Just a quick update to tell you where I’m at

After moving back to the Bay Area for six months… I’m about to mix it up again… where to? I’m not exactly sure!

We had some great success and challenges with the documentary film project – Andrea and I met up in Northern India last year to interview Tibetan Exiles about non-violence, China, the Olympics… you can see some of our work online here:
http://digitaldharmafilms.org
due to lack of funding and general life being what it is … the project of making a full length documentary is on hold…. but if you are interested in helping or have any film-maker resources, please clue me in!

I’m looking for places to go visit and work/live for a bit – specifically farms, cooperatives, retreat centers, land projects where there is a need for some skilled hands and a commitment to Art, Community, Activism and just plain having a good ‘ole time…. so if you know of anything like that out there please let me know.

I’m also looking to buy a truck that can be my workhorse – a good truck for traveling, working on a farm, maybe through a camper on it, tow a trailer with some tools and camera and stilts and my chef knives…. a gypsy wagon!

My short term plan is to explore and have a respite from the city for 6-mo or a year, and then see where that leads me or perhaps go back to school… maybe in Sweden!

So that’s the nutshell version…. of my life… would love to hear about you!

In Gratitude,

Tom Sepe

As it stands now, Andrea is moving to India next month, and the film is now 100% in my hands. One powerful lesson I’ve learned over the last few months is that it takes a tremendous amount of time to produce a documentary film – on the order of months if not years. Of these two new developments, I’ve decided to re-assess. Basically to discard any previous notions and start from the beginning.

This is more than necessary, as I was beginning to get discouraged, or at least feel overwhelmed by the complexity and enormity of the project!

Recently, I had the good fortune to meet with a professional dicumentary film editor, Kathleen Dargis. She turned me on to a book entitled “Trailer Mechanics” by Fernanda Rossi, and it is walking me through the steps to fully understand my motivations and desires for making a film. This is so important for if I’m going to dedicate the next year of my life to this project, then I better be doing it fir the right reasons, or I’ll get burned out, or worse just fail miserably!

So now I am starting to develop a concept around the values and topics that I am interested in… and then the next step will be to create a fundraisibg trailer that will demonstrate the idea to foundations and potential finders, as well ad become a tool for developing an audience for the film.

My current production schedule;

Nov-Dec -Fundraise from my immediate network while working on concept. Perhaps a few intimate evenings where I can show footage, talk about the project and get support.

Jan-Feb – Edit the trailer

March – ? apply for grants, private donors, create events. Also this will be when I will be doing additional interviews or filming to support the new film story/framework.

Stat tuned!

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so the goal here is to publish a daily trials and tribulations, deep thoughts, and big questions, while not making too many typos.

here we go!

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