Update 2: Too Busy to Remember Doing it All

I had been putting off writing our next update because it felt like it had been several months since the last one with little progress to report.

But when I wrote it down, quite a lot has been done in the last 10 weeks, we’ve just been too busy to remember doing it all!

With our non-filmmaking background, much of the bulleted small steps below are foundations for our extra big idea of an open, collaborative and persistent production model. These were accomplished in addition to the daily challenges of running our animal sanctuary and retreat.

There has been quite a serious learning curve – but that 95% dormant brain capacity sure came in handy!

Thank You, First Donors

First of all, a big thank you is in order to our very first donors who had faith in our documentary project based on a one page website and pitch deck, without even any video on it. This was off a free entry in a campaigns mailshot by Tim from Vegfest, so thank you to you too, Tim!

First Filming Days

Filmed the two demonstration events, WDAIL at Camp Beagle and their petition debate demo at Westminster.
Filmed our first impromptu street interviews.
Filmed a creative shot with a professional violinist.
For this we assembled and coordinated two separate film crews at quite short notice.
Wrote shot lists and interview questions
All of this was a total first for us, but very rewarding and energising.
Seeing the enthusiastic and professional crew come together to support our seed of an idea, and watching that first playback of what we had filmed, was definitely a key moment.

Pitch Video

After 12 revisions of the voice over, cutting it down from 5 minutes to 2:45, we finally settled on a (current) final version for the pitch video, and it’s still a bit too long!
We are in the middle of writing the shot list to go with the words.
Our editors have started assembling rough cuts of our ideas.
Considered typical production and distribution routes, but decided it would be far more authentic to seek support from our own animal advocacy community, and the animal free science community.

Techno Notice:

Set up organised cloud media storage for all our images, videos and camera masters, we already have 800Gb and anticipate around 6 terabytes for the project.
Devised a media management workflow and a custom file naming convention.
Set up collaborative editing, so a team can work on the same video editing and post production at the same time, from anywhere.
Explored digital tools for researching the corporate and regulatory landscape of the subject, and for visualising that information.

Outreach & Connection

Set up a contact database and an outreach workflow.
Drafted separate email templates introducing the project, asking for support and inviting for interview.
Set up a LinkedIn profile to connect with interviewees, advisors and contributors.
Set up an Instagram page to attract public support in the project, by sharing our production work and personal journey.

Decided to Defer Some Decisions

After some quite overwhelming deliberation over the major form, direction and stance of the film, a fellow filmmaker gave the advice that many of these creative decisions will emerge from just trying different things out. Sounds simple, but it was a relief to hear.

So, as to the following questions, we’ll see what comes:

Who will narrate it? Will they be off screen or on screen?
Do we use our personal story in the film?
Why does the audience need this when it’s not about us, it’s about dogs?
Do we keep it formal and impartial…investigative…authoritative?
Do we look for a production deal, or do we stay independent?
What about funding? At times money feels inappropriate given the subject matter, at other times the project feels pointless without mega-money to match what we are challenging.
What about distribution – audience attention is evolving rapidly.