Smooth is Fast

This self-taught documentarian is feeling the learning curves. I’m glad I took the week to work through the production process kinks and bottlenecks. No one but me placed an urgency on this production when I called it a real-time documentary. The name implicitly and explicitly sets the expectation you’ll see it sooner than later, right?

Kinda reminds me of the “It Might Get Loud” documentary featuring Jimmy Paige, The Edge, and Jack White. In a segment, Jack White explains how he likes to push the envelope and challenge himself. He says something like “if I can get switch instruments in five seconds, I like to then give myself only four seconds.”

Why do it the easy way when you can go for the higher degree of difficulty? That’s my mindset and why I was willing to take on what my friend, Mitch Maxson, termed a “pretty ambitious project” when he introduced me to Dana Whitelaw from the High Desert Museum.

What this week has done for me is given me time to figure out the rhythm for how to turn the captured footage into the final product. I still have many hours ahead of me, but thanks to a circle of rough cut reviewers and a weekly production cycle, I feel much better about getting these conversations and insights out into the world starting in about a week.

In fact, I’ve begun to share clippings via the Instagram channel and even posted the first experimental video using stereo sound on location at California Hill near Brule, Nebraska where you can see some of the best wagon train ruts remaining.

What’s your appetite for pushing the envelope? Do you play it safe or take chances?