Transposition Films

We spent most of our time in Ladahk between the markets in downtown Leh and a few remote areas just south of Leh. It was absolutely beautiful up there and we were all so glad that we got to experience it. The terrain felt a lot like a cross between Death Valley and Mars; check out these shots from Ryan’s iPhone.

The drive from Manali to Delhi was… well, it was a 12-hour minivan-ride in a land where there are lines painted on the road — but they don’t really mean anything, they’re more like “guidelines”; using your horn is a way to let other drivers know you’re coming up on them and they’d better move out of your way; blinkers have many uses — but rarely to let others know that you’re turning; women ride sidesaddle as passengers on motorbikes — without helmets, in traditional Indian dress; delivery trucks are individually painted in circus-like colors and adorned with tassels, sparkly garland, and light-hearted verses; blind corners don’t equate to a no-passing zone. We all slept much — mostly because it was easier than keeping your eyes open and white-knuckling it every ten minutes or so.

The team was a little bit heavy-hearted leaving Manali — well perhaps Mia was happy to be headed back to Delhi, but for the rest of us, Manali felt like home with just the right amount of foreign land to explore; it was the perfect mix of Stanley Park, Banff, and Disney’s Adventure Land — a resort town minus the resort. We extended our time there as it became necessary to flesh out the story that was unfolding as we conducted our interviews. This change made it necessary to cancel our booked flights, but there were no spots to rebook and that’s where the drive came in. We tried to get some interviews done in the van, but we were all feeling pretty drowned by the Gravol, so Josh shot lots of B-roll instead.

We got into Delhi at 7pm, had dinner and a production meeting, repacked, got about five hours of sleep and hopped on a 1hr 6am flight to Leh. This place is glorious and so refreshing after the heat we’ve experienced so far. Today we are spending the whole day just resting and getting climatized. Tomorrow, the guys will start the day with the sunrise and then we’ll go about town. It’s a whirlwind trip; we head back to Delhi Thursday morning.

Being here is pretty significant to us since it was having Leh on our itinerary that held us up from coming in September. If you haven’t been able to follow our journey up till now, just go back and check out all the past blog posts by searching ‘Child of Mine.” Check out this shot that Ryan took as we were coming in to land; amazing.

We extended our stay in Manali by two days and the guys have been scrambling to get everything they wanted shot. Tomorrow at 5am, we head out for a 12-hour drive back to Delhi with Mia. Here a some iPhone shots I took while we roamed about downtown. We’re all heading back to the guesthouse for some rest.

How many film geeks does it take to format a GoPro?

We arrived in Manali three days ago, after a six-hour white-knuckled twisty mountain road trip from Chandigarh. We’ve been going non-stop since we got here, but at every spare moment, I notice each one of us stopping to take in a breath of this sweet mountain air and an eyeful of the natural beauty of our surroundings. A large portion of our story rests in these Himalayan foothills, as Mia spent most of her life here at the Dar-Ul-Fazl children’s home. Yesterday we spent all day with Mia and some of her friends who still live there; she gave us a tour of the areas she grew up in, she took us shopping in Old Manali, and we took a hike up the mountain to look down over the town the home is settled in. In this short time that we’ve been together, Mia has become very comfortable talking to us and opening up about her life; through this, we have been able to solidify some of the lingering questions we had surrounding the closure of this story. It has become necessary to once again change up our travel plans; shortening our trip to Leh, spending more time in Manali, redefining our time in Delhi — Nick has altogether stopped creating call sheets.

We are all so grateful to be here on behalf of Child of Mine, to fully understand their call to ministry, and to be able to walk with Mia through this story of her life. Heartfelt-thanks to each one of you who are praying for this project and to those who have provided financial support to help make this happen. You can imagine that all these changes to our itinerary are quickly stretching our budget; if any of you are feeling the call to Send, we would greatly appreciate your donation to this project. We also humbly ask for your continued prayer for the team, for Mia, and for two other characters who have developed in this story.