2-day Media Abstinence

Luckily over spring break i was invited/had to go for a grade to a trip to Havasu Falls. I was asked to go because i was one of the only film interns fit and athletic enough to do the ten  mile hike down through the canyon. I was asked to be lead videographer for a pilot reality TV show about four recovering alcoholics as they train to climb Mt. Everest. Climb 4 sobriety or 180 south is the name of the show. Little did i know the guy in charge ended up being most likely a fraud or a crazy recovering alcoholic going through withdrawals. Even though i was following some "interesting" people while filming them all weekend, i still got to see one of the top five prettiest places i have ever seen in my life. The Havasu falls and the hike going through the havasupai village was absolutely gorgeous.

We parked up at the top of the canyon at the beginning of the trail head and began to prepare our packs for the 10 mile hike. The people we were supposed to be filming took off down the ten mile trail without the lead cameraman or the writer/photographer. From that moment on we realized the trip was going to be a complete joke. And not to mention some of the more noteable senior film students that were supposed to be helping create this pilot show took off without me and the writer as well, didnt offer to help carry any of the camera equipment, and quite frankly were an embarassment to the film program at dixie the whole trip. Also at the top of the trailhead we realized none of us had cell service. I turned off my iphone and threw it in the truck and lead off down the trail without any kind of electronics except for the extremely limited sony handycam and battery operated wireless mics. We were down there for two-and-a-half days.

I'm pretty used to going on weekend long trips without any electronics so this abstinence wasnt very hard at all. It was spring break and i was camping in one of the most beautiful places in north america, even though i was with a bunch of yahoos for an exception of one or two. We also could not have fires down there, which was absolutely a pain in our ass. We pretty much hiked around all weekend, pow wowed with some of the native american alcoholics in the village teepee, and played cards to entertain us all weekend. The only time i would reach for my phone and realize it wasnt there was when i wanted to check the time. I dont even think i thought about my facebook page, the only social media i thought about down there was my blog site and how i would use this time to wrap up my new media app class. I wanted to make a few phone calls to my sick mother back home, and maybe a few other friends, but they were all still here when i got back to civilization.

Overall the trip was a lot of fun. I always enjoy a nice weekend away from it all where i can get back to    how the world use to be. It is a time where i can be mostly stress free