Hello, Patrons. Sorry for the delay, there. I hope you were able to see all the amazing things I was able to find in just a single day traveling to, and working at the National Archives.Before I get into the weeds on this status update, the first for my next film - I think it's worth clarifying that I am not working FOR the National Archives as an employee of NARA or the government: I am working there because you all paid me to, in a sense. My work there was strictly for the channel and as an independent researcher. I was there in your name, as an external filmmaker. I just wanted to make that clear since some of the very kind comments I got back seemed to suggest that people thought I got a job at NARA - not the case.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming: you know the drill.
ON FUNDING: This is a project that has been on my radar for a very long time but I've held off because it exists within that bubble of 'unavailability' that drops off sharply after Apollo 17. This and Skylab (2027) are going to have particularly steep project costs associated with them because so much of the work that needs to be done is groundbreaking, first-time digitization of the visual material both film and TV. That will be time consuming, labor intensive and expensive. That's why I only want to make one of these kinds of videos a year, at most -- and why the film after ASTP will be on a robotic subject. (Those videos, on the whole, tend to be cheaper.) It is with no great pride that I tell you that this will have to be the most expensive project yet tackled, but if executed promises to be a truly one-of-it's-kind film the likes of which has never been made before. I have already, with the money so far made, acquired all 2 hours of onboard MOVING FILM (16mm DAC and 35mm Russian) that looks absolutely gorgeous. Now, we're moving on to the TV broadcasts and still photos. ON SCRIPT: Script writing will likely commence the third or fourth week of March. I am just now beginning the long research/reading phase of ASTP, and am elbows deep in the source documentation and material and just gathering facts/sources that I'll have to translate into a single, cohesive narrative. ON FOOTAGE: I have the full onboard moving film, and am in the process of acquiring 2K launch angles. I still need a lot of film from the pre-flight phase of cultural exchange, training, development etc as well as the MOCR material, and I need the broadcast TV.
ON EDITING: Not much editing occurs during this early phase of video production, but the one thing of note I can share is that I recently upgraded my editing software 7 whole releases (Jumped from a 2018 build to the current one), so I'll have a bit of UI learning to do. Fortunately, this brings with it enhanced capabilities and (hopefully) stability/workflow improvements. That's the idea, anyway.
This one's going to be a bit of a slog, but I am confident that we can look forward to a late May release. I have a bit of work I am doing on the side regarding some audio I picked up at the National Archives, and I'll fill you all in a bit on that later.