Wow, it’s been a pretty busy six months since I picked up the camera for the first time and began shooting this movie! It all officially kicked off in March in Texas where I captured the first of the many inspiring stories from adult self-directed learners that will make up the bulk of this film and it hasn’t stopped since.
Along the way I’ve been carving out chunks of time to sift through the footage, seeing what I have so far and what I still need to get and it’s an endlessly fascinating process. I love hearing people’s stories and it’s always a wonderful feeling when seemingly disparate stories begin to connect with each other, common themes arise and shared experiences begin to emerge.
That’s the magic of storytelling!
So, here I am, six months into this film and I thought it would be a good idea to take a breather and give you an overview of what’s next. The big picture is beginning to emerge, not only in terms of where this story is heading but also in terms of what I still need to do to bring it all together.
For the remainder of this year, I plan to keep shooting and gathering footage. I’ve got a few more individuals I’d like to talk to and lots of other work gathering all the necessary elements that are needed to make a great film.
If all goes well then by January 2018, I can jump into the hardest but most rewarding part of the whole process – the editing. This is where the real magic happens, this is where the film really begins to take shape, but it’s a very labor intensive and challenging process. By then I expect to have many, many hours of footage and there are a hundred and one ways to tell a story. Editing is the process of putting things in and taking them out again, a constant rearranging of elements until the story feels right. I plan to spend many months on this and if all that goes as planned then it’s possible I’ll have the film ready by the end of 2018. But I’m not making any promises! There are lots of things that can happen to derail even the best laid plans.
In the meantime, my more immediate goal is to edit together a teaser trailer soon so you can begin to get a feel for what’s coming. I’ll also be releasing sneak peek clips of some of the interviews I’ve done so far so be on the lookout for those on the Facebook page.
I hope you’re as excited as I am about what’s coming.
Thanks for following along and for all your support, it’s a great motivator to know that my audience is out there waiting.
Onward!