Historic route 66 documentary: Rt 66... Post-Mortem or Carpe Diem... It's been a while

Welcome to my blog

Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog. Over the next several months I will be preparing, planning, and shooting a documentary on historic Route 66. My actual trip begins in June. I hope to be back by July to start writing, and editing. I hope this will be an interesting look at what goes into producing a television documentary, and how the documentary is coming along.

A little background about me...
I am a broadcast video journalist with over 20 years experience shooting, editing, writing and field producing. I decided to "retire" from local news in 2009 to pursue the next phase of my career. Much of my experience is in local tv news as a Field Producer, and ENG Photographer, but the fundamentals of producing long form stories are the same as producing shorter news packages.
You are telling a story, plain and simple. The better you plan the better the final product will be.

Thanks again for reading, and enjoy the ride!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Rt 66... Post-Mortem or Carpe Diem... It's been a while

I know it's been awhile since my last post. For those who have checked in during my hiatus I thank you. After I arrived home on July 7th, I decided to take a step back from the project so I could approach it fresh. I spent 2-weeks on the shores of North Carolina, and a week along the Atlantic beaches of New Jersey. It's been a great summer. I have only been home for a total of 4 non-consecutive weeks. As promised, I didn't want to waste your time reading boring blog posts when there really wasn't anything to write about. But now it's time to get to work. Here is a quick summary of what has happened.

We arrived home on July 7th exactly one month after we left for our trip. 50 interviews, over 20 hours of video, and countless terra bites of memories all make for a great time. I'm just sitting down to tabulate the cost of the trip, but the memories are priceless! My 75 year old mother (now 76) drove almost 7,000 miles. She refused to give up the wheel, and she says she had a great time driving! (I'm actually glad she wanted to drive. It helps to have a driver and navigator if you want to successfully follow Rt 66 because it isn't always marked very well.) My niece shot over 4,000 digital pictures for the companion photo book.

It may seem like we have alot for a video, and photo book, but I would rather have more than not enough when telling a story. We can't really go back and shoot something after the fact.

Now the fun starts. Hours of logging interviews, and broll, a trip to the National Archives in Washington DC., acquiring permission to use clips from the movie CARS, and of course, that famous song by Nat King Cole. All heading for a deadline of November 2010.

Today, September 4th, I am proud to say I just finished logging the last interview. It actually took less time than I thought. I guess stepping away helped. Listening to the interviews put me back on the road (I miss it). Being home is nice, but traveling Route 66 is great. My excitement and my passion for the story must have taken over, and now the fun starts (really!). Putting the story together.

I have set a few deadlines. I want to have the skeleton(the interviews without broll and nat sound)finished by the end of September. I am aiming to have a rough cut done by the middle of October. I'll keep you posted!

I want to thank everyone who has checked in on our trip.

Happy Labor Day!!!