PILOT RELEASE
Finishing the 11 minute pilot version of the documentary was such an exciting time in our house, SOOO many hours of painful editing had gone into this. Painful, not because it wasn't enjoyable, but because it was so hard to not include everything. There were entire interviews that weren't able to make it in, whole subjects of discussion that we couldn't get to, and I love them all so much that I wanted them all in! Matt had to keep reminding me that this wasn't the final project, it wasn't that we weren't using them, we just weren't using them YET. For this video it had to be short, so we crafted the best short version we could, and I stand by it with my full heart. It is not the documentary, it is a commercial for what the documentary could be. But before we completely shared it with the world we wanted to have a big release party to say thank you to all those who shared their time, lives, and stories with us and to kickoff our fundraising efforts. We thought through a lot of different venues and event ideas, some that would have been a more formal adult-only situation and had a better viewing capability for the documentary, but in the end we wanted it to be a fun family event. We decided on a BBQ at the park with bouncy houses/slide and a raffle. We had to sacrifice a bit of viewing quality since we were outside watching a TV in the sunlight, but homeschooling is about families so we wanted this night to be about families! We invited all of the crew and local homeschoolers we had been interviewing and working with so far, as well as the homeschool community as a whole and anyone else who was interested. The party came together very nicely, we were able to get quite a few really awesome donations from local businesses for our raffle items, Matt's mom offered to help us with all the food (huge relief! Thanks Patty!) and we dove head first into making it all happen, I might have been a bit woozy from all the time i spent with sharpies and paint fumes making posters and signs ; )
PARTY TIME
There were a few snags with setting up, like our giant 15 foot banner ripping and falling down in the first 20 minutes (i didn't even get a picture, ugh!), but once we started, the party was great! we had a wonderful turn out and it was fun to be together celebrating what we had created so far. The kids went wild on the bounce house and slide, which i had put my very calm and kind mom in charge of supervising without realizing how stressful it was... (sorry momma!) but no children got too seriously injured and they all seemed to have a blast! The food was delicious and people talked and watched the exclusive footage we had showing, of things that wont be seen again until the full-length doc is released. The raffle was well visited and a great start to fundraising for the documentary, and the weather was perfect. The only things i wish i could change was that I unfortunately didn't have much of a voice so I couldn't talk very well, and I was so stressed I think my face looked less happy than my heart felt. But oh man, words can not describe how I felt listening to Matt talk to the crowd about our project, our vision, and our passion. Asking them to help us make this all it could be, to have this be the beginning, not the end... This is it, we were actually here, doing the big thing! Then, to watch the faces of the people in the video, who are now some of my dearest friends and biggest inspirations, watching what we had put together- it was both terrifying and deeply satisfying. Overall, a huge celebration of all we have done in the 6 months leading up to the party. The crowd seemed to unanimously love it and the cheers at the end made me cry. I'm so glad that we all watched it together.
JUNE 7TH
Ten years ago on 06/07/08 Matt proposed to me. It wasn't one of those situations where we already knew we were getting married and I was just waiting for the formality of a proposal- I had other life plans that I was very committed to, and they did not include getting married any time soon... He was honestly asking a very big risky question and he did not know how I would respond. I loved him with all my heart, that wasn't the question, but I had to be willing to step into the unknown. He felt very vulnerable as he presented me with what he thought was an exciting new plan of joining forces to be "Life Adventure Buddies". He hoped I would see the value in spending our lives side by side- that we could be stronger, happier, and even more awesome combined than we each could be separately. That we would still accomplish great things, we would just be married for them. He promised he would take care of me, not in a im-a-girl-so-i-need-a-man type of way, but that he would make me laugh every single day, he would calm me down when my heart was racing, he would make all my joys so much deeper by being there to celebrate with me. And so, in one of the biggest plot twist surprises to my own mind- I said YES, and it truly HAS led to the greatest life adventures. I am forever grateful that he took the risk.
Now, a decade later, we came together on this same night of the year to propose our idea to the world. We believe in the message of this documentary, We believe that although the 11 minute version IS amazing, it could be SO much stronger, deeper, and even more awesome if we could give it the time and space it needs to really tell the story of homeschooling. This isn't something that is possible to fully express in 11 minutes, it just isn't. So here we are, feeling risky and vulnerable, asking the world to see the goodness of what we are offering- we want to create this, we want to give our heart, talents, and time to crafting a documentary that explains homeschooling to those who don't "get it", that tells the stories of why people choose to do this. And we promise to take care of the story, we WILL do it well, we will show variety, we will stay focused on the heart of the message, we will only accept the highest production quality possible. We believe the world truly needs this message and that it will help so many people. And yet, we have no idea how people will respond. We CAN NOT progress any further without outside financial help. We really hope that the pilot we have created will show a taste of what we can provide, but that it leaves people wanting more, because there is SO much more. This date is so special to me- the perfect date to take a leap into the unknown. At the very beginning of this journey I mentioned to Matt that it would be awesome to make a documentary about homeschooling, and he jumped in headfirst without looking back. No matter how this ends up going, I'm proud of what we have created so far.
Once again, I will be forever grateful he took the risk.
***Thank you SO MUCH to Holly Merrill of "The Bison and the Bird" for taking these amazing photos!
