"Oh my name it ain't nothin', my age it means less.
The country I come from is called the Midwest..."
Bob Dylan
At the urging of a good friend, I've decided to set aside misgivings about self-promotion and provide a detailed account of my current Kickstarter proposal to an online community of peers who could realistically help make it happen. That community is you.
I've intentionally set a very brief window to raise funds for this documentary, and that window will close very early Monday morning, July 19th. The time has now come to present the idea to large, well-informed audience, as fully as I am able, address questions and concerns, and seek support.
There will be five topics covered in this initial post:
1) Introduction
2) Theme
3) Timeliness
4) Method
5) Qualifications
PEOPLE WHO PICK UP HITCHHIKERS - KICKSTARTER PROPOSAL
* For the sake of clarity, (and not overconfidence), this post has been written with an assumption that funding will succeed. All conditionals have been stricken from what follows.
1) INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
As stated in the title of the proposal, this documentary will be about "people who pick up hitchhikers". I will be the hitchhiker, and I will interview a wide selection of people who pick me up. On its surface, this documentary seeks to explain why those individuals who stopped to pick me up did what they did. Beyond answers to this simple question, the documentary will share their stories and attempt to paint a composite sketch, an anecdotal portrait of a 'type' based upon my own hitchhiking experiences, past and present.
All source material will be gathered in the eighty (80) days following departure. A completed feature length documentary on the subject proposed will be delivered within one (1) year of departure.
Three (3) hours of high quality environmental footage, shot over a range of scenic vistas, will be released into the public domain within one hundred and sixty (160) days of departure.
2) THEME
This documentary will celebrate those who have built character by overcoming difficult obstacles in their lives, and explore whether those experiences have contributed to a certain fearlessness common in people who stop for hitchhikers.
3) TIMELINESS
Several factors, when taken together, have convinced me that now is the time to pursue this project.
First, and related to thematic considerations above, is the context in which the documentary will be made. Namely, a post 9/11 America whose citizenry has for years been fearmongered to [sic], by fellow citizens, government representatives, and the media. The cumulative effects of routine fearmongering on the American psyche, following the collective trauma of 9/11, can never be perfectly described or fully known. These effects can, however, be estimated as 'considerable'. It is probable that Fear, with a capital F, will be remembered as the defining influence on American culture in the decade following 9/11.
The second factor that argues for making this documentary, now, is the state of technology. Technological advances of recent years have made it possible to produce high quality material with portable low-cost tools. Whether it is gathering data, recording footage and audio, or sharing what you've gathered online, all aspects of microproduction have taken a quantum leap forward. Not only are these new tools readily available to the average consumer, their small form factor, improved battery life, and increased memory capacity hold great potential for mobile filmmaking. They pave the way for rethinking traditional documentary method.
[I am now removing my nerd hat]
The third factor pushing me along is personal, the desire to redeem myself for a previous attempt in the hitchhiking genre. It did not turn out the way I hoped. At the time, I was entirely unready to carry it off properly, and still regret going into it so haphazardly. I am now as ready as I will ever be to make this documentary, and dedicated to seeing it through.
So there's that.
4) METHOD
I already discussed the basics of how I hitchhike (one and two). Here, I'd like to explain how I've interviewed people while hitchhiking in the past.
It's pretty simple and boils down to two things, being comfortable with the person giving the ride, and having enough miles left in our ride for the request to be practical. Longer rides are much more likely to yield interviews than short ones, colorful storytellers are more likely to be interviewed than silent drivers.
Keeping the equipment dry is easy, tuck it in pockets or the pack, make everything watertight if it rains.
Keeping batteries charged takes a little more creativity. Every unused outlet on the road is fair game, and I've gotten pretty good at lawfully vamping electricity in most situations, without an ounce of shame. You have to be consistent with this, you want the tools to work when you need them to work.
5) QUALIFICATIONS
I've spent a lot of time hitchhiking. I've spent a lot of time learning basic video production techniques. I am unemployed.
Feel free to visit my website, browse my work, and evaluate my fitness for this project.
All pledges welcomed, all questions welcomed.
*Thanks mods for the opportunity to post this proposal, and to everyone else for taking the time to read this far.
The country I come from is called the Midwest..."
