There is an abject bleakness in the life of the hero of the movie we are making. This is his bleak little house.

The bleakness is so intense that it leaves burn marks.

Our hard-working lead-actor takes a moment to enjoy a snack – the perfect antidote to bleakness.

You’d think Hanna would be immune to it by now, but Maxine has managed to confound her yet again.

Sam treks back from frolicking (yes, there was actual frolicking) in the waves.

Our hero, Jack, played by Nik, accosts a stranger, played by Jacob, on the street in Half Moon Bay.

It’s safer if you just plant your feet and let the sawdust pile up.

Nik demonstrates just how much he must suffer for his art.

Max has finally gotten a good night’s sleep so she and Hanna both get the joke.

Sam has been transformed into Emma, the hard-luck mother of Jack.

The second unit director (Theo) goes over the scene with his actor (Sam) and cameraman (Jacob).

Emma’s hair is particularly dramatic when aloft.

Theo and Sam review the take to decide whether they need to try another one.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the first unit is filming. Chad has agreed to play guitar-playing homeless guy (and comes complete with guitar-playing ability!). Nik is solidly in character.

Julie tries to help with some camera deployments from the paraglider, but the wind dies and she lands on the beach. The second unit comes to her rescue.

On the way back from the beach we try one last strategy – direct deployment of the camera over the edge.

There’s no doubt that the right soundtrack is essential for any movie. Fortunately there are many musicians in the house.

On location in Pacifica.

For almost half an hour, the sun shone down on Tinkering School – it was spectacular after eight days of solid overcast and fog.

Unaccustomed to the sunshine, a tinkerer stumbles around the kitchen in search of breakfast.

After four takes, Nik lands the fifth one perfectly. Cut and print. Let’s set up for the next one!

We’ve all had to learn not to look Nik in the eye while he’s acting – and then we wonder if that happens on big movie stages as well.

The new go-cart is the lightest (and certainly the loveliest) ever built at Tinkering School.

Theo takes the new cart a little ways up the hill to see how it handles the bumps and the turn at the end of the driveway.

When we planned the Masters class, one of the most frequently requested items was “a day to just lay around and do nothing.” At one point or another almost every tinkerer could be found snoozing somewhere.

In preparation for the “Build a Movie Studio” project that starts tomorrow, we set out to create a story that we can use to write a screenplay. To begin, we all draw random scenes that we think would be interesting to film (one to a sheet) and then lay them out to create various stories. Check out our awesome scene sketches.

Not content to just waste the day doing nothing, Hanna, Maxine, and Theo continue to work on the cart that they started yesterday.

Nik climbs on board to experience that new car smell and get a feel for the controls – which shouldn’t take long because it has no brakes.

The new cart carries a more refined version of the rope-and-pipe steering mechanism from two years ago. This one has the prickly part of velcro wrapped around the steering column to reduce rope slippage.

The open frame design has served to reduce the weight of the cart tremendously. It’s going to be fast, but will it hold together?

Forcibly recruited for a quick test of Theo’s underwater camera housing, the rubber ducky makes his inevitable daily appearance.

A textbook example of inquilinism – a hermit crab has made a home in the abandoned shell of a snail.

The balloon rubber-banded to the top of Theo’s box allows him to access the shutter control on his camera (it also gives Gever a squirt of adrenaline every time he submerges it).

We don’t have a story for this one, it’s just too nice to leave out of the blog.

Suckers, tentacles, crazy coloring – the whole nine yards.

We load up for the drive to the testing grounds for the albatross and the (still very ugly, but charming) glass bottom boat.

Isaacs Albatross takes flight, camera on board.

Hanna makes a few tweaks to Doctor Phil (the camera) and her robocam.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present some of the finest tinkerers it has been my privilege to work with (oh and some mighty fine collaborators too). Hanna, Maxine, Leo, Jacob, Isaac, Theo, Sam, and Nik, with Julie and Chad helping out.
We had to take the group shot in mid-session this year since some of our tinkerers are leaving early

Bridle adjustments? Attach points? Insufficient weight? It’s not clear what the problem is.

Nik has moments of intense concentration.

Sam and Gever want to see if they can create a "wiggle stereoscopic" image.

note: these images can be dizzifying, make sure you are sitting down. Also, you’ll have to use browser back button to get back to this page after visiting.
Experiment #1 – The Chair
Experiment #2 – The Tree
Experiment #3 – Maxine

The cameras are all the same, but this one is named Buddy.

