Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

Today was a very important day. There were two very significant events of equal importance to me. The first I will mention is the season premiere of LOST. Heavens I do love, love, love that show. It is simply beautiful. The cinematography is gorgeous. The set design, costuming and make-up are fabulous. I adore the acting … and there are so many well-developed characters, it’s a pleasure to pay attention. Tonight’s episode was excellent because of the Hurley flash-forwards. There were a lot of wonderful moments.

The other important event, Pamela Jo turned fifty today. I, of course, am very happy she was born so she could be around to be helping me with the Zambian films today. From the beginning, she has proven to be invaluable. On her birthday, she spent much of the day editing a difficult scene. Ultimately, she was able to soften Chiku’s performance and create a bit more tenderness in a very critical scene. It’s not done yet but it keeps getting better. A few more hours and she’ll have it buttoned down. I think everyone thinks I’m being a jerk to expect her to work all day but I don’t think most people really understand … she’s really, really happy when she’s working on anything related to film (editing, pre-production, day-of-days, writing … doesn’t matter, as long as she can keep on creating). She specifically requested that we NOT do anything for her birthday that took her away from the films.

In the early afternoon, the family spirited her away for lunch. I didn’t think she’d make it back after lunch (correct) and knew she was planning to stay home and watch LOST in the evening. Jeniece and I got a surprise invite to come to the house for LOST party she’d requested. Given that we all love filmmaking, I was very much looking forward to watching the show together and talking about the cinematography, the acting, the story … you know, the usual things. But, this was a most unusual LOST party. There was no LOST.

Tonight, I discovered that I am quite odd. You see, I actually thought we’d be watching LOST at the LOST Party. Jeniece and I arrived about seven minutes before the start of the show. We planted ourselves in front of the television and didn’t move for two hours. (To be honest, my right check went to sleep.) Guests came and went. No one came downstairs to watch the show. The rest of the party goers stayed upstairs. The LOST Birthday Party went on upstairs … without us … because we were downstairs watching LOST. Jeniece and I were trying to decide if we should have been more polite and gone upstairs but … we ultimately found that we wanted to see LOST more than almost anything. I decided it was more important that we watch it carefully so we could tell the Birthday Girl what she missed. We watched it for her. That’s it, we HAD to do it.