I just said goodbye to my wife Claire as she steped out for her work day. Behind her she leaves our apartment in San Francisco which is filled with a collection of books, photo albums, trinkets we’ve collected on our travels, and Buster, our dog that we’ve had for almost a year. Right now she’s going off to support this life that we’ve built together over the last 10 years.
December 1st is our “dating” anniversary – And while we have a new anniversary that we celebrate for the day we wed, 10 years is worth taking pause. After all, at 30 years old, we’ve now been together for a third of our lives.
It turns out a lot can be done in ten years – from seeing each other through college, moving to San Francisco, traveling the world together, and getting married. Hell, if you search Claire in my flickr stream more then 1,800 photos come up since 2005. Instead of writing out all the amazing adventures we’ve been on together, which would take up way to much of your time, I’ve chosen to post a single photo of us for each year we’ve been together. The theme of the photos will be “smothering each other with love”.
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006 on our 5 year anniversary in Melbourne Australia
I’ve been working on my documentary “Rolled” for the past ten months. It’s a full time job that I think about everyday, including on weekends and often in my sleep. Back in February I called my good friend Keegan Uhl (who is a director and has a kickstarter campaign you should watch) to get some advice from him as I started to push forward with Rolled. As I mentioned in the post “I’m Making A Documentary, It’s Called “Rolled” he said to me, “remember, when you make a documentary it never goes how you expect it to – don’t fight it, embrace the chaos.”
Four weeks ago I went down to LA to continue filming after a few month hiatus. I met with my good friend Drew Manning who has been helping me piece together the story of Rolled as it unfolds – or unravels. Use whatever imagery you’d like. Drew said something similar to Keegan, and it was good to hear again. “You make a movie three times. You write it, you film it, you edit it. Each time it becomes a different film then the last.” As we began filming I quickly realized that these two statements were going to be amplified for my film. This is why…
Rolled is about the legacy of a group of kids who have been toilet papering houses for over 30 years. I was in the group with my three dear friends, Kevin, Mike and Matt back in the late 90′s. I connected with them asking if they wanted to recount our experiences in the group, as we have a lot of stories to tell, and these three guys are especially good at telling stories. In addition to talking with them about our experiences, I wanted to meet the guy who started the group, which we did, and track down the current group to see how it’s holding up 10 years after we left it.
I got myself deep into the project very early on, filming those first interviews. All of this is explained in my Kickstarter campaign which was launched and successfully funded in August. As the video explains, all I had left to do was head down to LA to meet the kids who are currently in the group.
All I had to do… This is where I began to “embrace the chaos.”
After raising money on kickstarter my life went from moving at a Usain Bolt pace to a Looney Tunes Roadrunner pace (even faster.) A lot of good came out of raising the money. At that point people knew that I was going to be able to make the film. I was introduced to a very talented cinematographer, who brought on another camera op so we could do two camera shoots when needed. Serendipity would have me meet a great audio operator, and link up with several extraordinary production assistants, and a DIT (Digital Imaging Technician). I also got to spend several weeks in my home town staying with my parents and reconnecting with people I don’t normally get to see while I’m visiting over the holidays. But what I didn’t expect was what I found when I finally had the opportunity to meet the current group of kids.
Matt, Kevin and I had our first meeting with current high school group a while back (unfortunately for us, Mike lives in Amsterdam and was not able to join us.) I’m not at the point where I’m able to talk publicly about our first meeting, or the meetings that followed with the current group. I’ll say this though, It has changed the story. They were not bad interactions by any stretch of the imagination, they were just different then we had expected. They put me in a position to rethink the way we’ll be presenting the documentary. “You write it, you film it”, “embrace the chaos.”
There is more filming to come. The story is certainly still writing itself. But I have this to report. The footage so far is beautiful. The people I’ve been working with bring a talent and creativity that far surpasses what I ever could have hoped for. The direction the film is headed has given me the energy that I felt in January when this all began and again when it was funded in August. I’m riding a high that I wish I could share with everyone. I’m thankful for the few people that were with me to experience this past month. I’m excited by my new friends and colleagues. But most of all I’m overwhelmed with excitement in knowing for sure what I want to do for work and with my life.
Here are some images that I can share from shoots. You won’t learn much about where the story is going but at least you’ll see that we’re working.
Proof that I am alive. This was taken one of the days we shot.
Ricardo our DIT.
Matt and Kevin on one of our days together.
