Since this whole pandemic, quarantine, stay-at-home thing began in mid-March, I have uploaded a dozen videos to my YouTube channel. The self-produced movies ranged from an interview I conducted with my 11-year-old nephew — I queried him about his passion for Legos — to snippets from a few Zoom comedy shows I performed for business employees trying to stay sane as they juggled work with home schooling duties.
But never have I bounced out of bed, grabbed my iPhone or video camera and proclaimed, “THIS day will be SO amazing, that I will document it in its entirety and post it to YouTube, so the entire world can enjoy it!” Another day spent without a plane to catch, a restaurant to explore, a health club to sweat in, or humans outside my immediate family to converse with just didn’t seem worthy of documentation.
And yet, 300,000 aspiring filmmakers worldwide thought differently. They submitted videos in hopes of being featured as part of the “Life in a Day” documentary, now in development.
The project, commissioned by YouTube and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, invited anyone and everyone to roll out of bed on July 25, record anything they wanted, and submit it to YouTube, hoping Macdonald will use at least a portion of it in the 90-minute finished product, scheduled to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2021. Of course, that’s assuming the festival isn’t cancelled, postponed, moved to a virtual format or “reevaluated,” all very real scenarios if the world’s population keeps insisting on running around without masks.
Wondering if I had missed a golden opportunity, I scrolled backward though my phone’s calendar, curious to see what I could have filmed. Tapping July 25, I saw a two-word phrase that has become synonymous with the pandemic: “No events.”
I immediately felt better.
Had YouTube chosen July 22 to conduct “Life in a Day,” I could have wowed Macdonald with a happy birthday Facetime call I made to my 84-year-old aunt in Michigan. Yes, that was on my calendar. All by itself.
Or June 20, when I actually typed “shredding day” into the calendar, a reminder that I could drop off paper documents at my town hall and they would be ground to a pulp, free of charge.
Oh, wait, forget the shredding event. June 28 was way more scintillating. On that day, I watched my niece graduate from Harvard Business School. Via Zoom. Then there was July 12, the day I reminded myself to “check in with dentist.” I specifically remember that call … all three minutes of it.
Of course, there have been events that I didn’t deem worthy of including in an online calendar. “Mow lawn,” “walk dog,” “record ‘Ozark’” and “check beer supply” all come to mind. Would Macdonald have considered adding a scene of me sticking my head into my refrigerator and deciding that, yes, my supply of Coors Light was running low? We’ll never know.
Incidentally, this isn’t Macdonald’s first go-round with the “Life in a Day” concept; he produced a similar film documenting life on July 24, 2010. I’m not sure what I was doing that day but I’m certain it was more interesting than “pull weeds.”
According to Variety magazine, a slew of people managed to find excitement in their lives on July 25, 2020. Submissions included footage of Black Lives Matter protesters, Tibetan Buddhists and COVID-19 researchers. I do remember indulging in pickleball, my new athletic passion, on the 25th but footage of me swatting at a yellow Whiffle ball pales in comparison to scientists trying to cure the virus that is causing tumbleweeds to blow through my day planner.
This pandemic needs to end. Now. I don’t care how long I have to stand in line, awaiting the vaccine. For I will spend the time updating my calendar, adding entries that involve travel, concerts, weddings and the chance to say goodbye to a loved one at a funeral home or a graveside service. None of these events may be documentary-worthy but all have a nicer ring than “Delete spam.”
