Midway

MERCI, THANK YOU, GRACIAS, OBRIGADO

Jan Vozenilek — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:16:36 +0000

Dear friends and supporters of MIDWAY,

I’m just back from a day of filming on Midway Atoll– wind whipping off the water at Midway’s South Beach, and hundreds of young albatrosses taking off out to sea for the first time. We lined up our telephoto lens on a popular bird runway (a gap between the bushes that lets the fledglings get a running start) and got a smorgasbord of gorgeous shots in ultra-slow-motion: wings pumping, eyes focused like ninjas, sand flying off their sprinting feet, wide images with the breaking surf in the background, closeups of faces and feathers in the wind, long follow shots of birds flying way out to sea, plus a few hilarious wipeouts and face-plants in the sand. We are going to be able to cut together an incredible fledging sequence, as these are the albatrosses who are are making it, surviving and thriving despite the scourge of plastic that pollutes their stomachs and our world.

And here’s the coolest part of all: it was YOU who made it possible for us to be here to film this magnificent sight. Wow! What a privilege! And we’re bringing it back to share with the whole world. Thank you all so incredibly much; you will not be disappointed!

With hugs and love from Midway Island,

~cj

Plastic Beach / Kickstarter Call to Action

Manuel Maqueda — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:31:25 +0000

Hello everyone and thank you so much for your support.

We wanted to share with you this disturbing video captured by our team on Midway. A beach “cleanup” quickly reveals both the real magnitude of the plastic pollution problem and the shocking fact that we humans are also eating plastic junk, not only figuratively, but quite literally as well.

**CALL TO ACTION** Over 1,200 donors have pledged close to $80,000 to help fund our film. Thank you so much!!

With only 5 days to go (!!) it is critical to enlist more donors as soon as possible! Please visit our Kikstarter and share the link with your networks(on facebook, by email, etc)

http://kck.st/LGdTxs

We really need a final push to reach our goal! Your help is essential to us. Thank you so much!!

The Midway Team

KICKSTARTER update!

Jan Vozenilek — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:55:53 +0000

Dear friends,

We are absolutely thrilled that we just hit our 20% mark on our Kickstarter campaign – THANK YOU!!! – Every dollar counts, please spread the word & help us keep the momentum going so we may make our goal!

kickstarter.com/projects/midwayfilm/join-the-midway-film-project

We’ve also added a couple of other ways you can contribute… via Paypal

And via check to the following address:

Midway Film
c/o Possibility Entertainment LLC
P.O. Box 1424 – NY, NY 10276

We are also extremely grateful by the traffic that the trailer is getting. A week ago today, was one of the highest views we’ve had in a single day. 108,000 people watched it on that Monday. And in total, 3.8 million people have tuned in. It’s wonderful to see how this story is resonating with people from all over the world.

http://vimeo.com/25563376

Our team is in the process of getting ready for the next Midway expedition. We will be on the island from June 28th to July 5th. This is the time of the year when the Albatrosses fledge the island… and as we know and experienced in the past, many of them don’t make it.

We will once again be bringing a camera that has the ability to capture stunning ultra slow motion, as can be seen in some of the new footage in our trailer.

www.MidwayFilm.com

Please stay tuned and keep sharing the trailer and the Kickstarter link so that we can get this film made!! Thank you for joining us on this journey.

With love and gratitude,

The Midway film team.

kickstarter.com/projects/midwayfilm/join-the-midway-film-project

KICKSTARTER Launched! Please join the Midway Film project.

Jan Vozenilek — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:51:54 +0000

Dear friends of the Midway Film Project,

Today our team is excited to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Midway film. Please join our process— this is your chance to empower us to deliver our lyrical and urgent message about the health of our world, to a global audience.

Our goal is to fully own the film when it is released, debt-free and without any investors influencing our decisions with a profit motive. That way, we will be in a position to gift our film to the world by putting it up on the internet for free! Right now our trailer is being watched by more than 100,000 people per day, and we think we can reach a billion people with the film itself. The next step is up to you!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midwayfilm/join-the-midway-film-project

Please pass this along far and wide, and contribute something if you can, however small. Every donation helps, and there are cool rewards including signed original CJ photos and other goodies. Many thanks to all, and we can’t wait to share our film with you in 2013!

~with love from chris jordan and the Midway film team.

MIDWAY – April 2012 – Miguel update

Jan Vozenilek — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:50:54 +0000

Dear friends,

Our team just returned from another exhausting and richly rewarding trip to Midway. This time we brought with us the new RED Epic camera, and our albatross friends brought us stunning visual gifts as we recorded their takeoff runs, water-skimming glides, soarings, and feedings, all in gorgeous ultra slow motion.

One of our first stops on the island was to check up on our little friend Miguel who we witnessed hatch back in February. When we left the island last time, Miguel was looking weak and was having trouble standing up to receive his feedings, so our hopes for the little guy were not high.

Here is an update on what we found when we arrived at his nest:

MIDWAY V – Junk food V

Jan Vozenilek — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 06:51:58 +0000

Chris Jordan and the team work to remove a length of fishing line from an adult Albatross and her chick on Midway Island. Later it was discovered that it looked more like dental floss.

Video: Jan Vozenilek and Joe Schweers

Sound: Jim Hurst
http://www.MidwayFilm.com
BLOG: http://www.MidwayJourney.com

MIDWAY V – Chicks everywhere

Jan Vozenilek — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:46:30 +0000

Here is another short video with Chris Jordan, showing the astonishing abundance of bird life on Midway Island.

http://www.MidwayFilm.com
BLOG: http://www.MidwayJourney.com

Video by Jan Vozenilek

Music by: Graham Ord featuring Tim Stewart
Chief – from the album Waiting
http:///www.GrahamOrd.com

MIDWAY V – Miguel update 3

Jan Vozenilek — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:15:11 +0000

An update from Midway Island about our little baby Albatross friend Miguel.

http://www.MidwayFilm.com

BLOG: http://www.MidwayJourney.com

MIDWAY V – Miguel update 2

Jan Vozenilek — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:28:06 +0000

An update from Midway Island about our little baby Albatross friend Miguel.

http://www.MidwayFilm.com
BLOG: http://www.MidwayJourney.com

MIDWAY V – Enter the Heroes!

