Update 4: One Year In

(Dec 2025)

Events

• Talk at tomorrow’s Vegfest – “The First Year”
  • Currently, the days appear to be ticking away like seconds, which is either due to age, or how busy we are. It’s both.
• UAR Openness Awards for Animal Research
  • After an hour and half zoom call with Chris Magee from Understanding Animal Research, he invited us to this invite-only event which is the animal research industry’s openness initiative. We are seeking further insight into this side of the issue. The organiser said that our attendance was an unusual occurence at the event.

Story / Themes

• Great-apes exemption
  • The grounds for their exemption from animal research in the UK, is not actually quite clear, but it is very significant and often overlooked. This needs exploring.
• “No, just don’t do this to animals”
  • This is a spontaneous reaction from one of our vox pops at Venice Beach Skate Park. Its apparent simplicity rings with moral sophistication. It keeps coming back to me whenever I’m thinking about the scientific argument.
• Scientific debate or Moral debate?
  • Scientific argument exists in the realm of knowledge and facts, the moral argument exists in the realm of compassion. The circle of compassion has been the driver behind all major human rights advances, perhaps the circle has now reached the rights of animals.
• Pitch-video restructure
  • Calling it a pitch video no longer feels right, as we are not pitching for institutional funding. It’s more like a trailer or preview, and we have realised that it can’t really be made at the beginning of the process. Somewhere just before the middle feels about right.
  • My previous narration now reads quite dry, lacks the human side, and the bit about open development is not relevant. Spotting these faults is evolution and improvement.
• Happy-beagle shots incoming!
  • ‘Through the eyes of the animals’ is an important element of the story. As well as highlighting suffering, we also celebrate the sacred joy of those lucky enough to become survivors. Guardians of ex laboratory beagles are sending in their clips of majestic beauty, uninhibited joy and utter silliness.
• Presenting questions and facts, not opinion.
  • The shift in ‘mode’ from activist to presenter continues to sink in. Viewers must come to their own conclusions for things to stick. This needs careful handling.

Equipment / Technical

• Davinci Resolve on Fedora Linux?
  • Allow me a techno indulgence. There is Mac, there is Windows and then there are a million different versions of Linux. Linux is the one that’s made by the people, for the people. It brings a freedom which comes at a small cost of accepting more variability in how things behave, a bit like people. I am very glad that there is a serious video editing software called Davinci Resolve which can run on Linux.
• Working with our £200 lens (should be a £2000 one)
  • After buying the professional cinema camera body, we could only afford the £200 50mm lens. Known as the ‘nifty-fify’, it can be used for good effect, but only with workarounds. It will have to do for now. The standard lens for professional documentary work is around £2000. It contains 21 pieces of glass and an ultrasonic motor.
• Improving existing lighting equipment
  • With upcoming ‘open interview corners’ at Vegfest and VARC, we are making use of some LED lighting panels which we happened to already have, but these need modifying by adding diffusers to enable lighting but with soft shadows.