Tag Archives: Colorado

The Goat Show Documentary

Hello Friends and Family!

All my life I have been waiting to shoot a feature film.  This week, I took the first major step in making all my dreams come true!  I am thrilled to announce that the American Dairy Goat Association has granted me permission to shoot a feature documentary at the 2012 National Goat Show in Loveland, Colorado.

Raising and showing goats was once a huge part of my life, but after graduating from high school and moving to Boston for college, I found that the goat-showing, goat-raising community is very unknown to the masses.  Since this revelation, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to produce a feature documentary on ADGA and the goat showing community.  Now that I work in the professional film world, I have the experience, equipment, connections and know-how to do it.

I have already spoken with dozens of ADGA members about what they would like to see in a documentary about the goat world, and from those interviews I have come up with three goals for the production: 1) Promote the goat, America’s most misunderstood farm animal, 2) Educate about ADGA and goat showing, 3) Share goat showing with America in a fun and enlightening way.  In addition to editing the footage into a feature, we will also create several short, online 2-5 minute videos for ADGA members, friends, family and donors to watch and enjoy during production and post-production.

Naturally, I brought on Trevor and Julian to help me and for the last month we have been hard at work in preproduction— planning, scheduling and budgeting.

Just yesterday we launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign (www.kickstarter.com/projects/792010307/the-goat-show-documentary).  Within 6 hours we were at the top of the Staff Pick’s page!  Please check it out!  We’re trying to raise at least $30,000 to pay for our travel, equipment, post-production and distribution / publicity.

For those of you who have never heard of Kickstarter before, it is the leading “crowdfunding” website for creative projects.  “Crowdfunding” is a financing concept that has recently proven its success in the film world.  Instead of having to rely on big investors and studios, Indie producers have started using the Internet and websites like Kickstarter or Indie Go Go to collect huge numbers of small donations to fund a film, mostly from family, friends and fans.

This brings me to my next request:  please consider donating to my film!  I think our best chance at success is putting the right foot forward in preproduction.  There are lots of great incentives (see Kickstarter) and I promise that we will keep you updated on our progress. Thank you so much for your help!  Please spread the word to your friends and anyone else who you think would be interested in the project.

WEBSITE: www.goatshowdoc.com

KICKSTARTER: www.kickstarter.com/projects/792010307/the-goat-show-documentary

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/GoatShowDoc

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Goat-Show-Documentary/401719719843865

365 Day Photo Project: Day 109

Monday’s photos of the Colorado scenery and our adorable new little munchkins:  Cameo and Kodak.

Driving home on I-25

Cameo drinks her afternoon bottle of milk

Look at those eyelashes <3

Kodak (left) and Cameo (right) nibble on the gate

The epic view from my window yesterday afternoon.  Luckily it didn’t rain on us, but it seemed to rain everywhere around us.

365 Day Photo Project: Day 21

Sunset on the farm:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS w/ 60 mm lens, f/22, 400 ISO, 1/125th sec.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS w/ 60 mm lens, f/2.8, 400 ISO, 1/1000th sec.

Chammy (L) and Cream Puff (R) waiting for some food

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS w/ 60 mm lens, f/2.8, 400 ISO, 1/200th sec.

Red Rocks, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Mom’s New Camera

Long time, no post!  Apologies, friends and family and random strangers that come across the blog.  I promise to be better this semester.

After a long and grueling summer, I took a week-long vacation (or “powerpointcation” as I like to call it… joking, Mother) at home in Colorado.  Ah, beautiful Colorado.  Spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, fruit plain… I could go on.  Instead, I’ll talk about two of my favorite things from vacation: Mom’s new camera and Rodrigo y Gabriela.

As a cameraphile, I was secretly thrilled when my mother’s old digital camera died and we had to get a new one.  For all you in the market for a new point-and-shoot, I would highly recommend the Canon PowerShot, a tried and true favorite of my family, and, as it seems, thousands of people in the U.S.  We went with a Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS (highly rated on Amazon and B&H).  As the trigger-happy owner of a DSLR, I’ve been very pleased with my mother’s new camera.  Modern P&S technology amazes me.  Anyway, here are my first shots, of who might be the 2nd cutest dog in the world:


Nothing to write home about framing and composition wise, but that dog is sure cute.  And I’m very pleased with the camera…

Which happened to be the very camera I took to Rodrigo y Gabriela’s concert at Red Rocks!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rodrigo y Gabriela, familiarize yourself now.  I recommend Grooveshark.  As an award-winning guitar Mexican duo, their concerts are packed with seemingly impossible acoustic guitar licks and Latin rhythms.  ¡Viva México!  Of all the concerts I’ve seen at Red Rocks, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s was certainly one of the best– and even better, they allowed cameras!  The Fray?  No cameras.  Iron and Wine?  No Cameras.  Flight of the Conchords?  No Cameras.  For those of you who haven’t been to Red Rocks, GO.  Red Rocks is clearly the best venue on the planet.  THE WHOLE PLANET.  And what better to convince you than pictures?

Have you ever seen such a beautiful parking lot?

From above the general seating section… luckily we were in reserved.  But no matter your seat, the view and the acoustics are AMAZING.

Ever wonder how Red Rocks got its name?

You can’t exactly tell in this picture, but you can see the city of Denver and even all the way to DIA (Denver International Airport) from Red Rocks.  How beautiful!

Because of the natural structure of the rocks, Red Rocks has amazing acoustics.

One more night shot….

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS BLOG:  Buy a Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS, listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela (try Diablo Rojo- mi favorito) and go to Red Rocks!

More blogs soon, te prometo.

Colorado Recommendations: Zoo Lights and The Carousel Dinner Theater

For all of you Colorado residents out there, I have two excellent recommendations.

First of all, let me recommend the Carousel Dinner Theater.  The 17 years I was living in Colorado, mom and I kept saying we should go to Carousel, but we never got around to it.  Since I left, I realized it is one of the coolest and most unique things Fort Collins has to offer.  Last May, I bought tickets for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, one of my favorite musicals.  Carousel was not to disappoint.  The food is amazing and there is not a single bad seat in the house.  The performers were amazing and even better—they serve you your food!  Coffee and dessert were served at intermission (let me also recommend the toasted almond cheesecake- my favorite).  In August when I was home I went to High School Musical with Angelo—another great experience.  On Sunday, mom and I went to see White Christmas and it was absolutely fantastic!  (The holiday ham was the best ham I have ever had).  Now every time I’m home I’ll be checking to see what’s on at Carousel!  Be sure to check it out.  Tickets are only $44—and that includes both dinner AND the show.  What a deal!  Upcoming shows include Annie, A Chorus Line and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

http://www.adinnertheatre.com/

Another recommendation—Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo –another thing I missed while I actually lived in Colorado.  On Monday, I went to Zoo Lights with mom and aunt Lucy and it was well worth the $8 ticket price and 2 hours of very cold fingers.  The Zoo was absolutely covered in lights and many of the animal houses (elephants, giraffes, reptiles, etc.) were still open.  There were dozens of stands set up selling hot chocolate and “hot spirits.”  Well worth the drive to Denver—just make sure and bundle up before you go!

http://www.denverzoo.org

Enjoy!