The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at San Francisco International Film Festival this year. We had the pleasure of interviewing the Producer/ Director, Peter Nicks before his screening at the Kabuki in SF.
Peter was intelligent and engaging, and we highly recommend watching that video, and then checking out the film.
A cool aspect of the project is that it’s more than a documentary, it’s a “storytelling project”…
The Waiting Room Storytelling Project is a location-based social media and community engagement initiative that aims to improve the patient experience through the collection and sharing of digital content. This cultural data – video, data visualizations, photographs and text – is collected in the waiting room by creating frameworks for sharing that range from anonymous expressions of feeling to deeper storytelling.
The primary aim of the platform is to uncover the needs of underserved patients at a moment when the role of the “Safety Net” is being debated both in America and abroad. We also aim to develop tools for patients that allow them to take a more active role in their health care experience. To this end, we aim to expand and foster the organizational capacity for storytelling at Highland Hospital by creating a robust, scalable platform that can amplify the voices and needs of the most underserved communities in our country.
As America’s health care system sits poised to undergo its greatest transformation in generations, we will capture history unfolding and make sure that the story is told from the bottom up, not just the top down, using a unique combination of social media platforms and traditional documentary film. We will directly engage the people stuck in the waiting room of a county hospital: an underserved community that is isolated and disconnected from technology and the vital conversation that can improve their lives. The Waiting Room is comprised of five main components:
- A feature-length cinema verité documentary film that uses unprecedented access to go behind the doors of an American safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn. Following both patients and caregivers, the film tells the story of a diverse patient population coping with a remarkable array of health problems, while caregivers struggle to treat problems that extend well beyond their patients’ health.
- A social web architecture that encourages sharing and is designed for an interactive and social user experience. Project staff and volunteers will collect cultural data – photos, audio, videos, texts and emotions – using location based digital tools. Content will be tagged #whatruwaitingfor and uploaded to The Waiting Room’s multiple social media platforms.
- A mobile application that will allow users inside and outside of the physical waiting room to browse, share and comment inline on content tagged #whatruwaitingfor.
- A self-sustaining interactive platform placed in the waiting room at Highland Hospital that will allow for the capture of user-generated content. This initiative will serve not only as a cultural data collection platform, but will encourage the use of technology by a community that is most disenfranchised by this nation’s digital divide. The platform will have a pilot location at Highland Hospital – but will also spin off a mobile version that can be replicated and used at remote clinics, community events and hospitals around the country.
- The Waiting Room website is a politically independent, hyper-local media portal that serves as a designed aggregator of our project data and a space built for user engagement. It will serve as a hub for our content: one stop on our web of inter- connectivity between points on the social web and the mobile space.
This content will be delivered across a variety of platforms including television, radio, public spaces and the internet, giving hospitals, policy makers, journalists and the general public a greater understanding of the evolving relationship between public policy and people’s lives.
Head to the website for lots more info about the issues. Facebook. Twitter.
San Francisco International Film Festival
For the past week we’ve been working with the @SFIFF (that’s the San Francisco International Film Festival in case the title of this blog didn’t tip you off). We’ve been enlisted as the “Scoop DuJour” team, filming daily wraps of the festival events. If you haven’t been out to catch a few of the films showing, here’s some trailers that may get you interested. Go celebrate film! Or, as the slogan this year is: “Rediscover Cinema.”
Before you start settling in with your popcorn to watch all the fancy trailers below, check out the SFIFF promo our friend Dalan McNabola did along with Ben Zweig (who we’ve been working with all week on the Scoop vids).
Here are just some of the sampling of what you can see at the festival. Check out the schedule here.
Hollow: An interactive documentary “for the community, by the community”
For DocDay-WednesDay, we give you a film in progress by Elaine McMillion. You can help fund Hollow by donating to the Kickstarter campaign (you only have until May 13th).
Hollow is an interactive documentary and community participatory project that focuses on the lives of residents in McDowell County, West Virginia. Hollow combines personal portraits, interactive data, participatory mapping and user-generated content on an HTML5 website designed to address the issues stemming from stereotyping and population loss in rural America. Community members will take part in the filmmaking process by creating their own documentary portraits and balloon maps. Hollow strives to bring attention to issues in rural America, encourage trust among the community and become a place where users can share ideas for the future.
Background:
For years, the residents of Southern West Virginia have been portrayed the way that filmmakers, mass media and politicians believe they should be. Yet this constant flow of images depicting only poverty, drug abuse and unemployment have an effect on the way the community sees themselves and limits their capacity for action and empowerment. For the first time, the McDowell County community will have a chance to express their own ideas in a project that addresses universal issues seen across rural America. This is not our interpretation of Southern West Virginia but instead a project “for the community, by the community” and a unique chance to be part of future improvement.
BURN premieres at Tribeca
We’ve been following the progress of this amazing looking film since we worked a job with one of the producers in 2010. That is why we were delighted to read on the BURN webiste:
GREAT NEWS!
