Nothing gives you an appreciation for other people’s skills like diving headlong into a project for which you have no training…my hat goes off to all of the moviemakers and video editors out there. We are crawling through the process of converting 60+ hours of raw video footage into a watchable documentary. We have all of the videotapes transferred to computer hard drive in LOW resolution for editing purposes. We are now catagorizing clips and reviewing the interviews we conducted to pull out valuable pieces. It’s all very time consuming…
We have also created some broad thematic categories that may be interesting to explore in the “what is CSA?” feature. They are listed (in rough brainstorming terms) here.
Our intention is to produce an educational documentary video package with footage from the bicycle trip, in order to further build the CSA movement in Michigan and the Midwest. At this early stage in production, a number of video projects have been identified. These projects will be bundled together on a DVD for distribution to CSA farmers, community activists, and education and outreach specialists in Michigan. The videos will also be put up on the web as streaming video to reach a wider audience. The projects intended at this point include:
- “What is CSA?”, a 20-30 minute documentary exploring the ins and outs of CSA farms, what they are, and how they impact family farm economy, community, and land stewardship. Drawing from the wide variety of farms visited during the tour, this documentary will provide a deeper understanding of CSA’s to an audience that has heard of CSA but wants to know more. It will be useful to CSA farms and community activists as an education and farm recruitment tool, and to Extension as an in-house and community education tool.
- “CSA by CYCLE tour” – This documentary will focus more on the bicycle journey, providing a ‘human interest story’ that will expose a wider audience to CSA. It may be appropriate for local cable viewing, film festivals and public television.
- “Talkin’ CSA Blues” – a music video featuring an informative song by Michigan folk musician Seth Bernard and video footage from the CSA by CYLE tour. See http://www.glbconference.org/csatour2006/csa-trailer.html for a preview.
- “Feature Farmer” shorts – brief montages showing particular farmers and farms, telling their story and philosophy, etc.
- as we go through the video, it seems likely that other shorts/ extras will pop up, like “bloopers” footage, or a track aimed at farmers that highlights growing practices and other technical details of CSA operation.
Don’t you sometimes wonder where those production names that you see in the credits of films come from? I certainly do. Ours is simple: Turtle Spring was the name of the organic farm (and CSA for one season) that I started and managed on family land in Chelsea. The farm is no longer active, but we decided to immortalize the name - I mean, you have to have a name if you’re going to produce a video, no?
Here’s a more official sounding explanation:
Turtle Spring Productions (TSP) is a video production cooperative gathered to carry out the CSAbyCYCLE documentary video project. The mission of TSP is to create, promote and distribute a video that educates people about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), CSA farms, and local food systems; and inspires and empowers them to make changes in their eating, purchasing and lifestyle habits. The video will document experiences and farms from the 2006 Michigan CSAbyCYCLE bicycle tour. Martin Heller, Michelle Ferrarese and Dustin Edwards are primarily responsible for carrying out the TSP mission, but others may be engaged as necessary.
