Hi fans!
I thought I would throw up a quick blog to let everyone know...well, not much, really.
The reason you haven't heard much out of me for the past couple of weeks is simply due to the fact that I have nothing "new and exciting" to tell you.
I'm still working on the post production for the doc and, at this moment, I'm in a slight holding pattern while waiting for music. After the music tracks are delivered, then I'll start putting the "rough cut" together. Once the rough cut is finished, I will screen the film with Loggerhead's staff and get final approval to officially release Journey Home.
The release date is still on track for the End of March or very early April.
So, right now, if you don't hear anything out of me, just remember, "no news is good news."

Cheers,
-Rick

As I've worked on Journey Home - and, as I work on other productions - I'm being confronted more and more with questions about "how" someone goes about making an independent film for less than $10K.
The short answer is that you don't need more than an HD camera and a solid idea to make a film. The slightly longer version of that answer is that, if you want distribution...revenue...awards at film fests, well, then you'll need more than basic talent and a camera.
In some ways I feel I was lucky to not know some of the "facts" that I know now. The daunting nature of the various legalities, associated costs, logistical imperatives and certain necessary steps might have made me over think my plan to film my doc from scratch, by myself and raise the funding as I went.
I simply took my idea of wanting to film sea turtle rehab, got permission to film and started right-in on doing it. It never occurred to me that I had much to be concerned with.
Some lessons I would learn as i went along. During the original filming phase and post production of Journey Home (euphemistically called, "Journey Home 1.0"), I got it in my mind to score part of the film to a song I loved by recording artist Loreena McKinnett. So, having never done this sort of thing before, I took it upon myself to look up contact info for her recording label, write a detailed proposal for the usage and then ask if they could "donate" its use to the film.
Sounds crazy, right?
Well, it actually worked. The song "Dante's Prayer" was given special permission and licensing approval for (at least) the first wave of DVDs to be used by Loggerhead Marinelife Center. In all, it took five months of work, wonderful and considerate assistance from Quinlan Road records and a a bit of luck (though, some would say "sweet talking") to get it into the film. Sadly, the necessitated re-shooting of the entire documentary made it impossible to simply "re-do" the agreement. The song was dropped from the sequence (heck, even the sequence was dropped) and the new version of the film will have only original scoring by Mike White.
The next thing I came across was the fact that I wanted underwater footage of the turtles that was shot directly and not from the porthole in their rehab tanks. For that and a few other pieces of gear (all stuff that I had no preconceived notion I would need), I would need to raise money.
So, I Googled, "Raising funds for film." Lo and behold, there were websites to do just that. I settled on Kickstarter because I liked their business model and I felt like it would reach the maximum audience for "pledgers."
Kickstarter is a HUGE resource for independent and low-budget artists. Last year alone, projects on the crowd-funding website raised more than $319 Million. I will reiterate that for effect: $319 Million from people pledging mostly $10 here...$100 there...heck, Journey Home (1.0 and 2.0) raised slightly more than $4 K using Kickstarter. By the way, and this may surprise many of my fans (some of whom pledged on BOTH Kickstarter campaigns), the largest, single pledges came from absolute strangers who stumbled upon the project.
I can honestly say that without it, there would be no film.
When it came to legality, I again learned as I went along. There are a lot of resources online these days and I think I may have tapped into all of them when it comes to filming permissions, releases and distribution rights. My standard release form is simple and was modeled after a template provided for free on the On MY Block Films website.
Now, keep in mind I have worked on this doc for 15-months and none of these "lessons" happened overnight. I also sought out and read (so far) eight books on independent filmmaking and directing. When it comes to something you're passionate about, there is no such thing as "too much knowledge."
To that end, I am also currently enrolled in film classes at Indian River State College in their "film track" program.
AT some point, after I have the new, finished, 2.0 version of the film completed, I promise I will create a more in-depth "how-to" guide on this website. Because I want to inspire and encourage others to make films, tell unique and important stories and help change the world, I'm committed to sharing what I know.
Making a film is NOT an easy task. But, if it's done well, it impacts people to their cores.
With great filmmaking comes great responsibility...or something like that.

Cheers,
-Rick