Documentary Update & First Look

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Anthony 'Dream' Johnson in News, Videos

The first announcement of “the documentary” was back in October of 2009. In case you missed it, here’s the link. Since then, I’ve been journaling about it on the forum, writing about it on my blog, The Dream Lounge, and even tweeting about it on occasion (and whatever the equivalent terminology of that is for Facebook).

Enough links though – what exactly is the status of “the doc”, and what is it really about?

Status

Things are moving along well. We have now completed five individual 90-120 minute interviews with four speakers and one three year attendee.

That’s not counting 3 more speakers we interviewed from afar (where we provided the questions and format, and they filmed the interview themselves with the appropriate equipment).

That’s hardly a scratch on the 30+ speakers and hundreds of attendees that have been present at The 21 Convention over the past three years, but in reality, it is a TON of footage.

A ~2 hour interview for example, will yield at LEAST 60 minutes of useable footage – “talk time” as we call it.

Now consider that out of that ~60 minutes (after logging the footage thought by thought for editing reference come crunch time), we MIGHT, use 5 minutes throughout the entire documentary – either because what that interviewee said fit the flow and progression of the collective piece so well, or because what they said was so profound it would be a shame to leave it out.

And when it comes down to it, 90% of this footage is just awesome, but, we can only use so much. It really is tough to narrow it down.

Anyway, we have one final speaker left to interview for “the doc”. From there, we will likely interview a few more people, but it won’t be the full “sha bang” like we’ve done for the speakers and 3 year attendee. More along the lines of back to back shorter interviews with very specific questions.

And after that is the fun part … filming my own interview, and the “content” footage.

I don’t think I’m anything special on camera, but there are a lot of things I want to say, and set the record straight on – so it will be a bit of a challenge for me. I’m confident that if I relax, and take my time though, it will turn out well – and fully express what I (personally) want to share in this documentary.

Easier said than done though, ha!

As for “content”, I’m using that term loosely to encompass all of the footage outside of interviews that will be in “the doc”. A proper introduction, closing, and everything in between – perhaps even some in field footage and other surprises.

…

During the filming of all this, beginning just before our final speaker interview (excluding my own), we will begin inserting bits and pieces into the time line we have worked on – the underlying flow of the entire film.

Which will be the hardest part of all – where the production manager and I have to make the call on “do we cut this or keep it?…shit!”

LOL

It will be tempting to make it longer and longer … but there is a reason “director’s cuts” are sometimes 30-40 minutes longer than theatrical releases (Troy for example) – we’re not only communicating a message we find important, but telling a story as well.

There has to be a balance between the two. A true art, that thank god I have help with from the veteran production manager.

This sounds really interesting, but I’m still not sure what the hell this is all about.

A fair enough criticism (if stated in that manner), not only of “the doc”, but even of The 21 Convention.

My only response is this – have faith, and patience, as this is something that is continually evolving each and every day (a good thing in my eyes).

The themes of these two items are not entirely separate either. In fact, a driving force behind the start of this documentary was to “set the record straight” on what this convention is really about, and where it’s all heading (issues we have certainly addressed in the interviews thus far and will continue to dig into, although if you already watched Fuji’s short clip that was probably pretty apparent!).

Admittedly, this is something I have failed to put into words. But perhaps that is the blessing in disguise of this documentary – I don’t have to do it alone. We’re bringing together independent ideas from some of the biggest speakers in years gone by at this event – and as corny as it sounds, I think together we’re going to be able to lay the brick and mortar of this event for years to come, and maybe, even a whole lot more than that.

In any case, we’ll be releasing tid bits like the one above of Dj Fuji leading up to the release of the doc. In doing so, we leave you the viewer to make your own assumptions on just what the hell this is all leading to =).

Expect “the doc” to release in early May 2010, in multiple segments, free to the world. We will also release the finished product via DVD for those who wish to own a physical copy or have slower internet connections.

Stay tuned here on The21Convention.com for more info and sneak peaks.

-Dream

Tags: dj fuji, Documentary, dvd, dvds, the doc, theme, what the hell is this all about

Comment Policy