The thing is, is that certain practical constraints changed the nature of our project, Life’s Waltz, and therefore they changed our schedule. Originally we thought the whole thing wouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 months. By now we’ve had a drastic reality check. Among the practical things that changed the nature of the project were the quality and type of footage we were getting, the realization of how long it takes to film enough to do justice to the subject matter, business matters like record-keeping, minutes, accounting, and insurance, and other random things that came up that we didn’t know we’d have to do or didn’t expect to do in the original framework for the project. This all compelled us to keep shooting and not edit at the same time. So after the couple of months that we shot, we ended up with almost 200 hours of footage and not having edited any of it. Then came some legal, business, and technical issues that delayed our beginning editing, which all took time to work on and resolve. Additionally, family members visited and we took some brief and uncoordinated vacations since real life was still going on, and meanwhile we continued to follow up on a few stories that had emerged by shooting, and we also went to film a few special events, such as Valentines Day. We would’ve been remiss had we not filmed the election of the elected Valentines King and Queen.

See, we had originally only even formed an LLC for the litigation protection. That’s it. We almost tried doing this film without even forming a company. We were just in it for the experience, after all. But once we decided to form an LLC for the legal safety, we realized unwittingly that it opened some unexpected doors. First off, in dealing with the nation’s largest senior services provider at one of whose community we’re shooting Life’s Waltz, they definitely aren’t going to enter into any agreements with two random people who aren’t even behind a company. The LLC was equivalent to legitimacy and credibility, more or less. Though obviously we still couldn’t walk in with clown suits on. It made it official. Though we hadn’t thought about it, they required us to have insurance if we were going to be there, and having the company helped with that as well. But both of these things, most importantly to this story, started changing the nature of the project without us really thinking about it. It was becoming more business-y and by-the-books. Soon after forming the company, we thought we’d better have image and location releases/agreements for everyone appearing in the documentary. This led to a ton of time and work drafting the appropriate agreements (having no legal background and getting free consultation by BDD’s Legal Services *wink wink*) to turn out agreements that even changed as we kept shooting. Also, we showed up to the meeting to sign our “Location Release” with TVND, they took one look at it and their lawyers went and drafted a real one. So much for that effort – but it’s come in handy for shooting off-location. At any rate, the picture I’m trying to paint is that things started, not by design, taking a very official, by-the-books form. And this was certain to change the nature of the project.

We realized also, after talking to a number of professional, successful documentary filmmakers, and also after seeing the quality of footage we were getting–truly outstanding–that the process would probably take much longer than we expected as well. Remember, we originally though the whole thing from beginning to end would take 2 or 3 months, and then we’d part ways. Guess again!

So we started drafting a business plan. We started talking with people about their approaches to sales and distribution. We spent a few weeks figuring out how to best manage our footage in the editing room; because we filmed with Panasonic’s brand new HMC-150, the footage poses a number of technical challenges to be able to edit it. Ultimately, we had to figure out a way and get the correct hardware to convert all of the footage twice over into a severely degraded, much smaller storage requirement format (this is called “downrezzing”, in other words “downgrading the resolution”) to keep potentially immense storage costs down, and then not to mention the amount of time and coordination it took to convert all of the footage twice over and back it all up onto three separate external drives in addition to what now are the two computers that we have to edit on. But the good news is, our process is correct and will work solidly and provide a lot of stability. We now have two computers to edit on, as well, so that we will both be working on different selected characters up until the rough assembly of the film.

We finally started editing, well… Ashley did. I was still converting footage and taking care of a lot of other business stuff, such as getting all of our books in order and preparing taxes for the first time in my life. What a learning experience. Plus, we came up with some more consolidated and streamlined approaches to the marketing campaign, namely focusing on Old Stories, the Sam Show, and the Ceil series (we haven’t named it yet because we haven’t done an “episode” yet). But during this time period, things were very crazy, and we re-prioritized what we were doing, thus less frequent blog posting.

Now, we’re running full steam. We’re both editing full time. All taxes and business matters are sorted and settled. Old Stories are in the pipeline. And mostly importantly, as we were advised by my friend Daniel who’s consulted us so much on this project, we’re focusing on the product, because without that we’ve got nothing else.

To do this, we’ve sat down for a few hours (and will continue to keep the dialogue open and dynamic) to hammer out a few basic guiding principles for how we edit so answer the questions of what are we doing and why, all in order to create the best film possible. As a practical matter, since we’re editing on separate computers and we need to remain coordinated and collaborative, we sat down to figure out to what extent we should be creating rough assemblies of each scenes, which type of scenes we should be doing rough assemblies of, and what the timeline/schedule of getting things done, who will do what work, and what our goals are.