Andrew on audio, and Maren on everything important to make sure this all happens.
Chelsea Mayer, A huge help both with filming & just about anything else that needs to get done.
I’m making a documentary because I love telling stories. I also love connecting with my old friends, and reminiscing on good times we’ve had together. Right now I am nervous but excited. The project that I’ve poured the last six months of my life into is in the 30 day funding phase! While it’s slightly stressful, I’m excited at how many people I get to connect with over the course of August.
How you can help Rolled:
Donate:
Donate some amount of money. It doesn’t matter how much. Every little bit helps.
Share:
You donated, you want to see this film happen. Help by reaching out to as many people as you can. The more eyes that see the pitch the more people will donate.
Share with who?
First share it with the people you know would want to watch the video. More then anything we want people who are going to find the project entertaining. Send it to your best friends, co-workers, friends from high school, and family member who will support because you did.
Share Where?
Email: The best way to get the word out is by directly emailing people. It’s personalized and people dig that.
Away message: If you spend a lot of time on gchat or AIM, and away message asking people to support the film with the link http://kck.st/rolledfilm would be great!
Facebook: Facebook doesn’t have as much reach as you might think, so if you post it there ask your friends to share it and like it, that will help it’s traction. Do the same when you see the project on other people Facebook page.
Twitter: Tweet and don’t stop. If you see someone else tweet something, RT it.
Blog Post: Have a blog or know someone who does? Do a little write up on the film and share it with your community.
What you should know:
All or nothing:
On kickstarter you only get the cash if you raise all of your funds. That means I have to hit $30,000 or I get $0 for my film.
Time:
As I write this I have 29 days to go and $23,732. If you’re considering donating please do it right away, there isn’t enough time for a reminder.
It’s safe:
Kickstarter has been around for a while now and is a totally trustworthy company. Not to mention the fact that the billing is all done through Amazon.
Chili with Guacamole
All food rules and diets are off when one goes camping – it’s a great time to experiment. Here are some delicious camping foods that everyone should try this summer. Below is chili with campmade (like homemade but at camp) guacamole. This particular evening our chili and guacamole were prepared by Annah and Spencer.
This recipe is awesome because you can make it all in one pot, one bowl, and everything else can be cleaned and recycled. All you need is any and all beans of your choice – but we highly recommend that you have one can of refried beans in there. Mix in chopped onion, garlic, bell pepper, jalapeño, tomato, and corn – or don’t. Whatever man, it’s your dinner.
Then make guacamole. If you don’t know how to make guacamole you probably haven’t lived in California or Texas for more than a year. Guacamole is easy. It’s just like chili – except avocado instead of beans. I personally like to add some lime, cilantro, salt and pepper – and I find that I don’t need the jalapeño, or bell peppers, but it’s your guacamole man, whatever.
Bacon Wrapped Marshmallow
You heard me right! No more pretending like you actually like marshmallows. Now you can actually enjoy them wrapped in your favorite greasy meat. Bacon! I don’t know how I came up with this idea, but what puzzles me more is how I didn’t come up with it sooner! This “recipe” is done in six easy steps.
Step 1 & 2: Put bacon on marshmallow skewer. Secure it so you don’t cry later. Cook on high heat (not flame) until nearly cooked.
Step 3 & 4: Pull part of bacon off skewer. Place marshmallow on skewer. Put bacon back on skewer, partially wrapping it around the marshmallow.
Steps 5 & 6: Cook however you like to cook your marshmallow. If you like it burnt, fine, it’s your marshmallow man. If you like it brown and gooey, groovy. The key is pulling it out when it looks good to you. Let it cool a bit, but eat it while it’s warm.
Personally, I don’t see any reason to eat a marshmallow without bacon ever again.
Kettle Corn
You need popcorn, salt, sugar, and oil. I’ll let my Uncle Stan do all the explaining.
Campfire Nachos
You really can’t go wrong with nachos. Think about all the ingredients you like on nachos. Make sure cheese is at least one of them. Put all the ingredients over chips on tin foil. Close the foil by pulling up the edges and sealing off the top. By doing this you’ll help the cheese melt inside. Campfire achos are a little different than your regular old oven nachos. They often have that infused smokey/campfire taste soaked in. If you like that taste, you’ll love these nachos.
Now go out there and get your camp on!
If you have any recipes that you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments, I’d love to try something new.
