SQPN

I’ve been thinking hard about the format of the video episodes. Of course I could film a conventional documentary. I made those before during my media studies in Rome: 20-30 minutes long with lots of voice over text, some interviews and panning images. But this format has a lot of disadvantages.

First of all, a long documentary is very labor intensive and expensive. The BBC makes great, hour-long documentaries, but they have excellent writers, camera people, editors and lots of archival or licensed footage.

Secondly, these conventional documentaries work great on TV or DVD, but our primary method of distribution is the internet, where movieclips are generally between 5-8 minutes max.

Long documentaries can be conventional and boring if not done right. It’s very hard to keep people’s attention for 30 minutes or an hour. I’d like to do something dynamic, funny, combining entertainment and information.

So here’s the format I’m thinking of right now:

Intro movie - We start with a short, 30 second introduction movie in the style of the Indiana Jones movies. The clip ends with a cliffhanger. We’ll have to be very creative with settings and costumes here, since we don’t have the budget to go filming in Tunesia or in Venice -unless someone sends us a big check of course

Title sequence - After that introduction clip, we’ll have our title sequence. Again, in the style of the Indiana Jones movies. I’ve asked my brother, who is a composer and has done a movie score in the past, if he can create the theme music in John Williams style. I hope he has time to do that, otherwise I’ll have to look for some royalty free music.

Info block 01 - After the title sequence, there’s a first block of information, about 2 minutes long. This will be me talking about religious themes in the Indiana Jones movies. I’m not sure about the setting yet. We could create some kind of movie theater backdrop, or film it in a library setting to evoke the academic background of Indiana Jones, but that might turn out to be too static. We could also do a walking shot, but that’s tougher to film, and where do you shoot it? I want to atmosphere to stay in the 1940-1950s.

Movieclip 02 - After the first block of information, we return to the movie-style sequence, with a follow-up on the cliffhanger video at the start. Hopefully we’ll be able to create some funny storylines. And I need a Fedora and a German officer’s hat!

Info block 02 - After that movieclip, we continue with a second block of information.

End Credits - This is followed by a goodbye, the address of the website and the end credits.

Bloopers? - We could end with some bloopers after that, especially if Greg Willits films the whole thing - after all, it’s his trademark ending first introduced in That Catholic Show

Preproduction time is running out fast. I’d love to be able to shoot most of this series during the next two weeks when I’m in the United States. But I haven’t even started writing the scripts yet! Oh well. I work best under time pressure, so perhaps we can make it happen.