Deadwind Offshore Wind Documentary Becomes A Web Series

I would have thought that production on Deadwind would have been finished by now. I went out for a year and a half and collected content — did the interviews, got on the boats, accessed what I needed to access, and got the story that I was after.

But this is documentary filmmaking.

And the first rule of documentary filmmaking is that things change.

Originally, this film was intended to be a feature that I could kick out fast — I would go out and shoot a little, crowd fund the $$$ for post production, submit to film festivals, and then sell to a cable network or streaming service. I partnered with people at the core of the issue who were willing to assist with fund raising, I had a national news network with a new channel just for long-form documentaries ready to buy — it was going to work.

However, on Trump’s first day of office he signed an executive order banning new offshore wind leases and a stay on current projects until reviews could be conducted on their potential impacts and permitting practices …

And with that particular swipe of a pen the trajectory of my film project was no longer so cut and dry.

The network that I planned on selling to now decided to pass … and who’s going to donate money to a cause that they think has already been won?

I had to sit down and ask myself: is this over? Is there no longer a story here? Did I just spend a year and a half filming an issue-based film that now doesn’t have an issue?

The answer was no.

There’s too much money to be made, too much of a push from one side of the political spectrum, and too many countries who are involved in offshore wind development for one president to ax it all for good.

So I had a decision to make:

1. Wait until the United States elects a president favorable to offshore wind development.

2. Give the film more of an international focus and go and shoot in Europe and Asia.

3. Run what I have as a web series and continue covering the topic as it ebbs and flows.

I didn’t like the sound of the first option. Time spent sitting on films and the likelihood of them ever being finished are inversely proportional. I’ve said this many times before: at least 95% of documentaries that are started are never finished. I did not want to add to this death toll.

The second option was likewise not very appealing. While I wouldn’t have necessarily minded traveling around the world filming for this project, I knew that the funding would be an issue and, while it wouldn’t mean starting from square one, it would mean going back to square two or three. Also, how many years of my life do I want to spend on this topic? When a documentarian selects a project they usually plan for a year or two. Going international would add on years and tens of thousands of dollars to this project … and I just couldn’t do it.

While I was reluctant to go with the third option I knew it was the best choice. But I still sat on it for three months, just kind of hoping a new twist would appear and I could go back to Plan A. That didn’t happen, so here I am:

Releasing Deadwind as a web series.

Doing a film as a web series has distinct disadvantages: there’s no big pay day, there’s no prestige, no film festivals, no one finished product that you can put into the trophy case of your life and be like “Yup, I did that.”

However, doing a film as a web series has distinct advantages: there’s a good chance more people are going to see it, you can easily use it as a sample to get more work, you have something to show to prospective interviewees, you can use it to position yourself as an authority on a topic, and, perhaps most importantly, you can be adaptable and simply flow down the river of the topic — if things go one way, you do an episode about it; if things go another way, you do an episode about it.

Web series are also versatile: who says you can’t someday put it all together and edit into a feature doc?

So that’s where I stand now with Deadwind.

We just released a trailer. Please have a look, like / subscribe, and let me know what you think about it:

 

Thank you.

Walk Slow,

Wade