Jan Vozenilek — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:57:07 +0000

Having sat on their nests for weeks without a meal, the exhausted Albatross parents of the newly-hatched chicks head out to sea in search of food for themselves and their babies.

–

Footage from the upcoming feature film MIDWAY – currently in production on Midway Island, in the North Pacific.

Director: Chris Jordan
Camera: Joe Schweers and Jan Vozenilek
Sound: Jim Hurst
Editing: Jan Vozenilek

Music: Randy Newman Enter the Heroes from the motion picture soundtrack Monsters Inc.

www.MidwayFilm.com
BLOG: www.MidwayJourney.com

MIDWAY V – Meet our little friend Miguel

Jan Vozenilek — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:18:36 +0000

Check out the adorable little chick who hatched right outside the door of our house today. Things looked tenuous for a bit, but he rallied and late this afternoon received his first feeding from his patient papa.

Image by Jan Vozenilek

MIDWAY V – Albatross crashes into sea wall on Midway Island

Jan Vozenilek — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:37:31 +0000

As our team was filming near the sea wall, we witnessed an Albatross fly past us really fast and crash into the wall behind us. He fell to the ground and wasn’t moving. We quickly ran over to try to help out.

Midway V – Poem: On witnessing an albatross feeding

Victoria Sloan Jordan — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:37:46 +0000

On witnessing an albatross feeding

To witness a young albatross open wide
its translucent, newborn throat,
open the soft, pink shell to its mother,
to the contents of the sea she carried
in her body for thousands of miles,
for over twenty million years – to watch,
today, the chick wholly embrace
the amber-colored squid oil
and cloaked shards of plastic,
to see it all slip down in an act
of ancient swallowing – is to witness
eons of trust absorbed into nature’s gut.
And for our own trusting throats
defended by lips, teeth and taste buds,
we evolved to sweeten what poisons us.

MIDWAY V – Live stream update

Jan Vozenilek — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:46:57 +0000

We did some tests yesterday and the internet is unfortunately too slow here to make the live stream happen.

Thanks for tuning into our YouTube video updates and Facebook and following along…

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/journeytomidway

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Midway-Journey

MIDWAY V – Bike ride around Midway Island

Jan Vozenilek — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:25 +0000

Jan Vozenilek takes you on a bike ride around Midway Island. Here you will get to see just how many Albatrosses nest on this little island.

To view the exact bicycle route from this video, you can download the Google Earth KML file here: BIKE RIDE – GOOGLE EARTH

Music by Graham Ord featuring Tim Stewart
Chief from the album Waiting

www.GrahamOrd.com

MIDWAY V – Junk food IV – Plastic inside a freshly hatched Albatross chick

Jan Vozenilek — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:52:53 +0000

Brace your self for an awful discovery : four shards of plastic inside a baby Albatross who we found dead on it’s nest.

Midway V – The first feedings

Victoria Sloan Jordan — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:41:54 +0000

Chris holds plastic pieces removed from a days-old albatross chick.

Although it is only February, Spring has arrived for the albatross on Midway. It’s birthing season and hundreds of thousands of chicks are hatching over the next two weeks on every available square meter of island. It’s an ecstatic time and we’ve spent our first few days photographing and filming the cuteness, buoyed by the sheer, bubbling abundance of chicks breathing into the world for the first time. And among all the nests rustling with new life, the juvenile albatross dance their courtship routines, clapping, clattering, popping, cracking and whistling in a ’round the clock celebration complete with the sounds of fireworks.

We are caught up in all this lushness and fluff. It is almost as if the plastic horror has vanished. Barely a bottle cap or toothbrush can be spotted among all the green growth. In fact, plastic carried here in the bellies of albatross in years past (5 tons per year by Fish & Wildlife estimations) still remains but has gone underground. Grass and weeds have grown up, sand and soil have shifted, covering much of the evidence. But today: a dead chick curled in its nest, a few days old, at most. Inside its stomach we found four shards of plastic large enough to block tiny organs. Large enough that on a human scale it would be equal to eating a few credit cards for dinner. We were shocked to discover that plastic made up one of the first meals for this chick, and saddened to realize what this means for the other chicks just coming into the world on Midway.

MIDWAY V – Return to the nest

Jan Vozenilek — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:06:50 +0000

Chris lifts an albatross chick back into it’s nest

MIDWAY V – Around our house

Jan Vozenilek — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:55:12 +0000

Chris takes us for a walk, outside our house on Midway Island

MIDWAY V – New photos

Jan Vozenilek — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:47:45 +0000

We’ve been taking lots of behind the scenes photos, but with the limited time we have and the very slow internet, uploading them to the blog is taking far too much time. We’ve been uploading them all to our Facebook page under Midway Journey.

Here are the direct links to the photos – these should be accessible even if you are not on Facebook.

Day 1 – Jan
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150521132412918.370215.117981432917&type=3&l=d20fafeed4

Day 1 – Victoria

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150522607332918.370402.117981432917&type=3&l=6c4585b4a1

Day 2 – Jan

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150523317642918.370498.117981432917&type=3&l=1fa93826eb

Day 3 – Jan

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150524999732918.370755.117981432917&type=3&l=181a1b9734