After that last post, about 25 To Stay Alive, I realized that there might be some confusion as to the content of this blog and the content of the documentary, so I put up a Standard Disclaimer about it.

Here’s the important part:

Opinions on this blog DO NOT inherently represent the views that will be expressed in the documentary. These opinions here are my own; the participants in the film speak for themselves and will provide the content of that work.

I have some upcoming posts about the topic of pot and the environment that might irk some people and I want everyone to realize that whatever you think of me and my opinions, they don’t represent what will be in the film.

The Kickstarter campaign to fund editing of this film is off and running, or at least ambling along, reaching about $1500 in pledges by this Monday afternoon.

Click here to watch the trailer on Kickstarter!

I’ll be using Kickstarter, the online crowdfunding platform, to raise the funds necessary to pay my great editor, Gretta Wing Miller, for her work over the coming months to bring One Good Year to completion. If you haven’t heard of Kickstarter, check out all the amazing projects that people are doing and sign up on my email list here so you’ll get the announcement once One Good Year goes live. I’m currently putting together all the project details in the background on the site, so my page is not visible there yet. I’m hoping to go live before Thanksgiving or, if not by then, shortly afterward.
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Gretta Wing Miller, the film’s editor, has sent me a rough cut of the trailer and it’s coming together nicely. We’re hoping to have it done soon and will announce it here and on my @onegoodyear Twitter feed. I’m excited to (almost) finally be able to show you all a teaser of what I’ve been working on for so long.

And, speaking of documentary trailers, I was interviewed last fall by a couple of filmmakers working on a doc about dam removal. They wanted to talk to me because back in 1987 I painted a 100′ long crack on the face of Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River—a dam that is being jackhammered and blasted into little itty bitty pieces as you read this. The trailer for their film is now online at http://www.damnationfilm.com/ Yours truly has the last word in the trailer, saying that dam removal is no longer crazy.

Something I learned during 2010′s grueling shooting season was that my job as director is as much about getting people to not talk on camera as it is eliciting information. All four of the main participants are interesting, funny, heartfelt and very opinionated. Three of the four live alone, but everyone loves to talk when they’ve got company. It was late into the season before I realized how little footage I had of everyone just doing what they do and being themselves without explaining it, interesting as that explanation is. Watching the footage for the first time Gretta, the editor, has been wishing for more silence, footage of people doing, not saying. As an editor/artist working in a primarily visual medium, the silent scenes leave more possibilities open for creative flow. The best audio footage and the best picture don’t always coincide in the same shoot.

I want the world to know and understand and love the true story of this community as much as the film’s participants, so it’s hard for any of us to remember that sometimes the picture is the best way to tell the story and then create the space to let it do so.

Today I was reminded of the enormous value in discussing the creative aspects of the project with other film and story professionals. Walking through the story and watching the footage today with Gretta (the film’s editor; see previous post), we had an important revelation about the story’s basic structure. Keep reading