Then after that, came the week of editing the trailer–a different kind of blur. The kind where we didn’t collect our mail and ate off the same pizza for breakfast and dinner. After three long days including two very late nights, we finished it and are continuing to finish it. It is difficult not to pick at–like a scab or zit–no, it is more like a painting on the wall that never looks straight, so you keep gently adjusting its placing and then move back to take a look at it again. 

However, it is time for the trailer to stop being babied by us and for it to leave the nest for the real world. We would like to invite all of you to give us feedback. We would like this trailer to continue to change and get better and better. We need ya’lls comments to do that.

We need to look at it with some new eyeballs. YOUR EYEBALLS. What do you see? Hear? Feel? When you watch this thing? Let us know. 

Three: Stories From The Struggle For Girls’ Education from NonFiction Media on Vimeo. 

A note on Vimeo viewing: If you have a fast computer, you can expand the screen by clicking on the little four-outward-pointing-arrows glyph on the lower right of the viewer window. Make sure HD is on and scaling is off. Also, probably best to let the whole thing load in first (hit ‘pause’ if needed). This will give you the best viewing experience (we’re still experimenting with the best way to output stuff for internet viewing).

Simplicity: By this I mean the tools: The gear. The setups. The shots. The language. The editing.

We feel drawn to simple storytelling. Plainspoken pictures. Simple editing. We want (and need, $$wise) to develop and use a simple kit of gear. Compact, versatile, quick to set up, and not so complex that we devote unneeded energy to working out how to actually use the stuff. 

Production values: Okay, for argument’s sake, let’s make the assumption that we’re going to make something really good. If this is true then it’s in our interest to make sure it’s also refined enough that lots of people will be willing to look at it.

In other words, whatever we make needs to be well enough produced to communicate to folks who aren’t, you know, like hungry for documentary at any cost. Seems to me like lots of people will run away from soso looking/sounding stuff. 

Our goal, then, is to sort the minimum configuration production equipment kit/workflow that will net us great looking stuff. Then learn to use it towards it potential.

That’s the intersection. We have a lot of gear right now, the result of an ongoing quest to build just the right field kit, and I’m inclined to think we’d be well served to simplify.

It’s not all ours, and also, it’s not all going with us. But an alarming amount of it is. Sigh.