happy new year

Hello everybody. Welcome to the blog for the documentary film entitled in memory of connor kirby. While most people are out partying, ringing in the new year, here I sit watching game 1 of the 2005 World Series on DVD, frantically preparing things for this documentary. Well, maybe not so frantically, but I no longer have the excuse of "the holidays" to put things off any longer, and I'm going to be on a tight schedule. I think I'm up for the task.

My plan for in memory of connor kirby. is for it to be a 30 minute documentary-style film about the locally owned and operated Connor Kirby Infant Memorial Foundation. What this foundation does is give money to those who can't afford funeral services, burial sites, grave stones, even counseling for the parents of deceased infants. It's pretty amazing to think that there is a foundation like this based in such a small town, but as soon as I heard about what these people do I knew I wanted to work with them.

So right now my main priority is to finish the "syllabus" for the class that will give me credit for this project next semester. Thankfully I have a copy of one done by a former student who also did a documentary for his professional project, so I have something to model mine after. This should be a relatively simple task, however as soon as I reached the part where I talk about how I'm going to do a blog, I got sidetracked and actually created the blog. Oh well, it needed to be done eventually.

After the syllabus is done, I'll be going in to talk to Dr. Ellerbach (the project's Supervisor) to get some pointers on script-writing and planning. While the documentary will be largely comprised of interviews with people, I will go in with a general plan for the interviews and what I'm going to be asking, but plan for a lot of ad-libbing. There will also be voice-overs which will have to be completely scripted. I am aware that this will be an in-depth process, however I am hoping there will be quite a few moments throughout the film that I don't plan on at all. While my entire experience in the documentary genre is a 5-minute "mockumentary" for a class back in Community College, it has always been the unplanned things that I have enjoyed most about video creation. I think there will probably be many cool unplanned moments during the filming of this project.

I have gotten in contact with a couple labels about licensing music for the documentary. From the beginning I have envisioned the video opening to the track "Memorial" by Explosions in the Sky. After contacting Temporary Residence I was told it would most likely cost $100 a track to license. I am still debating on whether or not I want to use it. I also got in touch with The Mylene Sheath, which is an absolutely wonderful label ran by wonderful people. They have put out releases for bands such as Junius, Constants, Caspian, If These Trees Could Talk, Giants, Gifts From Enola, as well as many other awesome bands. They are a pretty new label and already have some of the best, if not THE best lineup of post-rock bands. All of the music by these bands fit the mood I will be trying to set with this documentary perfectly, and I've been told they will license me tracks for a "next to nothing deal" because they are just that awesome. I'll have more on that once they draw up contracts and everything is signed (I really don't want to get sued by one of my favorite labels!)

That's about it for right now. I'm going to be picking up the camera and everything to start filming next week. I'm really looking forward to things picking up with this project, I've been going over and over ideas in my head the past couple months and I'm really looking forward to making them a reality.