Question: When will "Beyond Belief: Honeymoon at Burning Man" be finished?
(# of times asked: thrice daily).

Answer: Check our blog for the latest details!

See you at Burning Man or at a theater near you soon (hopefully)!

***

Question: How can I participate?

Go to our Participate! page (menu on the left side).

***

Why did it take so long to make? Wasn't it shot in 2003?

That's a long story. Briefly...

The editor originally pegged to cut the film was also the cameraman, Ben, but he was less than excited to shape the 30 hours of footage he shot.

The director, Mati, was getting very impatient and so the executive producer, Geoffrey, sat in on the meetings where the tapes were reviewed and ideas were discussed.

It wasn't even until 2004 that the company, Graven Image Films, was able to finance an editing system and Ben could start digitizing the tapes. Still he saw no coherent storyline developing and Mati was getting more impatient.

Ben moved to a new apartment further away, making meetings more difficult. He had to go back to work to afford it, which delayed the film further.

Geoffrey still tried to provide any assistance possible as far as motivation, story ideas and even money even though by the middle of the year he was laid off from his job, delaying the time frame further.

Mati left town, completely fed up with the progress.

Geoffrey tried to write a script based on the footage he had seen, but Ben still had no ideas.

Then in 2005 Ben announced that he had been robbed and that the computer with the movie still on it was stolen!

Luckily, he told us, it was retrieved when the thieves tried to pawn it and so it came to Graven Image Films to live (Geoffrey's apartment).

The movie was there, but all the notes and labels were in phrases that only Ben could understand. And so, armed with a beginner's book on editing software, Geoffrey set to work cataloging and categorizing all the 30 hours of footage on nights and weekends. It was impossible to determine which day the scenes occurred upon without looking for clues in the tapes themselves thanks to the incomplete labeling job.

By mid-2006 the labeling was done and the chronology was established. Then the editing began.

By practicing on video blogs, Geoffrey, was able to familiarize himself with the process enough to commence and the first thing he did was cut a trailer.

That in itself took over three-hundred hours working nights and weekends.

Why so long? Because there was no plot as yet, there was no title, no focus!

The original idea was to be an enlightening journey taken by four people, but that didn't happen as they all started fighting almost immediately.

It rapidly became clear that a new direction was needed and so the idea of focusing on the Honeymoon angle came to mind and a trailer was completed based on that notion.

That was posted on the internet and helped guide and inform the editing of the film itself (usually the trailer is completed after the film, but Geoffrey needed little steps).

Over six months of 12 hour days were required to get a first cut and the drain and strain that put on Geoffrey was extreme.

He lost sleep, weight and sanity and was barely able to keep afloat with odd jobs and being extremely frugal. No going to clubs or restaurants or friend's houses. It was edit, edit, edit, from morning till night.

He started papering his walls with charts and still images and notes on story and character as if this were a real film and not just some vacation video.

Finally by Spring of 2007 a 2 hour version was ready and that's when the DVD burner blew out.

It took a few more months to locate someone who could help author a DVD, but his time was limited as well and as of this writing the latest version is not yet put to disk.

And so the story goes...

For recent news go to the GIF Blog