It’s been about 16 months that Eric and I have been putting out a weekly podcast episode with upside. Along the way, we’ve had all kinds of other ideas — especially different episode formats.
One of the formats Eric really wanted to explore was a deeper dive into one city. Bring in a bunch of voices into one podcast episode about one specific startup ecosystem.
After a while, we realized that a 3-hour, multi-voice podcast episode would be a TON of production and a pretty difficult piece of audio to listen to.
But what about film?
We caught a break when we got the opportunity to hire an intern named Kyle. Kyle sent us a samples his work before interviewing with us, which ranged from 60 seconds to four minutes. We weren’t really sure what he was capable of, but we hired him anyway.
We thought we’d make a proof of concept video that we may be able to use to get a series funded one day. And since I live in Columbus and have the relationships already, why not start there?
I started reaching out to folks around Columbus who I wanted to be a part of the film, and they all agreed to an interview. Basically all of them. The shots turned out great, and our audio equipment worked perfectly.
We started looking at the footage and realized our “proof of concept” had the makings of a real film.
I went to the local independent theater to ask about doing a screening and was told, “Sure, we could do a screening…but have you considered film festivals?” A few days later, we were accepted into a film festival in September.
So now, with the festival fast approaching, we are finishing post-production on a 90-minute documentary about the Columbus startup ecosystem.
If you would’ve asked me four months ago if I was capable of producing a full length film, I would’ve said no.
If you would’ve asked if I wanted to create a film over the course of 3 months, I would’ve told you I didn’t have time.
And yet, here we are. It’s been a ton of work to this point to this point, and there’s a ton of work yet to go, but we’ll have a full-length documentary by September 12. For that, I mostly have ignorance and just getting started to thank.
“Ignorance” because I had no idea what it would take to put this thing together.
“Just getting started” because if you would’ve TOLD me what it would take, I wouldn’t have taken it on.
We’re capable of so much more than we think. What are you talking yourself out of?
PS: The majority of kudos go to Kyle. Ohio State covered his experience here.