As I prepare to start full production in January, I wanted to take a few minutes to answer one of the most common questions I get about the project. Who is paying for the production of Filming Florida? Quite simply, the answer is nobody, but also lots of people.

Confused? This is what I mean. Filming Florida is anything but conventional, and I have specifically chosen to be an independent project. It means I can tell the stories that I believe are the most important, and I can dedicate the next several years to the project. If there was a large team of us, it would be very difficult to operate over the long term due to the expense of paying all the salaries. With just me, I can not only keep the expenses down, but I can also have a much smaller environmental footprint.

However, as result of choosing to be independent, it also means I don’t have a studio, tv channel, or large production company providing the financial backing for the project. I must do all of my own fundraising to make the project happen. To be brutally honest, it is my least favorite aspect of the project, yet it is absolutely essential to making Filming Florida a reality. I am exploring three primary avenues for funding: grants, corporate sponsorship, and individual contributions. I have spent much of the last few months writing and submitting grant applications. As I announced a few weeks ago, I have received a major grant from the Clive Foundation. I still have a few more to submit in November and will submit another round in the spring, but it may be several months before I hear back on them all. In the meantime, I am also talking with companies about providing support through in-kind product donations or cash and hope to make some announcements with respect to this in the coming weeks.

Today, I am turning too you, my audience, to ask for your support. If you have enjoyed the last 10 months of Daily Species, the first four films in the Nature Profiles series, the blog posts, or are excited about what is to come, I ask that you consider making a donation to support the project.

There are two ways to donate. First, you can donate directly to the project, which is not tax deductible, or you can make a tax-deductible donation through my fiscal agent, the Florida Wildlife Corridor (formerly the Legacy Institute of Nature and Culture). Both options accept a check or credit card and are secure and easy to do. All the instructions for both options are below or found on the Support page. Even if you are unable to make a donation, please pass this post and the website along to your friends and family that might be interested in the project.

This has been an incredible year of planning and working to make Filming Florida a reality. Now that I am set to begin production in January, I would be honored to have your support as I move forward and tell incredible stories about Florida’s natural landscape and biodiversity. Thank you for your consideration and support.

 

Direct Donations:  You can make a donation directly to Filming Florida with a credit card through PayPal (click the button below) or by sending a check made payable to Filming Florida to PO Box 547102, Orlando, FL  32854.  Please note that this method is not tax-deductible.  If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, please see the second option below.

Tax Deductible Donations: The Florida Wildlife Corridor serves as the fiscal agent for Filming Florida. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Florida Wildlife Corridor accepts funds on the project’s behalf, extending tax-deductible status to these donations to the full extent of the law.  The Florida Wildlife Corridor will provide the necessary receipt and paperwork for your records.

There are two easy ways to make a donation to support Filming Florida through the Florida Wildlife Corridor.

• Donate online by simply visiting the Florida Wildlife Corridor’s page at the Network for Good website and be sure to include “Filming Florida” in the Designation box.  Please note this page lists the “Legacy Institute of Nature and Culture” which is the organization behind the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
• Send a check to the Florida Wildlife Corridor at P.O. Box 1802, Tampa, FL 33601. Be sure to make it payable to the Florida Wildlife Corridor and put “Filming Florida” on the check’s memo line or in an enclosed note.

It’s been a year since I first announced Filming Florida last October. It was January 1st when I started pre-production and the Daily Species series. Today, I am excited to announce that in just over two months, on January 1, 2015, I will be officially starting full production. This means I will be in the field full time, and media creation and storytelling will be my primary focus. That means I have just over two months to wrap up the rest of my preproduction tasks and be ready to go on January 1st.

I’ve got a lot to do and I can’t do it all on my own. Today, I am officially launching a fundraising campaign that will build upon the momentum of my first grant and other donations and raise enough to sustain this project through at least six months of field work. Check back on Wednesday for the full details and breakdown of this fundraising campaign and learn how you can help.

In addition to fundraising, I have spent a large part of the last few months focused on the story I want to tell. I am currently dedicating a large part of each day to focusing on story development and research. Nothing is more important than the story, and the research for each of the eight episodes is proceeding nicely. I’ve got some strong outlines and sequence lists and will slowly be building out shot lists and scouting locations. Between now and the January 1st launch, I will be spending a lot of time taking these lists and outlines and making them more concrete, determining best locations and times to shoot and penciling in a schedule on my calendar.

Finally, as the story develops, I am working on lots of technical details and testing new gear, and at times even building new gear, to capture the images required for the story. I’ve spent a lot of time soldering circuit boards, testing out solar panels and chargers, and calibrating time lapse systems. I’ve been finalizing my digital workflows for all the different cameras and devices and figuring the best way to capture, store, edit, and archive this incredibly diverse range of materials. I’ve made huge progress on all of this but still have a lot of gaps to fill. There’s still a lot to do and I will be sharing these stories with you in the next few months.

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to begin the field portion of this project. After all, the field work and filmmaking is what I live for and to finally shift my focus to the production part of this project is incredible exciting!

It is hard to believe that one year ago today, I officially announced Filming Florida and launched this website. Since that day I have moved to Florida and fully dedicated my life to Filming Florida. Basically, from the moment I wake until the moment I go to sleep I am working on this project and even if I am not directly working on some aspect of the project, it is still bouncing around in m head. It’s even working its way in to my dreams.

Since that announcement, I’ve made major strides in every aspect of the project. I’ve restructured the single documentary to an eight part miniseries to better serve the story. I’ve reduced the focus on the “how” of making films and refocused me energies on finding the best ways to tell these Florida stories. I’ve posted nearly 300 species in my daily species series and learned an incredible amount of natural history along the way. I’ve met with some really amazing biologists and conservationists and explored new areas of the state. I’ve received the first major grant supporting the project and am now making the final preparations to commence full production.

It’s been an incredible year and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their support and encouragement throughout the past year. It isn’t easy to throw yourself entirely into a project like this, but it has been an incredible year. I promise you, this is only the beginning. Check back on Monday for some announcements concerning the next major phase of the project!