A Thought (as we move forward)
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 11:16:45 AM
Hey all, hope this finds you well.
Randall Lobb here and I just wanted to catch you up on a few things, including a possible change as to how we can best communicate with you, our backers and believers.
First off, Isaac Elliott-Fisher has made a breakthrough with the toy production workflow and we will discuss this more soon. Short strokes: he's running tests with extrusions and moulds and all that which we see as getting us closer to the finish line (even though there is a lot more to go). Questions abound, but answers are coming in and in Isaac's words on our internal text thread: "I feel like y'all don't appreciate the gravity of this. Like it's HUUUGE." Was this hyperbole? I HOOOOPE not!
Second, I have completed the actual first draft of the book and OMG it is insanely fat. Above is a screenshot of the word count in each chapter up to the final chapter, which is basically a look at the impact of the TMNT. I know what you're thinking: "HEY, is that currently too fat to put into production as it is?" The answer is that I'm working on editing with Harrison for the next while (and maybe another editor) wherein we consider what to trim and how or if. I'm wondering if there's a version of the book that would be suitable to try and get published outside of our special amazing, collectors' version. Would a trimmed-down version be palatable to a general audience? I'm wondering, as these Q&As are appealing (at least to me)
Third, I am thinking we should take this communication and community from Kickstarter over to Substack. I know, Substack? Yes. The more I think about it, the more I feel like Substack would give us (Definitive Film, et al) an easier and more integrated way to keep everyone updated for the long haul - and the put out ongoing information about what we're doing. As much as I like Kickstarter, I want there to be a cleaner way to get more general - and potential interesting - info out to the people and I think Substack is the answer, for a number of reasons. To that end, if you're willing to share your thoughts as to this new implementation, please do. I would set up a Substack for Definitive Film in general, but we would obviously focus on where we're at in this ongoing project - your Kickstarter campaign. We will continue to put more on YouTube as well, moving forward. I just don't think social media is the answer for us to best maintain a community for what we're trying to do with this campaign, with the doc and so on, so this change feels like a good one.
Fourth, people have been wondering about the movie and where we are in the edit. Sadly, we are at the same place we've been at for the last while. There were shoots we were planning to for SoCal, but you've all seen the news and you'll understand why we've pushed those for now. I'm not sure when things will settle down, but we'll let you know as soon as we know more. Also, we're still wrestling with a couple of key sections - one being a new ending that incorporates some footage we've received of the TMNT 40th anniversary celebration in Dover, and one that included a more recent interview with Ben Bishop that inspired heart attacks when the drive appeared to be missing (only for a short time). That interview with Ben feels like it's part of a recut of the 3rd episode of our series version of the doc, so that needs to be restructured to maximize it. I anticipate that intensive editing for these few underdeveloped sections will take place further into March or early April and, by then, we will hopefully have been out to an LA bouncing back from the tragic fires and will be returning with some new footage that, I would think, would be the last bit of production needed. Fingers crossed. Once we have those final pieces, we start the final push from a doc perspective. And of course, we'll be coming up with a way to show process as we go, so you can see cuts at different times and follow along. I say that pretty confidently, but then Mark Hussey will have to figure out if it can be done in the way I'm imagining. Luckily, he's a wizard, so he'll say it's no problem...