I’m currently in Madison, Wisconsin for another day beginning work with the film’s editor, Gretta Wing Miller. We’ve spent most of two days looking through footage, sharing ideas on the film’s structure and making notes. I fly back tomorrow afternoon, leaving a duplicate hard drive with her so she can continue working away. We’ve only watched a series of “selects” clips that I put together. This is maybe 10% of the total footage available, so there’s lots more to watch.

Having an editor is a big step forward and it’s a huge relief to get the film off of my lap. The weight was causing my legs to fall asleep, figuratively speaking. The next step for Gretta, with my input, will be the creation of a 7-15 minute work in progress sample (WIP) made from the best of the best footage. This will introduce the topic and the characters, lay out the basic story arc and, most importantly, leave the viewer wanting more. It will be a fundraising tool to convince grantors, sponsors, individual donors and, possibly, investors that this is a worthy project to fund. It is also a good trial period to see how Gretta and I work together. So far, I think it will be a great partnership.

The next step, once we’ve got a slick WIP together, will be a Kickstarter.com fundraising campaign to fund Gretta so she can work on it full speed ahead. The trailer for Kickstarter will be shorter and snappier—under three minutes. It will be the first publicly-available look at the footage. Once the Kickstarter campaign is going, we’ll be doing weekly updates which will include short clips from the film, with extra clips viewable by everyone who contributes.

Someone asked about working with someone over this distance, but I actually think it might be a blessing. First, I’m loving Madison and won’t mind flying back here from time to time, hopefully spending a bit more time getting to know the place. With internet connectivity, we can talk regularly on Skype, Google or some other video chat service. We’ve also both got identical footage on our hard drives, so Final Cut Pro (the editing software) scene files can be emailed easily, allowing my computer to construct a segment she’s edited together out of my copy of the footage. We can be in close collaboration, but without me being always looking over her shoulder.

If you’d like to get notified when the Kickstarter fund drive starts and preview clips are viewable, be sure to sign up on our email list and like One Good Year on Facebook.