As time was going by and Ekz was getting more and more difficult to get a hold of, or even find, what turned out to be a surprise call to his apartment to surprise him ended up being more of a surprise for the WOtS team and his neighbour. I really think she’s becoming fond of the camera, and hopefully will sign the release forms sooner or later. Donal Dineen of Today fm had been onto us to do an interview with Ekz and was a fan of his stuff, and although he didn’t say it I’m sure he was a big fan of the show too, so it was really time to get Ekz back on tracking.
After apoligizing to his neighbour for the interruption and assuring her Ekz had nothing to do with the disappearance of her pink robe, I decided it was time to ring Ekz’s family. From weeks of observation I’ve come to learn that he is supposed to ring home every Thursday after tea no matter what. After the initial panic of thinking he’d dropped off the face of the (hollow) earth, we found out that Ekz had absconded to the county…Schull, west county Cork, to be precise.
Time was ticking away and the impending interview and program deadlines meant that we were really going to have to get a move on and find Ekz. Upon arrival the panic kicked in and I instructed the team to hit the streets of Schull to find Ekz, and to film everything we could think of in case we had to make a 7 minute episode of gushers of the team and our search. We came upon some amazing characters, each worthy of a Chutney documentary in their own right, a few seemed to be aware of Ekz’s presence and eventually his exact location.
When we finally tracked him down out in cheesemaker Bill Hogan’s place, I found Ekz in a far more contemplative mood. Some of the scenescape was amazing, but just not what I was looking for. However we decided to let Ekz show us about and let us in on what exactly he had been up to. This way we would really be able to get an insight to the depths of this man, and my own filmic struggle before returning to our real world.
Our day was to consist of following Ekz in his daily routine of running in the hillsides, looking after the farm and it’s cheese, and relaxing and reflecting on his experiences, r&r if you will. There was a lot of time spent with the cows, and Ekz seemed to have some sort of weird cerebral connection with our bovine brethern. This was no time for a holiday, and we really needed to get the show on the road. Plus I get the feeling that Bill was trying to encourage Ekz to stay, mainly because I don’t think he was the biggest fan of us.
Money was running thin on the ground and there is only so many meals you can feed to a crew as toasted sandwiches. Although Myles had shown us a great trick involving an egg, black pud, the traditional toastie ingredients, and a toasted sandwich-maker. Even with this though there was no way I was going to shell out anymore cash for accommodation down in west Cork. Today was the day to get Ekz back to his city roots.
We confronted Ekz in his caravan, dangling the carrot of imminent success in the form of a big interview with Donal on the radio the following night to promote his music and reignite our documentary. Frustration was coupled with fury when Ekz very off-handedly refused our proposal, and his almost meditative state nearly blew me into a blind rage. He told us he would be having a pint later in Hackett’s if we wished to join him for some goodbye drinks.
The intern had shown some amazing initiative, and had obviously learned a lot from his master, so that when myself and Myles went up to the pub for a few scoops to figure out the next step, Ian held tight with the camera. Luckily we bumped into a girl Claire who we had met the day before, and said she’d be willing to do us a favour to help us out of our current predicament. With a fairly loose plan in action, and funds running dry, we decided to continue drinking down by the water not holding out much hope for the return of our subject and possible total media embarrassment.
Eventually Ian must have gone back to the pub so he could warn us on any developments with Ekz and the ‘Gypsy’ woman. It turns out she did her job to a tee, and with a few probing predictions managed to help Ekz see the light and decide to return to the team and the bright city lights. Luckily my training had proven invaluable and we managed to catch it all on digital cellulode.
There was a real vibrancy in the reunion which I was hoping for, and some great shots of us running back to the pub, compadres again in a dash to make ‘last call’ and get back for the interview the following night. Celebrations ensued and the last of the day’s budget was happily handed over to Claire. The energy was electric the next day as we all drove back to Dublin together, and Ekz slept in the back like a baby the whole way home.
Ekz was still in a state of complete calm, despite the fact he was going on air live that evening to such a large audience, as well as the fact that he had already drank half the slab of Tanora cans we had bought him to bring back up to Dublin. Donal was a consummate professional and I’m sure wasn’t even fazed by the presence of our cameras for what turned out to be an amazing interview.
Everything was now falling back into place, Ekz has an even more vivacious attitude towards the projection of his career and the future of the documentary itself, and it was all systems go. He was off to really put himself out there and was even talking about forming a band. We went back to get crafting and editing before the final deadline of the submission of episode 4!
This was the first time I had got a chance to really inspect and analyze Ian’s sneaky handi-cam work. It was exactly what I would have wanted from myself, so I guess it was a job well done..my teaching of him the ropes. Judging from conversations I’ve had with Ekz to date I’m still not sure whether he gets the premise of the competition but I was beginning to suspect he hadn’t been watching it at all so far. He kept asking when it was going to be on telly and waiting to see it in HB. Therefore I took a another one of my patented calculated risks and included some of the more secretive shots in the final edit, I am sure he won’t mind in the greater scheme of things when all is said and done. So all’s well that ends well I suppose, and it’s onward and upward from here, I hope.
Alan Kavnagh
