Research and Development for Utah 1 // Entry #2
The Research and Development Trip // Utah 1 Begins
Just jump right in and figure it out later. Several months have passed since the Outdoor Retailer Summer took place and countless conference calls for researching into the story that was developing around the national monuments in Southern Utah. It’s early September 2017 at this point and the production team has begun to get a bit of cabin fever to get to Southern Utah to begin shooting...something.
We knew we needed to get an idea of the landscape, and exactly what the 1.3 million acres of Bears Ears would be like to navigate. But, more importantly, to understand the feeling of the land. What I mean by that is from our research, and in talking with countless experts from the area and close to the story, Bears Ears felt like no other place on earth. As film-makers we’ve experienced this sensation before on a variety of shoots, but there what we would experience in Bears Ears on this first trip (Utah 1 - R+D) would provide us with a sense of energy and motivation that we have never experienced before. This landscape is unlike anything on earth in terms of the feeling, the energy, the light, and the sense of exploration.
With a few physical maps, a shared google earth map because several of our crew members were working remotely in other parts of the country, we worked to create a 4 day, 3 night research and development trip to scout some parts in just one region of the Bears Ears National Monument. This trip would include the following objectives for this assignment:
Capture enough b-roll to put together some very early spec footage edits
Find at least 10 new locations to capture timelapses and aerial footage
Understand the logistics of putting together at least a 2 week long trip
What types of vehicles would be able to traverse the landscape in bad weather
These trips have become more and more important in the research and development phase of a project. While at first, with just a small seed budget these trips can appears like a large, unnecessary expense, in fact, these trips have proven themselves to be a real cost savings as pre production moves forward. The more you plan and prepare the more creative everyone can feel knowing what shots, what locations, and where the light moves throughout the day. While not having to worry about water reserves, how much food, not having to ration battery life, etc etc. When a full crew is out on assignment with a set timeline between interviews and locations, the field information that comes back from these trips help shape every decision and every camera kit that goes out into the field on a particular film.
Click here to see the interactive map of Bears Ears National Monument before and after the reduction. It was a helpful resource for us in planning this trip. While we’ll never share our own pins and locations given us to by other partners on this film, we will share discovered and public resources as the story progresses.
