I have roused myself to write about two remarkable conversations.
Service to TheOneRing.net has opened a lot of conversational doors to me and in the last few weeks it has done so again. My first conversation was with a plucky, talented, fun woman named Kim Graham who comes from the western region of the U.S.
She invented a rather cool pair of leg extensions, the coolness of which is difficult to easily explain. They are reverse leg stilts that mimic the walking patterns of dogs or goats or mythical creatures like lizards or gorgons or satyrs. She made them on her own for her costuming enthusiast friends around Seattle.
She is also a remarkable sculptor and that talent and her strong portfolio landed her a job sculpting for "The Hobbit" films in New Zealand. By coincidence she developed these stilts that could be worn easily by virtually anybody. Previously such items for Hollywood stunt work had to be personalized to each person at great expense.She made them usable and available to everybody, giving low-budget films and serious costumers a way to do the previously inconceivable. Her enthusiasm and spirit nearly sold a pair to me although I have no use for them. However, it even made me want to consider costuming because they really are just that cool. Weta sells them on its website and you can watch a video about them while you visit the site that sells them.
But what makes Kim so cool isn't making these extensions and it isn't that she is working on "The Hobbit," (okay well, it is actually but there is more) but that she has this incredible "can do" attitude and a self-belief and willingness to work that empowers her to follow her own dreams. It is admirable and inspiring. I will write about her for TheOneRing but it isn't likely I will be that transparent about my own personal feelings from our interview.
The photo of her is with a Norwegian troll created in her living room very much in the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien's Ent. Most people will think this is pretty cool but she thinks it and then builds it with the help of friends. Anyway, she is a remarkable woman and while we talked for 30 minutes about her work and her Weta Legs and her good fortune to be in New Zealand, I was elevated.
My second conversation was with a man I had met one time previously on a press junket for King Kong in New York City. He was a joy to listen to at a small press gathering of a dozen reporters and when he learned I was from KongIsKing.net he expressed a desire to speak further but we couldn't put our busy schedules together in that short weekend.
He also did the DVD work for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy extended editions which are really the gold standard for such things in Hollywood and for far more than those who are devotees of those movies. He has his own production studio and specializes in the business of telling the stories of movies.
Our entire conversation was not an interview for print or new media but for him sharing with and educating me so that at some future date I might be more intelligent should such an interview ever take place. It was shocking, delightful and informative. It also left me dumbfounded at times and shocked in both good and bad ways. I feel fortunate to have such opportunities and hope for many more.