I’ll put it very concretely in the next blog post, detailing our schedule, timeline, goals, character arcs and conflicts that we’ll focus on, what our process will be for doing the full rough assembly, and much, much more.

To be continued again…

Also, we’ve done some thinking and gotten some input that has led us to the conclusion that we may have been posting a little too much information on the blog. From now on, we’re going to post slightly less frequently so that when y’all come back there isn’t suddenly a ton of new information since the last time you checked it out and you feel like you’re too far behind to catch up.

And in light of that and the rest, we’re introducing three new aspects to the blog that we’re going to try to incorporate as much as possible: Polls, Reactions, and Email Post. Pretty self-explanatory. We’ll give you quick Polls on your thoughts, and you should give us your feedback! Reactions are a good way to let us know about how interesting any given post is so we know how to tailor them in the future. And Email Post is a feature that lets you email any given post to a friend by clicking the envelope with the arrow underneath said post. These are all three really quick ways for y’all to interact with us and the subjects in the film by voting on questions, giving feedback instantaneously, and spreading the word!

This is now where all of y’all come in. Post questions for our characters! We will take your questions (or maybe they’ll read them themselves–Ed and Sam have been checking the blog regularly and showing others!) and pose them to our seniors, on any topic or subject matter that you have any curiosity about, and we’ll post the responses here! That way we can begin creating a dialogue between y’all and the people in the film, to get to know them better and also to provide insight to a whole section of people in our society that we don’t tend to interact with in this way as much.

As more questions are posed and more responses posted, we expect this site to also become a resource for information on real issues that real people deal with every day, something we can all relate to, hence Senior eSource (say it quickly!). We hope to drum up a vibrant interaction, so don’t by shy–ask away! Anything you want. I guarantee you there are a few people we’re working with who will field any query you send their way!

In the spring of 2008, Jared and I completed this short documentary on senior living in retirement communities. Since we had such a positive experience and since we still have a lot of passion for the subject matter, we decided over the phone to expand the project into a feature length film. Our first “feature” film—it’s very exciting and very empowering!

As we’ve been gearing up for this film, it’s been interesting to observe my other friends and their post-graduate lifestyles, too. We all graduated with the same film degree from USC back in May 2008, but many of these friends and I have taken very different paths in pursing this medium and the entertainment industry at large. So far, the path that Jared and I have taken to pursue this project seems to be more atypical that others, though each side has pros and cons.

Like any independent film project, Life’s Waltz has its own set of risks. We have no guarantees for distribution or a salary, but our job description excludes the menial responsibilities Hollywood has to offer us recent grads and there is an immense amount of potential for Jared and me to grow as individuals and as filmmakers (technically, emotionally, creatively, collaboratively, etc.). “Real jobs” are supposed to be more financially stable and provide networking opportunities or promotions; but starting out as an assistant or a PA can consume you and often it’s difficult to envision how your 12-hour days, dedicated to a boss that throws a stapler at your head when you don’t roll calls in ~9 seconds, can help you move forward toward your professional goals. For me, this industry we are all getting ourselves into remains very fascinating, exciting, and a bit frightening too.

But, I digress.

As Jared has mentioned, I have had a very strict condition that I would not travel to Dallas until the equipment was purchased and we had equipment with which to film.

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere ‘til you git that came-rah!”

Until that condition was fulfilled, I did whatever producing I could to move the project forward as if the film might take place in Oregon. I helped in drafting our original proposal for the communities; compiled a grant proposal; visited some retirement communities in the neighborhood; researched local businesses in my hometown of Bend and in Dallas that might serve as sponsors; and approached contacts in the documentary industry to seek out advice on everything from equipment to distribution. The ultimate goal was for the project to take place in Dallas; but my job was organize enough of a set-up in Oregon so that if our situation in Dallas fell through, that we would have an equally strong contender to keep the project going.

My days in Oregon were a mixture of pre-production work for Life’s Waltz and at least one outdoor indulgence per day. Fortunately, this year’s autumn was particularly wonderful. The bike trails, damp and littered with fallen maple leaves and larch needles, were irresistible; the weather was perfect for a horseback ride among the manzanita on a crisp afternoon; and the lack of snow made it possible to fit in one last hike in the Cascades.

“I’m gonna write this part of the proposal up, research two more companies, and then go horse-riding for four hours! Woooo!”

But, I am totally biased and am in love with Oregon.

