Surveyor - short film

There are a few Executive Producers and many contributors from BeerLeg listed in the credits.

DDSM:beer:B-)

That is real neat.

Wow! Just wow!

I'm not sure what I just watched. Can anybody explain it to me?

Dan Patterson, post: 358343, member: 1179 wrote: Stumbled across this on YouTube. Not sure I'd like it if I wasn't a surveyor, but I thought it was kinda neat.

[MEDIA=youtube]K7jSkZHw65A[/MEDIA]

If I'd written a check to underwrite that one, I'd be annoyed that they couldn't figure out how to attach a solar compass to a tripod. With some voiceover work, though, that could be turned into "Lowballer" and be fairly entertaining.

Um, that was really well done, except, well, what was the point? I was very impressed until the last few minutes which seemed disjointed. Not to disparage the good folks who made that, but the ending needs more of an explicit explanation as to what is happening and why.

Patrick Yglesias, post: 358378, member: 337 wrote: Um, that was really well done, except, well, what was the point? I was very impressed until the last few minutes which seemed disjointed. Not to disparage the good folks who made that, but the ending needs more of an explicit explanation as to what is happening and why.

I took a film class back in highschool. I think for something that's only 25 minutes long you have to just appreciate the art and not worry so much about the "story". It's more about the way it's filmed and how they show everything.

However, I do agree with you in that the story was kind of weird and vague.

[sarcasm]I was issued that black dress coat at Ft Sill in January 1983, I wondered what the history was behind it.... [/sarcasm] :snarky:

[sarcasm]I think the dis-jointed part was contributed by Land Surveyors United....[/sarcasm]:snarky: :snarky: :snarky:

John1Minor2, post: 358374, member: 404 wrote: I'm not sure what I just watched. Can anybody explain it to me?

Kinda like this....

[MEDIA=youtube]KMEViYvojtY[/MEDIA]

Yes I have seen this before and remember the input on the forum here when the film maker posted. He received some harsh words here fr
A poster or two.

I guess the Native Americans were the seminal angry land owners back
then.

John1Minor2, post: 358374, member: 404 wrote: I'm not sure what I just watched. Can anybody explain it to me?

Art has the elusive quality of meaning different things to different people. Whereas some people feel understanding what the artist was trying to say is important; some artists revel in the fact that their art can be viewed, absorbed and felt any number of ways. I believe a lot of different things can be taken from watching the film.

I view the story as a statement of the insignificance and futility of one lone man walking and marking his "meridian". And his obsession with that task; to the point he turns his back on not only friends and family, but mankind itself, to complete his meridional journey. Taking with him only memories. Possibly the writer was implying memories are all we really are left with in this world of agonizing and constant struggle; and none of us are getting out of here alive.

Although apparently an honest man with law abiding tendencies, he did take another's life in the primordial act of surviving. Possibly some religious overtones manifest themselves in his eventual loss of life as retribution for his past act of murder. Even the marauding war-painted warrior suffered a mortal wound in the perpetual struggle of man vs. man. And this surveyor's struggles and long arduous task of marking the meridian were reduced to nothing but a shock of scalp for someone's lodge pole.

I did come away from the viewing thinking the writer was noting the importance of early American cadastral surveying might not have been understood by others at the time. This importance could only be appreciated by the surveyors themselves and generations to follow.

On a side note here..

I have a fifteen or so year old story I have rewritten several times about surveying in the 1870s. Watching the film gave me some urgency to drag back out this story and attempt to finish it. This isn't the first time this has happened....once I had to wait a long time because the original was in WordPerfect and I no longer had any software with which to open the file.

When (or if..) I get the story completed I would like to share it with everyone here. Maybe like a chapter an evening or something like that. I have amassed a good amount of stories that have either failed any attempt at commercialization, or probably aren't worth the effort. While stories centered around surveying might seem worthy to our ilk; I believe the general population bores easily with them...unless you throw in a few topless schoolmarms or a coach full of dynamite bearing down on the fort...

I promise it is not near as weird as the short film. :tv:

paden cash, post: 358504, member: 20 wrote: On a side note here..

I have a fifteen or so year old story I have rewritten several times about surveying in the 1870s. Watching the film gave me some urgency to drag back out this story and attempt to finish it. This isn't the first time this has happened....once I had to wait a long time because the original was in WordPerfect and I no longer had any software with which to open the file.

When (or if..) I get the story completed I would like to share it with everyone here. Maybe like a chapter an evening or something like that. I have amassed a good amount of stories that have either failed any attempt at commercialization, or probably aren't worth the effort. While stories centered around surveying might seem worthy to our ilk; I believe the general population bores easily with them...unless you throw in a few topless schoolmarms or a coach full of dynamite bearing down on the fort...

I promise it is not near as weird as the short film. :tv:

Do It !

Tom Adams, post: 358506, member: 7285 wrote: Do It !

Every time I start reading it again I start editing.....and tweaking. Like some sort of perpetual motion generator I never seem to get to the end....but I will try.

Does it read anything like the old Dave K. O'Reilly serials?

paden cash, post: 358504, member: 20 wrote: . While stories centered around surveying might seem worthy to our ilk; I believe the general population bores easily with them...unless you throw in a few topless schoolmarms or a coach full of dynamite bearing down on the fort...

You can always do a rewrite where the surveyor is a woman or another popular twist that she is in drag as a man.

paden cash, post: 358508, member: 20 wrote: Every time I start reading it again I start editing.....and tweaking. Like some sort of perpetual motion generator I never seem to get to the end....but I will try.

Sounds like making a Survey Plat to me. If it weren't for deadlines, I would have a hundred plats "in progress". 😉 Would enjoy seeing something from someone with your writing skills.

Tom Adams, post: 358523, member: 7285 wrote: Sounds like making a Survey Plat to me. If it weren't for deadlines, I would have a hundred plats "in progress". 😉

I've often said, "I never really finish a survey plat...I just run out of money."