Category: Uncategorized

We Got Some Grant Funding

Our humble project has been validated by our first piece of formal funding which is specifically for the research phase of our documentary and it also comes with workshops, labs and connecting with other film makers. Thanks to our film maker friend Damian Sciberras (Short Stop Films), who told us about the application on a last-minute off chance – glad we stopped everything to make the application!

Our First Public Talk

Given to a full side-room at Kensington Town Hall during Vegfest London 2025, it covers our first year and is available on our YouTube channel. Unlike my last public speaking at Vegan Camp Out festival, this one was given from bullet points, which felt more natural, but I still sound nervous!

First Open Interview Corner

We set this up at Vegfest on the same day as the talk. I designed artwork for a backdrop and set up lights for drop-in interviews/vox pops. Great experience for setting up the ‘set’ all on our own and leading impromptu interviews.

Interview: Mel Broughton

The day after the talk, we travelled to Camp Beagle where we had planned to interview Mel across the road from the gates of MBR Acres, the puppy breeding facility, but due to heavy rain, we changed plans at the last minute and held the interview in a pub. We got lucky with a table in a bay window for natural fill light and and overhead light shade made a kind of key light.

Animal Rising Court Day

The next day we were in Cambridge to interview Animal Rising defendants outside the crown court. However, despite checking in advance with court reception staff and security, our filming outside the court became a serious issue for court proceedings that day, due to the possibility of jurors’ faces being caught in the frame. Our cameras and phones were seized by the police from the CPS side of the court room for the day, while it was verified that no jurors were caught on camera. We were made to delete the day’s clips in front of the police before having our equipment returned.

Laboratory Survivor Group Zoom Call

Both heartwarming and sorrowful, we had a recorded group zoom call with the big hearted women who had adopted the Magnificent 7, a group of ex-laboratory beagles rescued from a laboratory in Spain after several years of lab confinement. I had the honour of overseeing the rescue during my time working as Operations Manager for Beagle Freedom Project UK. Four of the seven sadly are no longer with us, Birdie, Ringo, Pudding and Davey.

We have arranged a meet up later in the year to film the 7 adopters and the three remaining beagles all together in a natural outdoor setting.

Upcoming Interviews

Very excited to get into some nuts and bolts with Prof Andrew Knight on Toxicology, and Edie Bowles on Animal Law, as well as Wayne Hsiung (Activist Lawyer), and Rose Patterson (Animal Rising Co-Founder)

Techno Notice

Three terabytes of camera masters and other digital assets have been backed up to cloud storage over about 2 weeks of non-stop upload.

Set up a 24/7 file server with cloud backup by repurposing an old PC. With the power of KDE Neon Linux, it is standing strong and snappy!

Upgraded and reconfigured the home network (new router + four access points).

The Big One: ordered a Linux-based video editing workstation to replace my ageing Dell. Finally, in video editing, I now have a genuine excuse for max power!

(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.