Episode 1: Part 1

Up and available for viewing as of last night :-)



Feedback has so far been 100% positive!... but that's also primarily friends and family.

The subject, Marianne, is a good friend of mine and was kind enough to be the guinea pig for my first episode. I am happy with how it turned out. I feel I should have been more meticulous with the interview process: I forgot to ask her to do a few things that would have made editing easier, but that is my fault. I honestly lucked out having Marianne for the first episode - the perfect subject for Part 1. I learned a lot of how I'm going to do subsequent Modern Portland's from her so a big thanks to Marianne. Other well deserved thanks can be seen in the end credits on the first video. I need to especially thank the people that helped me get permission to shoot at Pacific University Oregon on such short notice.

Plugging the video into the social network pipeline has been harder than I thought it would be. I need to hit up forums and the like its just I really don't know which ones are the right ones since I'm so new to the area. I'm hesitant to just hit all of them up for fear of being overwhelmed. Probably my second weakest trait for the series. My first? Sales.

I haven't really 'sold' the marketing potential that Modern Portland has to anybody yet. It's just not my thing! Sales to me is hard - I know I have a good product and it'd be other humans that I'm selling to... humans just like me, that have gone out on a limb and really put themselves out there professionally, but it isn't something I'm comfortable doing. I really am scared of not being able to do that part of it at all. Grants are my next best bet. I met a guy at ultimate frisbee pick-up named Dan, and he seemed conveniently knowledgeable about different organizations that would be interested in giving me a grant or two to do what I'm doing. I gave him my email but have not heard from him. I need to get on that...

Speaking of need to get a move on... the second episode has more or less hit a wall. I need to be more vigilant on my search for people to interview. I feel that these first 3 parts are going to be the hardest. Maybe I should loosen up some parameters on this second episode. I was being pretty specific. I am looking for a couple, low to mid 30's, both employed, a young kid was 'optional' (for my purposes :-P), and have lived in the city for 3 - 5 years. I met up with my new documentary film buddy, Matt, today to help him shoot for his Rhino doc and he had another captain of the team there with him, Mario. Mario brought up a good point: Most people move to Portland in their 20's, so you would be hard fought to find 30-somethings that have only been here for that short amount of time. I am going to touch base with the captain of Tire Fire, Mike, about getting in touch with some older couples. He seems pretty established and has a 9-year-old kid. He is also a teacher and would know a lot of families. I would ask him to be my next focus but I need to try to reach out beyond the ultimate community.

Overall, it does not look like Modern Portland will be a weekly thing... at least not yet: I'd need to establish a pretty good rhythm for that to happen and it might be possible later on down the road. But not now. Right now I need to concentrate on making a quality product, using local resources, and saving personal resources.

Portland Facts: Portland is actually very well known for having so many nicknames! A few good ones are Stumptown, Bridgetown, Little Beirut (?), Beervania, Beertown, P-Town, Soccer City USA, Portlandia, PDX, and the most common, The City of Roses, which became the official nickname in 2003. [source]