Bush Prize for Community Innovation Story Series
Passenger has a van. It’s tall, looks like it’s from an NSA repo sale, and catches wind like a catamaran on the South Pacific. Unfortunately, a death grip on the steering wheel does little to keep the van from ambling across the center line on icy roads in North Dakota as each 40mph gust of wind taunts disaster. Brett and I are silent as we slide down the highway trying not to imagine the van ripped open, titanic like, with production gear, pelican cases, and us strewn across the tundra. While cursing realities like geography, weather, and wind physics I remember that we are out here because of an incredible invitation.
Three weeks earlier team Passenger took a collective sigh of uncertainty as doors close on an elevator that lifts us up to a meeting with the Bush Foundation in Saint Paul, MN. Not to be confused with the political family or the baked beans people with the talking dog, The Bush Foundation is the legacy of 3M founder Archibald Bush. The Foundation invests heavily in the Dakotas and Minnesota, supporting individuals and organizations that are committed to making their respective communities better through truly innovative efforts. The foundation issued an RFP – request for proposals – to tell the stories of the Foundation’s nine 2013 Bush Prize for Community Innovation winners. Passenger submitted a proposal and found ourselves in the Bush Foundation’s conference room presenting on our processes, capacity, and why we love story. They in turn presented us with a, self-admittedly, daunting challenge. Produce nine short documentaries, spanning three states in 8 weeks at a quality representative of the Foundation’s own sterling reputation. Furthermore, these stories needed to showcase the winners’ innovation, collaboration, & sustainability, amongst other traits.
Simultaneously, we were also producing nine short docs for the OTA conference that were also due in eight weeks. Although the aggressive schedule paired with broad logistics created a the potential for failure we trusted in our processes and experience to engage with the risk. First steps of trepidation soon turned to confidence as we picked up the phone and reached out to the various Bush Prize winners we would be featuring. Each subject was incredibly generous with their time and resources ensuring that our production schedule quickly locked into place. Furthermore the Bush Foundation had paved the way by making sure each subject was familiar with Passenger and communicating the scope of the project.
Armed with our “Passenger Process,” we embarked on a 25-day journey simultaneously juggling pre-production, production, and post-production. To help facilitate the work flow we routinely overnighted footage to best of breed partner Ben Swan. Ben handled all 5K transcoding and debayering, as well as general assembly, using a pipeline that allowed Passenger to tackle revisions, color correction, sound mix, and locking in final cuts upon our return to Passenger HQ. Shooting RED 5K Raw files, our post processes were key to guiding the 10 terabytes of video raw data from capture through delivery. Trusting said processes in each stage of the project and the collaboration with the Foundation and Prize Winners allowed our nimble infrastructure to support such a heavy story load.
It became immediately clear why the Bush Foundation chose each Bush Prize winner. One of our goals was to showcase how each organization or individual used innovation to better engage their community. Not the innovation of entrepreneurial rock stars or feel good business buzz words, but rather the innovation of substance and action. Bush Prize winner DeAnna Cummings of JXTA said it best that, “innovation is iteration”. In other words, a repeated application of process to a given problem. It is creative, collaborative, and sustainable…it’s hard work. Furthermore, it takes a special group of people to commit themselves to their respective field with such unwavering focus. Witnessing this genuine innovation at work was both inspiration and confirmation to keep pursuing these same ideals in our own field.
We eventually slid through Grand Forks, Rapid City, Minneapolis, Cloquet and other towns. Mile-marker after mile-maker with death grips and weary eyes, the mystique of hotels and eating out evaporating, all this seems distant and nearly nostalgic by now. Late nights finalizing edits, haggling over color curves, and sifting through mountains of music all paid off in the final product. We hit the deadline, the Foundation is pleased with the work, and each Bush Prize winner felt we artfully captured their story. It was an incredible experience that tested our capacity and we are truly grateful for that. The films are currently being used to encourage other community innovators to consider applying for the 2015 award.
You can view a behind the scenes video as well as the nine finals videos below.