Simultaneously, Jared was a rock star in staying informed on the latest technologies and highest quality, most cost effective products we would use for picture and sound. Let’s hear a round of applause! But, continually finding newer, albeit better, equipment still resulted in a later starting date for our first day of filming. As I reflect on this moment in pre-production, we were certainly itching to get filming! Since this project is constantly seeking out active seniors, I recall Jared suggesting,

“We could just go to a skydiving company and ask them if they have anyone 65+ who skydives and tag along with those extreme seniors.”

“Or bullriders, or snowboarders. Wow, that could be crazy,” I replied.

But, as it turns out…

Jared and I are very diligent, persistent individuals. And finally, this persistence began to pay off everything began to come together: we were able to garner the trust and approval of those in charge at Jared’s grandmother’s retirement community, Town Village North; we also secured additional communities for filming; formed Life’s Waltz Productions, LLC; purchased state-of-the-art equipment; we’ve finalized a starting day for shooting; and lastly, I’m now living in TEXAS! One day I’m a passenger atop a galloping horse down a dusty, forested trail in Oregon, and now about to co-direct a documentary about a group of people who I have a lot of respect for and feel are underrepresented in mainstream media.

I’m here. In Dallas, Texas. The equipment arrived. Our subjects are ready. We’ve scheduled interviews. The blog is up. The YouTube Channel active. No lights, lots of camera, and we’ve yet to see what action will unfold…thanks for reading and I hope you continue to follow this adventure!

If you’re reading this, you probably already know a bit about what we’re doing. But just in case, let me catch you up really quickly. Ashley and I are co-creating (producing, directing, shooting, editing, etc.) a feature documentary (80-120 minutes) together. Just the two of us. We’ve already done a short-subject doc about the same thing–life in old age–and it was such an amazing experience that we decided to do it again in a way that could have the potential to get the message out to so many more people. So, we have gotten permission to shoot for a couple of months at Town Village North Dallas (and others in the works!), a really nice retirement community in Dallas, TX (Jared’s hometown). We’ll get to know a number of people there by interviewing them, talking with them, hanging out with them, and doing all of their activities with them. It’s kind of like a “day-in-the-life”! We’ve been working tirelessly for the past few months (ever since that fateful phone call I made to Ashley from New York City back in late July) to gain our bearings, research equipment, find a willing and ideal community (or two!), get all of the legal releases and matters taken care of, form a business (LLC), and get everything else ready to shoot and do it all the right way.

And now, after all of that preparation, Ashley is arriving in less than 24 hours! She said to me, “I’m not booking a ticket until you place the order on the equipment, buster!” So that was the deal, and I placed the order on Friday, so she did the same for a flight. We’re moving into Phase II (I just made that up…), where we actually do some creative stuff! Wow, I almost have forgotten that I once made movies. The next part of what we’re going to be doing isn’t just shooting and editing. In fact, it’s way more than that. It’s also the launching of this blog, our youtube channel (youtube.com/lifeswaltz), and the entire effort to create a community and interact with people who are interested in what we’re doing: you. (And also we’ve got a bunch of other work to do too that we’ll talk about soon.) But what do you mean you want to interact with us, Jared and Ashley?

Here’s how we want to interact with all of you out there. First off, we’re gonna do blogs (a.k.a. an online journal, which is what you’re reading right now, for the baby boomers and up out there reading this!) and vlogs (video blogs–talking into a camera… you’ll catch on!) about every single aspect of what Ashley and I will be doing and have done already (we got some catchin’ up to do here!), and in addition we’ll probably have some of the people who turn out to be our subjects do some vlogs as well. Also, we’re going to post clips from our select dailies (especially good footage from what we shoot, selected daily) throughout our shooting period (“production”). And we’re going to put up other media and try to interact in every way possible with all of you. Of course, we’ll always welcome comments and suggestions and hope that everyone can get as involved as possible (and learn a thing or two along the way) in the making of Life’s Waltz! I wouldn’t be surprised if some other surprises come up along the way, too. This is a dynamic enterprise!

Wow, there are some long sentences (and parentheticals with exclamation marks!) in there. You’ll be able to tell that Jared’s writing when the sentences don’t end and are fraught with little quips! Ok, I think I’ve explained it pretty well. Please, please, please post comments and questions, like, “Jared, what’s a ‘documentary’?” or “What kind of waveforms were you looking when you recorded that audio on yesterday’s dailies, and what kind of mixing techniques will you employ to fix that rubbish?!” or “I really like the direction you guys are taking! Here’s a bunch of money with no strings attached!” We’re hoping for a whole wide range of people who’ll be coming here, people of all kinds of backgrounds and expertises (or none at all!), so no question or comment is dumb. I love constructive criticism, so let’s have that too!

We’re so excited to start. Here we go!