Going to UFVA

I wanted to take a minute to update people on what's going on, and where I am. I recently accepted a teaching position at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The week before classes begin I'll be traveling to Colorado for the University Film & Video Association annual conference. I am lucky enough to be screening my work-in-progress cut of THEM THAT WORK.

I am excited to get some feedback on the project as we come toward its end.

Couple other quick notes:
- Editor Max Negin will spending August in China to cover the Olympics. Wish him the best, please.
- Blind Corn Liquor Pickers, who provided one of the songs for the trailer, have a great new album out called Appalachian Trail. You can check them out on MySpace.

Thank you to everyone who has shown their support. I will be reaching out to many of you in the coming months to help raise the final funds needed to finish the film.

j.brown

End of the beginning....


Last week I was able to screen a portion of THEM THAT WORK. It was a great response which is very encouraging.

I've been talking with a couple great musicians about laying down a great roots score.

After all the work that has been done, it feels like the beginning is finally over, the rest is yet to come.

Thanks for the support.

jb

Continued Support....

I've been spending most of my time looking at footage and trying to figure out how to make this the best documentary possible.

Today I got great news. I received a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council to help pay for the post-production on 'Them That Work.' The money will allow me to pay some musicians and graphic artists ratcheted things up a notch.

Thank you very much to everyone involved. Things are going exceedingly well and it's due in large part to the help of all of you.

j. brown

Support the Writer's Guild strike for reasonable residual compensation.




j.brown

What a strange long trip it's been...

So, I interviewed quite a few people this summer and wanted thank them all.

Along with that, I wanted to share a little bit of what I saw.

Here's some pictures. Over the next few months, I hope to start putting up little clips of the film along the way as well.

jason.


Thanks to a mini-grant from the WV Humanities Council, I was able to go back to Hoboken and interview John Sayles again. He and Maggie Renzi have been incredibly accomodating and supportive throughout this process.

Here's my friend J. Scott Parker shooting some footage of the retaining wall in Matewan. After spending a year in New Zealand, J.Scott finished his film about the ecology of braided rivers recently. Then he spent a week with me traveling across West Virginia shooting for this project.

As you can see, it was pretty hot all week. This is Clai Lashley, a great guy who worked on 'Matewan' and is finishing his own film about bluegrass music. Clai is easily the only interview I've had that provided their own grip equipment.

This is Wess Harris, William C. Blizzard and myself. Wess published Mr. Blizzard's book about his father Bill Blizzard's involvement in the Battle at Blair Mountain and the eventual union struggles in West Virginia.

Fundraising Trailer for "Them That Work" (for now)

If you haven't seen it yet, I've added my recent fundraising trailer. I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me. Also, I am still trying to raise money to cover Post-Production costs. You can make tax-deductible donations through IFP by clicking on the link listed below the trailer. Any help you can make is appreciated.

Thanks you'll hear more from me soon.

jason

The Independent Film Project (IFP) has supported this documentary in several ways, including allowing me to accept donations through their non-profit status. Directions on how to make a donation are below. Yes, all contributors will be given credit in the film. It's the least I can do for your support.

--- "Milton Tabbot (IFP)" ---

It works like this:


- Donors (YOU) should go to IFP's page on JustGive.org:
http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=24543


- Donors (YOU) enter their contribution amount and should MAKE SURE that all check-off boxes are checked for "give the charity my name, e-mail, and mailing address."


- Donor (YOU) MUST enter your project title (THEM THAT WORK) and your name (JASON BROWN) in the space designated for "designate my donation."

[This is NOT optional, even though it says that it is. We must know to whom to allocate the donation.]


- Donor (YOU) then checks "add to basket" and proceeds to check-out. If this is your first contribution via JustGive.org, they will need to fill out a name and address profile just prior to checkout. At checkout they will enter their credit card info and confirm their contribution.


- The donor (YOU) will receive an immediate e-mail receipt from JustGive.org. They will also eventually receive a contribution acknowledgement from IFP via snail mail.


- If you lose the direct link above, please contact me so we can make sure your project receives it's expected donations.

Deep in Editing

I'm lost in the thousand different ways to tell this story. I'm sorry for the hold up. In the meantime, here's some pictures.

j.brown