Training Patience

Part 5 of the Training Video though not the last part of the movie (one more to go!) we come to the end of the tale of its production. Tale concludes like so...

With one week left till the end of staff training (and thus the window of opportunity to have our video used) we turned in our rough copy. This first go was viewed simply by Brad, and he inflicted the first round of cuts. The key example of these cuts is the choppiness of both the breakfast scene, and Brad's own main appearance in part 2.

The second "good" cut, with all of Brad's changes, presented us with an interesting problem burning the DVD (a problem that would become universal for all future productions). After 2 days of trying to find a solution I was successful. We turned in the final copy...

The notes and feedback we got back from the higher ups was a little disheartening. Well okay it was devastating at the time. The short version was the video was rejected, and would not be shown in an official capacity at the museum.

Reasons for this were varied. The general theme was the administrator whose blessing we'd needed frankly has NO sense of humour. His notes stated he only enjoyed the Star Wars reference and the watering the plants jokes (one of these plant jokes was accidentally lost in all the editing however... it is gone forever).

It also showed the problems with their training ideology, and how out of touch he was (and still is) from the troops in the trenches. He stated this was an unprofessional impression to give new staff, and that it would counter their future success at the museum. I still find that funny. The videos that ARE shown in staff training are among the most boring I've ever seen. After 3 years of being forced to watch them, EVERY time (including my first year) the staff routinely mock and haggle the films while watching them. Our video attempted to beat the staff to the chase, and hopefully this would be entertaining enough for them to enjoy watching it...

So what did this mean. Well the goal of immortalizing ourselves in an official capacity wouldn't be realized. Yet. We had lost some really good material from the film due to the editing and censorship (at this stage I hadn't learned the importance of backing up raw footage so when it was cut it was lost...).

The one good thing was this. Due to their rejecting it me and Dan regained the rights to the movie. Meaning that we were able to organize a HUGE party at the end of staff training and show the movie at the mansion. It was a big hit! Additionally I was then able to legally post it on the Internet nearly 3 years later.

Enjoy! Part 6 to follow soon... With a quick look at how this movie fits into our production history, and how it effected future productions.