BURN has been accepted to premiere at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival this April. It’s an incredible honor for us to premiere at this prestigious festival!
You now know as much as we do! For more information about the festival, please visit Tribeca’s Website.
Many, many thanks!
Brenna & Tom
Brenna Sanchez & Tom Putnam
Producer/directors, BURN
Congrats! Truly great news from a couple of talented filmmakers. BURN premiered at Tribeca on Sunday. You can catch it today (4/24/12) at 9:45pm at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 8. It you’re in NYC/ at Tribeca, definitely check this one out.
#Vanguard the best doc series you might never see again
This is a special Tuesday’s with friends. In fact it’s more like a Tuesday’s with former colleagues in honor of the great work done by the Vanguard team at our alma mater Current TV.
Vanguard is an institution of of investigative journalism, and the jewel in the crown at Current TV. Unfortunately, due to shrinking revenues and a change in format, Current is moving away from in-house production of the series. That means layoffs and a questionable future for investigative journalism at the network.
On Saturday we saw a tweet from one of the Vanguard staff saying that the series was not being renewed. That was followed by this article in Sunday’s Media Decoder section of the New York Times, where Brian Stelter wrote that:
In what some called a cost-cutting move, the channel last week dismissed most of the roughly 10 “Vanguard” employees. Some were offered other jobs. The channel will continue to produce “Vanguard” documentaries, but with freelancers.
David Bohrman, the president of Current TV, said in a statement that production was not being canceled. “But given the network’s new focus on political news and analysis, we have chosen to change the present in house production model for ‘Vanguard.’ ”
After that article hit the interwebs several tweets and Facebook posts from our friends and former colleagues still working on the series followed (along with lots of support sent to those folks from all of our peers in the ex-Current TV community).
We understand the economics behind this decision. We also want Current to succeed. However, we still see this as a sad moment for Current TV. Vanguard represented that last ray of idealism that propelled us to working for Current early on, and we aren’t alone in feeling that way. In truth, the scale back of Vanguard is just another example of media landscape abandoning expensive investigative journalism in favor of rambling pundentry. And that’s sad for more than just Current TV.
Our best wishes to all the Vanguard staff entering the “freelance” world. The water’s not bad out here, especially not for talented folks like y’all.
In the meantime, you can still check out episodes of Vanguard on Current (if you have it) and you should.
JADED Sizzle Reel
This is our first sizzle reel. It’s meant to be fast, fun, and to communicate the scope of what we’re capable of with an emphasis on Branded Content, Serial Programming, and Non-Fiction.
It features work written, produced, shot, or edited (and in many cases a combination of all of the above) by Abby and/ or Jeremey. It includes work produced as staff at Nick@Nite and TV Land, Current TV, HarperCollins, and Seesmic. It includes client work for Bank of America (iB5k), ESPN, Causes, Current TV, Supercharged: The Life and Times of Tim Brauch, Institute for the Future, Roughneck Hardware, and DWNTWN Skate Supply. It also includes clips from independently produced projects including Make it Happen: DIY Across America, It’s a Rough Life, and Roughcutz Da Movie.
Full list of videos below:
DWNTWN: SOMA
One Ride
Current TV: Sisterz of the Underground
DWNTWN: Tenderloin
Roughneck Hardware: BART Tour 2010
Make It Happen: Chuck Perkins and Voices of the Big Easy
Roughcutz Da Movie
Make It Happen: Lost Film Fest
HarperOne: Tales of Wonder by Huston Smith
Bank of America: BUILT NYC
Bank of America: White Memorial Hospital
Bank of America: Adams and Central
Bank of America: Butte College Workforce Development
It’s a Rough Life
Causes.com: The Gift of Giving
ESPN.com: Roughneck BART Tour 2009
Atlas Skateboard Store
Supercharged, the Life and Times of Tim Brauch: Open/ Web Promo
Nick@Nite: Brady Weekend Promo
Institue for the Future: Future Cal Courts Employee Orientation
HarperOne: Mariel’s Kitchen by Mariel Hemingway
Current TV: Current@Bonnaroo, SuchNSuch
Seesmic Cafe
Unboxing on Seesmic
Yahoo! Current Action Buzz
Thrasher Bust or Bail 2008
Make It Happen: Lowcard
Current TV: Invisible Children, Displace Me
Seesmic DuJour
Make It Happen: Okay Mountain
Make It Happen: Austin Craft Mafia
Institue for the Future: Cal Courts Justice Chronicles
Current TV: BlakkBox, Kidnapped
It’s a Rough Life coming soon…
This is a quick update on one of our projects, It’s a Rough Life with Johnny Roughneck:
As some of you know, we’ve been working with the Roughneck squad for years.
In 2010, while Jeremey was on a trip with Roughneck to shoot the Cowtown Phoenix Am contest for ESPN.com, he shot some pilot material for what we hope to be a Roughneck reality show concentrating on Johnny’s eccentric circle of friends, family, and team riders.
We are now editing that material into a a series of webisodes that will be premiering later this year. In fact, we already have a few in the can.