Bob Dylan
At the urging of a good friend, I've decided to set aside misgivings about self-promotion and provide a detailed account of my current Kickstarter proposal to an online community of peers who could realistically help make it happen. That community is you.
I've intentionally set a very brief window to raise funds for this documentary, and that window will close very early Monday morning, July 19th. The time has now come to present the idea to large, well-informed audience, as fully as I am able, address questions and concerns, and seek support.
There will be five topics covered in this initial post:
1) Introduction
2) Theme
3) Timeliness
4) Method
5) Qualifications
PEOPLE WHO PICK UP HITCHHIKERS - KICKSTARTER PROPOSAL
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* For the sake of clarity, (and not overconfidence), this post has been written with an assumption that funding will succeed. All conditionals have been stricken from what follows.
1) INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
As stated in the title of the proposal, this documentary will be about "people who pick up hitchhikers". I will be the hitchhiker, and I will interview a wide selection of people who pick me up. On its surface, this documentary seeks to explain why those individuals who stopped to pick me up did what they did. Beyond answers to this simple question, the documentary will share their stories and attempt to paint a composite sketch, an anecdotal portrait of a 'type' based upon my own hitchhiking experiences, past and present.
All source material will be gathered in the eighty (80) days following departure. A completed feature length documentary on the subject proposed will be delivered within one (1) year of departure.
Three (3) hours of high quality environmental footage, shot over a range of scenic vistas, will be released into the public domain within one hundred and sixty (160) days of departure.
2) THEME
This documentary will celebrate those who have built character by overcoming difficult obstacles in their lives, and explore whether those experiences have contributed to a certain fearlessness common in people who stop for hitchhikers.
There can be no guarantee that the theme, described above, will be satisfactorily developed in the completed documentary, only the strong expectation that it will.
3) TIMELINESS
Several factors, when taken together, have convinced me that now is the time to pursue this project.
First, and related to thematic considerations above, is the context in which the documentary will be made. Namely, a post 9/11 America whose citizenry has for years been fearmongered to [sic], by fellow citizens, government representatives, and the media. The cumulative effects of routine fearmongering on the American psyche, following the collective trauma of 9/11, can never be perfectly described or fully known. These effects can, however, be estimated as 'considerable'. It is probable that Fear, with a capital F, will be remembered as the defining influence on American culture in the decade following 9/11.
The second factor that argues for making this documentary, now, is the state of technology. Technological advances of recent years have made it possible to produce high quality material with portable low-cost tools. Whether it is gathering data, recording footage and audio, or sharing what you've gathered online, all aspects of microproduction have taken a quantum leap forward. Not only are these new tools readily available to the average consumer, their small form factor, improved battery life, and increased memory capacity hold great potential for mobile filmmaking. They pave the way for rethinking traditional documentary method.
[I am now removing my nerd hat]
The third factor pushing me along is personal, the desire to redeem myself for a previous attempt in the hitchhiking genre. It did not turn out the way I hoped. At the time, I was entirely unready to carry it off properly, and still regret going into it so haphazardly. I am now as ready as I will ever be to make this documentary, and dedicated to seeing it through.
So there's that.
4) METHOD
I already discussed the basics of how I hitchhike (one and two). Here, I'd like to explain how I've interviewed people while hitchhiking in the past.
It's pretty simple and boils down to two things, being comfortable with the person giving the ride, and having enough miles left in our ride for the request to be practical. Longer rides are much more likely to yield interviews than short ones, colorful storytellers are more likely to be interviewed than silent drivers.
Keeping the equipment dry is easy, tuck it in pockets or the pack, make everything watertight if it rains.
Keeping batteries charged takes a little more creativity. Every unused outlet on the road is fair game, and I've gotten pretty good at lawfully vamping electricity in most situations, without an ounce of shame. You have to be consistent with this, you want the tools to work when you need them to work.
5) QUALIFICATIONS
I've spent a lot of time hitchhiking. I've spent a lot of time learning basic video production techniques. I am unemployed.
Feel free to visit my website, browse my work, and evaluate my fitness for this project.
All pledges welcomed, all questions welcomed.
*Thanks mods for the opportunity to post this proposal, and to everyone else for taking the time to read this far.
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