why did I shoot that tiger?

Its been a burst of productivity.

In the last few days I got all my ducks in a line, as they say; booked a flight ticket for Japan, read up on the trans-siberian journey, cleaned my room (hmm, wasn't quite the herculean task I thought it was), sold / gave away some shit, and (most importantly), I edited down all the footage that I have lying about.

I don't know why I didn't jump on the editing sooner, its really very satisfying; compare this to taking footage, which is a lot of hard work -- days of shooting taking 5-6 hours with a team, actors, lights, camera work, bickering, tired looks, cleaning up the set (because its someone else apt) -- editing is a few hours of zen when is all comes together. You start with a story as screen play, which is then deconstruction into a sequence of scenes / shots. At the level of actually making each shot, with all the minutia involved in capturing good footage (which can be a zen all itself), its hard to keep the story in mind. But in editing, the story is reconstructed, but now as film. I compare the final footage to what I saw as I was writing the screen play, and its not too off. A small, but distinct, victory.

The lesson is, a well written shot list gives you the peace of mind during the shooting that it will all come together in the end. maybe.