than our studio! you better believe we’re going to be blogging, tweeting, facebook-ing, and doing all that it takes to keep everyone in the loop on our adventures over the next two months! we’ll be doing this with the help of Evan and Ben, who are captaining the RV, shooting BTS, helping set up and tear down in each city, and well, a ton of other things. they’re multi-talented and we couldn’t do this without them! the RV will be towing a trailer that will contain all the gear, luggage, and presentation equipment for each stop.

there are some cities Justin, Patrick, Ray and/or I will be flying to – like the trek from Seattle to Boston, but Evan and Ben will be making the drive with all our stuff in tow. part of me is glad i get to fly straight there and avoid the motion sickness, but part of me is jealous that they’ll get to see all that incredible scenery. but they’ll be creating awesome imagery along the way so they’ll make us feel like we were there all along, right guys?

you may remember that we did an educational bus tour called the Canon Cinema Caravan in 2010, where we traveled to 6 different cities throughout the month of July. it was a trip of a lifetime and we sure made some great memories. THIS tour is three times as dense, with an average of one city every two days! we’ve never done anything so intense before and we’re really excited to see how it all comes together. we’ve prepared ourselves for a lot of travel and a lot of hard work, but we’ve done so strategically to avoid burnout. it would be pretty tragic to plan something so exciting and be too tired to enjoy any of it! so we’ve got systems in place to ensure rest, laughter, challenge, exploration, inspiration, and a whole lot of fun. hopefully it’ll be contagious and everyone who joins us will catch it too!

all aboard!

-Amina