Maxine and The Duck help Hanna test out the robo-cam.

The crowd roars its approval.

Leo finally agrees to mount the parts of his boat on his boat instead of just carrying everything around like a waiter with a tray.

It’s late, we’re hungry, and we’ve got a lot to talk about – we’re starting the new project soon and there’s some details to go over.

See life from Tywen’s perspective.

Sam is the subject of a 50′s science fiction movie.

LISTEN UP! YOU NEED TO PUT YOUR CAMERA IN HARM’S WAY? YOU WANT THIS CAM BUNKER! YOU GOING TO EXPERIENCE INCLEMENT WEATHER? YOU NEED THIS CAM BUNKER! GET YOUR CAM BUNKERS FROM NIK’S CAM BUNKER OUTLET.

Seeking to create an entirely new kind of mind-twisting image that bridges both time and space, Hanna is working on a servo-controlled time-lapse panorama camera mount.

Inspired by Theo’s inside-out aquarium, Maxine dumps the mixed nuts out of the clear plastic container and whips up a nifty camera mount.

Theo’s balloon gasket system allows him to reach the shutter button while completely submerged.

Macro-mode pays off – it’s hard to imagine that this could have been much more striking in color.

The wind still catches the parachute-cam, so Leo is sent to retrieve it. Sam clambers down for the handoff and brings it back to Isaac.

After skittering the last few yards and tumbling to the grass, Theo declares the slide a success.

Nik becomes aware of something up behind him and spots Sam. As Nik makes a run for it, Sam realizes there is only one way to ensure Nik gets wet.

“These are the best digital cameras ever made,” says Gever. Yes, he’s mighty fond of the Canon SD1000 and the Canon Hacker’s Dev Kit. “We’ll treat these as platforms for scientific exploration,” he declares.

Sam makes a very methodical exploration of the features of the cameras.

Let me just point out some things that on the table at this moment: caulking, pine cone, electric scissors, plastic wrap, multi-meter, soldering iron, bowl of nuts, bubble wrap, duct tape, six camera chargers, two big lenses, ruler, pliers, markers, styrofoam packing material…

The para-camera’s point of view is comically frenetic.

The day ends with a (very) late dinner and a movie. Much dinner chatter is overheard on the subject of mounting cameras and next improvements.

Isaac’s camera payload on a parachute is working great.

With upgrades and some design tweaks, Isaacs camera system flies true.

Nik’s first deployment of the tunnel cam highlights the need for easy access to the camera controls – note to self, do not tape the housing closed until you are standing at the destination (nine minutes of walking up to the culvert and eight minutes of walking back to the studio have been trimmed off to ensure a more pleasurable viewing experience).

Saddled with the eucalyptus leftovers of Juniors+Seniors, the Masters must comb through to find suitable sticks.

Theo is looking for a way to see what the wireless camera captures. The big TV has RCA inputs and Nik is happy to offer some content for the test.

Before we know it, Sam has scampered up the tree after Jacob, in order to get a good view of the pulley placement process.

To keep the support from twisting too much, guy wires were attached (via constrictor knots) and the gals kept things square.

Using the same technique as we used for the zero-impact treehouse, the structure is secured to the tree.

Gever’s nefarious plan to infect some tinkerers with the coding bug seems to be working. Next they will be staying up all night drinking Mountain Dew and eating Chips Ahoy while they make obscure jokes in hexadecimal.

The masters are off to a slow start (due in part to Tinkering School HQ being not quite ready), but they are finally headed down to the studio to get to work.

Nik has decided to embrace his inner Harpo and we are fully supporting him in this endeavour.

Lunch was late today and it’s had an impact on Sam’s cognitive ability.

The two teams (split roughly down the center of the table) have yet to choose their team names – but have soundly rejected the traditional Piki and Nooi.

Nik demonstrates proper cucumber cutting technique.

We were hoping that attention would be paid to details in this session and if this salad is any indication, we’re off to a great start.

Nik sprinkles crumbled feta (in a spiral pattern of course) while Max and Sam keep a close eye on the distribution of crumbles. Dinner was followed by a rousing round of the "Fact Game" (Isaac and Sam lost, which meant they had to help Gever and Julie with the dishes), then a brief period of Sardines out in the yard under cover of darkness, and finally a brief introduction to Java programming. Not too shabby for a first day – but tomorrow we build!