"Pistachio Wars" — Post Production Update
It’s for the doomers among us. We are legion. More and more joining everyday.
Last month — when our family had just came back from a punishing trip to Russia — I wrote that that Rowan and I were getting into the final stretch of our long-awaited documentary about California water oligarchs. We’ve been cleaning up the edit, doing rewrites, tweaking the voice over, and Rowan’s started cooking up stuff on the graphics side: maps, animations, archival footage, various documents. We still have a lot of work to do but the end is finally in sight.
Rowan just published an update on our progress to our Kickstarter supporters, and I’d like to repost it here in case you missed it.
It’s no secret that we’re years behind schedule. But there might be what people call a silver lining to our delay.
Since we started shooting this film, the water situation — not just here in California but in most of the Southwest — has only gotten worse. The fact that our water politics are unsustainable is starting to sink in with more and more people. But information without organization doesn’t get you very far in this world. So I’m not sure this increasing awareness will actually change anything. And really, I don’t think our society is capable of the kind change required to “fix” this “problem” — because it’s the kind of problem that at this point is spiritual in nature. It requires a fundamental restructuring of social values and priorities, and rethinking what constitutes a good and just life.
Still, more people are thinking about our over-consumption and our over-development and our over-tapped aquifers and watersheds…that’s a good thing, no matter what. And our film will provide some necessary context and show people how truly grim and hopeless everything is around here, especially when it comes to our water system and the suburb and industrial ag way of life that this water system supports. It’s for the doomers among us. We are legion. More and more joining everyday.
Anyway, here’s Rowan’s update.
—Yasha
Hi there!
I'm sure some of you are wondering what's been going on with the film. I can assure you that we have been working hard this whole time (but now alongside our regular jobs!), and with the help of some excellent collaborators (thanks to your support).
It has been a challenging project to realize, but we are happy to share that we are getting closer to finishing our post production.
We have begun to polish the graphics side of the film — titles... archival material... maps... all the extra details that link the story together and build up the narrative around our documentary footage.
We still have a bit of work to do, but it's all moving along at a much more predictable pace now that the story is settled. We should have a solid pass through the graphics done by the end of the year.
We have also been working on the film's score, so once the pictures are locked we will move on to finalize the audio, and hopefully begin the process of submitting to festivals in the first few months of 2023 — bad news for the world, but the story is still just as potent and relevant as it was when we began filming!
So we hope to have some more regular updates over the coming months, and we would also like to welcome Ben Exler to our team, and thank him for his work so far on the motion graphics!
Thanks as always for your patience, we hope you are looking forward to seeing this film as much as we are looking forward to releasing it!
—Rowan Wernham
Want to know more?
I didn't see the gofundme link mentioned at the top of today's post
Really looking forward to this!!