First Working Poster I’m not real happy with this one. it didn’t turn out well but it’s a start)

So we’re knee deep in production on the definitive Priest Lake documentary. This project started a month or two back after Ed (our resident DP and general photog genius) did a interesting documentary on his life. He worked in ProShow ( a video editng program for the PC) and created a very interesting and compelling documentary based on old photos.

This got us thinking about doing one for the Priest Lake area. Originally the idea was we were just going to do one based on old photos and oral histories (AKA Ken Burns style) but as per-production went on the idea developed into more of a mix of the BBC natural planet series and a timeline of history of the area. A format that both Ed and I felt would work really well and one we haven’t seen before in any of the half dozen docs that have already been produced. (many of which seem to be nothing more then big travelogue commercials for the area and are very thin on history in general)

So we put together a prelim script and started working the content issues and shot plans. So far we’ve managed to go out and record some very compelling footage of the nature of the area and thanks to the great folks over at the Priest lake museum (big shout out to Tom Weitz, president and senior researcher for the PL museum) we got access to the entire historical picture archive, that we will use to thread the historical narrative with.

We have just started going around and getting the “talking head” shots from local old timers and historians and we will continue to film nature and historical scenic areas throughout the summer.

So far everything is going along swimmingly. So much so that I think we will be doing a second documentary entitled: Strange Facts and Interesting Stories of the Priest lake. We’ve come across some pretty infesting lore and some old stories on PL that wouldn’t necessarily fit into a standard doc that I think will make a great appendium to the main doc.

Right now I am doing major research into various topics while Ed works on prepping the photos. Many of the old photos are of low resolution so we have to do some major work on photoshop to get the images prepared and looking good for HD 1080P resolution.

Anyway. Its fun to have some video going through the production line after a long winter of digital programming and App building. More to come!

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