This weekend I rented a 100mm macro lens to practice my photography. For those of you who don’t know what macro lenses are, they allow you to take photographs of objects really close up. This is how photographers take photos of bugs or grains of sand. I’ve wanted to try shooting macro for a long time as I often see potential for close up photos. I’m quite happy that I jumped on the long weekend to do it. A trip to the ferry building farmers market on a day that had both sun and rain proved to be quite rewarding. All of the photos I took can be found here, but for now this is a sampling of my favorite shots.
I love the building across the street from our apartment. While sitting on our couch I often see it in the reflection of a wine glass but this day allowed the light for me to shoot it in my own eye.
After a very long nap she wakes with a tear in her eye.
My first experience shooting rain. Moving water offers a great opportunity to learn about light, speed, and timing.
4505 Meats, voted the best burger in San Francisco.
Primavera makes some amazing chilaquiles. Uploading this photo inspired me to take my first stab at making chilaquiles. They were decent.
The sun is being covered by some low hanging clouds, this helps to diffuse the light.
Still the whites come out a little bright. I love bright pictures but I need to work on my whites.
With the 100mm macro lens your depth of field can start and end so far from the center which is left in focus. Pretty cool.
I’ve been working on my documentary for four months now, and I’ll tell you – I’ve learned a lot. I sound like a broken record when I say that this is not a one person job. I’ll also say that I’ve had some good help along the way, I’m not always alone. Since the beginning I’ve had a basic plan for writing, filming, marketing, etc. Part of the marketing is online/social marketing, which I feel I have a good grasp of. However, new to me is email campaigns, of which I’ve officially launched my first.
Speaking of first, first things second; if you would like to sign up for my email campaign – you’re crazy. But I like crazy people. Click your mouse on the word “here”, here.
Who are email campaigns for? They’re for you, silly. And to answer your second question, why you should start one? You should start one to be less annoying, to give people information that they’re actually interested in, and to help you stay connected with your friends, family and fans. Email campaigns are nice because they are auto-managed by a service like Mail Chimp. You don’t have to decide who is going to be on the list, people decide if they’re going to be on your list. And it’s simple, you just tell people that you have a list, that they should click “here” and then they sign up. When you bore them, they cancel their subscription.
Your scenario. You’re going to travel around the world for 8 months and you’ve decided you’re going to take photos and do a little writing. Before email services like Mail Chimp you were deciding who was going to be on your list and managing that list yourself, taking people off of it when they didn’t want to be bothered with your updates about the best cupcake you ate in Melbourne (but seriously it was good and it’s worth reading about).
But wait, there’s more. Mail Chimp has a ton of templates for you to use so your emails can be pretty, and you can paste your photos from Australia right into the email. You can also get stats on how many people opened your email and how many links they clicked on within it. Super sweet, I know.
How have I started to use the service? Good question Alan. Two days ago I sent my first email out to the 62 people who signed up (thanks again to those of you who signed up). I also played with some settings making the first email auto-send one day after anyone new signs up for the list. This email list is important to me because it allows me to communicate to the people who want to be a part of the film-making process with me. There is so much work to be done and so much content to spread. As a single person, my message can only travel so far before dies out. I can only reach my friends on Facebook and Twitter, but with a group of active friends and fans I can send my message out to my list and ask for them for help.
Don’t understand? Here is my scenario. Let’s say I have a trailer for my film, and I want thousands of people to see it. I have about 1,000 friends on Facebook and 1,500 “Followers” on Twitter – of whom maybe only 200 are online at any given time I Tweet. I post my trailer on Facebook, which then filters my trailer so maybe only 100 people on Facebook see it. But then I send an email to my list asking people to, “Like”, “Share” and “Repost” my trailer. Facebook takes this data and says “Oh, people like this, I’m going to send it to more walls” (that’s how Facebook talks), and the video hits more eyeballs. On top of that, I ask politely for the people on my list to go a step further and ask two or three more friends to do the same for them, as a favor, for a friend. If my trailer is any good, then people will like it. When people like something online it naturally spreads – but with a little push from 62 people, it has a much higher chance of success.
This is why I am excited about my email campaign. If you made it this far, and you want to sign up to be on my list (silly you), and you don’t feel like scrolling back up to where you could have clicked here earlier – then for you I will put the link here so you can click it there.
Also, not so long ago I produced this video with the king of everything online, Loic Le Meur, specifically about this topic. Below is said video.
