Ever since the 1990's, I've been shooting amateur footage with friends about the things we were really interested in at the time. It was great to capture those moments and to be able to share things visually to our other friends and acquaintances. Video can convey things without losing things in translation, or when reaching out to different audiences that may not have a similar experience to base the concepts off of.

Back in early 2005, Mauricio and I took a 5 day Moto trip from La Paz to Beni, Bolivia. While documenting the trip on a digital camera was fun, it was insufficient to convey the entire experience. Mauricio has made tourism his business for some time now, and has talked to me about helping him to use these experiences as a promotional tool to get other people acquainted with the possibilites.

We agreed that the most effective method to capture the wonders that Bolivia has to offer, is to get this recorded in a documentary type format. It would encompass the experiences lived during the voyage, the resources Bolivia has as a territory, and to be able to explain the services in order to create genuine excitement from the spectator. We agreed that the next time we did such a trip, that we would combine our efforts to release a documentary DVD.

A couple of weeks ago, I dusted an old Adobe Premiere book off my shelf and am currently in the process of refreshing my memory on what it takes to shoot good footage to non-linear video editing. That coincided with Jesse sending me links to digital camera reviews and my trip to New York where I read the following description in a course catalog:

This intensive course covers, in one weekend, the essentials of writing, directing, and producing low-budget films. The Saturday session, "Produce, Direct, and Shoot," teaches students to make a film step-by step: writing the script, hiring talent and crew, directing the shots, shooting, editing, and procuring the final answer print. The Sunday session, "Distribute, Market, and Finance," teaches students how to sell a film by attending festivals; competing for awards, hiring an agent; securing a distributor; and maximizing theatrical, video, cable, and foreign revenues. Among the filmmakers who attended this course at the beginning of their careers are Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Baz Luhrman, and the producers or directors of 24 Sundance Festival films. Workbook included

I've decided to take this DVD creation very seriously, so I'm enrolled in the class. I'll be blogging about this from Harish's apartment in late February.