Stay tuned for lots more.
The Death of Radio Bandido: A Chicano Mystery
A few years ago we started working with an excellent Bay Area Filmmaker/ production jack-of-all-trades by the name of Pepe Urquijo. THEN he decided to move to New York City to further his education so we didn’t see him for awhile… that is until this spring when we had a gig in New York City and we reached out to Pepe to give us some names because we needed assistance on the shoot. Like the champ that he is, he offered himself (even though were pulling a 6am to 9pm day). Pepe is solid.
The Death of Radio Bandido: A Chicano Mystery is his latest documentary about…
Oscar “Bandido” Gomez was a radio activist based out of the University of California, Davis who roamed the Golden State like the famous social bandits of a hundred years before. He was a hero, a voice for human rights in the U.S. and abroad and exposed audiences to many struggles against injustice. Oscar emerged as a citizen journalist with a loyal audience ranging from farm workers, neighborhood youth, activists, prison inmates, and college students…
In 1994, sadly, Oscar’s body was found on the shores of Santa Barbara. The local police dismissed the case as an accident. The more I studied the official recorded circumstances of his death, the more I realized it is filled with unsatisfactory explanations, unexplained conclusions and unanswered questions thus making the case of Oscar’s death a perfect example of the type of injustice and oversight that Bandido himself would expose through the media…
This documentary is not only a sincere heartfelt attempt to make clear the events of that night which led up to Oscar’s death but also shedding light on his journey from Baldwin Park to the unfortunate bluffs of Isla Vista, Santa Barbara. Without fully comprehending the possibilities of what might have transpired that night and without fully appreciating the significance of the voice we all lost, we can’t possibly move forward. Radio Bandido begins the process of moving in that direction.
For a full write up please go to the Kickstarter page where Pepe is trying to raise $22,000 for post-production, finishing, marketing, and festivals. This is a worthy project and we encourage you to support it (as we have ourselves).
For more info visit the facebook page, twitter account and wordpress blog.
Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy out on DVD
Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy takes you inside a hillbilly skateboarder “commune” in Appalachia where anything goes. The self-declared cult-leader of Skatopia converts punk skaters into volunteer labor, battles bill collectors, does a stint in jail and raises his own family amidst the chaos. Not just for skateboarders, the film explores the glory and the challenges of pursuing your own dream.
Back in 2006, Jeremey happened to be at Skatopia with his partner at the time, Allison Muir. They were filming the Bowl Bash for Current TV.
88 Acres of Anarchy was in production then. The filmmakers, Laurie House and Colin Powers had been camped out at Skatopia with their Headlamp crew for a few months and they were planning to be there for a few more, which blew Jeremey’s mind. If you’ve ever seen any footage of Skatopia than you know what a commitment to filmmaking that was. JADED’s been following the progress of the film ever since.
In fact, we had the pleasure of premiering our short documentary Make It Happen: Lowcard a few slots before the North American premiere of 88 Acres of Anarchy at the 1st International Skateboard Film Festival in Seattle a couple of years ago. Then we hung out with Laurie and the Skatopians during the after party at Marginal Way. It was great talking to her about filmmaking, and we are now excited to share the news that Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy is out on DVD at skatopiathemovie.com and it hits the stores on July 12.
The Collector’s Edition features over 90 minutes of material not found on the retail version. If you order before July 12, they’ll throw in a sticker pack free.
The retail edition ships free in the US with the discount code: freeship
They also need some help getting it up on Netflix. Click here and hit “Save” or “Add to My Queue”.
Oh yeah, and like them on Facebook
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New JADED Promo Reel!
Enjoy our first JADED sizzler! Jeremey wanted to name it “We Out Here”, but Abby thought that would look like we had bad grammer.
This promo is a long time coming. The last reels we cut were in 2006 after we left Current TV. Almost every year since then, we have planned to produce a new one, but it’s never been able to rise high enough on the priority list to become a reality. How it happened now is mystery to us. We are actually really busy. Slammed in fact. We’re working a big job for an important client. Yet somehow, in between rounds of notes, Jeremey was inspired to start cutting a promo reel. We figured that we’d get something started and get around to finishing it at some unknown moment in the future… and then it just came together. Crazy. We’re really happy with this video, and we hope you enjoy it.
It’s meant to be fast, fun, and to communicate the scope of what we’re capable of with an emphasis on Branded Content, Serial Programming, and Non-Fiction.
It features work written, produced, shot, or edited (and in many cases a combination of all of the above) by Abby and/ or Jeremey. It includes work produced as staff at Nick@Nite and TV Land, Current TV, HarperCollins, and Seesmic. It includes client work for Bank of America (iB5k), ESPN, Causes, Current TV, Supercharged: The Life and Times of Tim Brauch, Institute for the Future, Roughneck Hardware, and DWNTWN Skate Supply. It also includes clips from independently produced projects including Make it Happen: DIY Across America, It’s a Rough Life, and Roughcutz Da Movie. For a full list of videos used in this promo click here.
Enjoy!