Posted on June 18, 2009 - by Janice

LOST TV and a Solo Tale to tell.

We’re excited to have Canadian Film Girl as a guest blogger. Have a read!

Growing up in Alberta, Shawna’s wanderlust was nurtured at an early age. After a brief stint pursuing acting she rounded up a crew and shot her first short film. Self taught, Shawna soon wrote 2 large scale, self-funded projects. She landed on location in Vancouver for her 1st Indie Feature Film but ended up lost with desert racers in the USA, Mexico, Europe and Northern Africa for her 1st Documentary Series. She soon became labeled as ‘Canadian Film Girl’ (CFG) by her peers and followers around the world. The name stuck and the adventure continues…

Nomadic in nature, guided by an innate and overwhelming curiosity of all things, CFG is tagged for tracking purposes. Currently based in Gastown, Vancouver, Canada, join in her adventures on Facebook and Twitter @CFilmGirl, where the line between indie filmmaking, research, reporting and real life can’t be drawn.

I feel like a covert operative most days. In reality, I am just a film girl who can’t stop getting on a plane.

There is no one else who is willing or able to keep up with my adventures other than by joining me via Twitter and FaceBook. I am a solo filmmaker / traveler (which means I am the producer, director, writer, camera operator, sherpa, self-guide, bad-translator, travel-advisor) with a break-the-budget love of late night wine, local yums and cool-unique sleeps.

The line has long been blurred between a story I was chasing and the story I am now shaping so I can keep on ‘chasing’ it.

Today I’m in the Calgary airport, cradling my MacBook Pro in Air Canada Exec class (Aeroplan points) on a direct flight to San Diego, USA. I check out my latest tweets on my iPhone (ok – I have a few/many sanity/insanity tools/tricks to travel).

I always feel like I don’t have enough time to ‘tweet’ let alone eat but sharing these updates and nuggets of travel and film makes me feel a bit less guilty about this pseudo lifestyle and leaving my loved ones behind… most of the time. There is still the guilty pleasure of disappearing – going ‘off grid’ and THAT is the freedom of going solo.

About going solo
Going solo is like going to a party alone (one note here… I am shy & single). It gives you the time to experience everything around you in a completely different way. Much like a writer or a director, you become immersed in a world and have a heightened, focused experience that we yearn for in many aspects of our lives but are rarely able to achieve.

Some find it via adrenalin, drugs or even rock and roll – for me, it’s travel and I am a bit different when I step out of my life and into a solo experience without any of regular daily life’s gauges, labels or distractions. But [writing this for Solo Traveler] I am preaching to the converted and hope to convert a few of my shy and curious peeping toms that I know have been watching with a longing curiosity.

Back in the airport
It’s me and Jack Bender, mastermind behind ‘Lost’, arm in arm in the Calgary Airport. A happen-chance meeting while in line at USA customs that began with a simple comment about a photo mural hanging overhead directed at no one in particular… “Mount Rushmore – I don’t care to go”. I bit the bait, answering: “I think I was there when I was young.” A Kiwi solo traveler piped up “who’s the guy with the mustache?” We all shared a short trivia moment, killing time.

Jack was there for the Banff Festival, which I couldn’t afford to attend. Funny that I should meet him because he is the only person I would have wanted to meet at the festival if I could have gone. Funny, ‘cause I don’t even watch Lost. Funny ‘cause he was standing right there, solo and we naturally got into conversation. This is what we call in the media industry a ‘slow pitch’. Outside the industry, I call this a ‘slow experience’. Others call it FATE and fate doesn’t happen if you are not open and AVAILABLE (like dating) to new experiences.

Maybe you’ve heard of ‘slow food’ dining where, instead of the typical fast-food choke-it-chow-it-down-get-the-F-out-of-here race, a meal could last 4 hours or longer into the night and is typically shared with a larger group, turning a meal into a shared experience.

Well, I collect ‘slow experiences’. I don’t expect something to happen at first point of contact, I don’t hit the typical tourist site or follow an itinerary. I shoot the same way – I don’t have a shot list, I don’t have a set cast of characters – I wake up, start moving and I let a story guide me.

The beauty of slow and solo.
When I’m solo, a voice seems to call out softly, demurely and playfully beckons me to follow. It’s not long until I am under its spell, like a new romantic interest. It grows into an intimate and at times even sensuous experience but it never fails to develop into a deeply honest and revealing journey – both for myself as a filmmaker and as a human being.

There is something uniquely beautiful to be surrounded by so many undiscovered locations, cultures, characters, behaviours and story-lines. Traveling and shooting solo, void of negotiations, justifications – only instinct and whims. Yes, there are times of danger, extreme risk and emotion but even though I am solo, I have learned to reach out wherever I am and ask for help and guidance to those who ‘happen’ to be at my side at that moment.

Places do not seem so foreign when you can be one on one, face to face with strangers. And it’s never failed – a friend always shows up just when needed most – I just don’t know they are a friend until they say ‘hello’.

It’s a shift from “who is at my side and needing someone there right from the beginning” to “I am beginning and I wonder who will grace my journey along the way”. With that shift and a little faith and patience on my part, the world around me opened my eyes and allowed me to keep my wits about me when surrounded by the strangest of languages and in the deepest recesses of the desert. I now truly don’t feel that traveling solo translates to traveling alone.

The script is written – it’s an adventure-comedy.
Through my journey, I also came to understand that the world bears a strong and mischievous sense of humour. I now take each victory and each fall in stride with a crooked grin of my own as if I’m secretly immersed in a game of practical jokes, witty tests and a never-ending treasure hunt with a storyteller much larger than myself.

Someone, something out there is scripting a grand adventure of which I am unable to uncast myself from. I faithfully listen to the whispered words on the wind and just keep on trekking towards the next bump or fork in the road. Taking it all in stride as I travel to gather a better understanding of my place in the world and fill an unquenchable curiosity of the world and it’s mysteries, romances, dramas, adventures, comedies and hopefully not too many more horror or war stories…

What better way to discover the next amazing story than to step out of the known and explore solo, your own amazing unknown, yet to be discovered life. You never know where you may end up and who you may friend along the way.

Happy Tales to you – until we meet…