“Red Gold” is a documentary film about the proposed Pebble mine project that is supposed to take place at the headwaters of the most salmon prolific drainage in the world. That drainage is Bristol Bay, Alaska. Two people set out to make a different kind of environmental documentary, a film that incorporates both sides of the story. But like every other environmental film, they leaned quite a bit toward the environmental side.
Travis Rummel and Ben Knight of Felt Soul Media teamed up with Trout Unlimited to make this film. It was difficult to find information on their pre-production process, but it basically sounds like they spent about one year planning their summer in Alaska to make this film. I got in contact with one of the people who work for Felt Soul and I asked if they could answer some of my questions. They said “yeah sure,” but they never replied with any answers to my questions. Felt Soul Media does have a blog, and while filming “Red Gold” they did update the blog whenever they could find internet, which, in Bristol Bay Alaska, was as hard to find as it was to find an Alaskan Native in support of the Pebble Mine (http://www.feltsoulmedia.com/thewire/page/2/).
The DVD actually comes with a neat little booklet that includes some of their blog entries while filming, great photographs, and funny stories. The writer of the blog, Ben Knight, is one of the most interesting writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The guy is hilarious! Travis Rummel, who was the director of this film, spent a year doing research and put together a three inch binder of information ranging from Bristol Bay and the native people there, to corporate agenda of the mining companies behind the proposed project (http://www.feltsoulmedia.com/thewire/page/2/). Other than the binder of information, Trout Unlimited provided Lauren Oakes to help them on their endeavor. Lauren is the Conservation Programs Officer for Trout Unlimited Alaska and was named co-producer of the film. She helped Ben and Travis get acquainted to Bristol Bay and provided lots of perspective on the conservation side of the project.
Travis and Ben pretty much packed all the gear they could and headed to Alaska to meet up with Lauren in Bristol Bay. Other than their research it sounds like they didn’t have much of a game-plan. They pretty much define the typical independent film maker. They had a friend of a friend’s friend pick them up at the airport in Anchorage and show them around for a day. Then they hopped on another plane and headed to Bristol Bay. They did plan ahead to meet up with a National Geographic photographer in Bristol Bay, and he took them under his wing and showed him around a little bit as well (DVD booklet, pg 9). As far as food and lodging went, they just showed up to Bristol Bay and started networking with people their and that’s where they found places to stay and food to eat. The local cannery let them stay in their dorm style living quarters and eat in their food hall (booklet, pg 9).
In what seems to be an attempt to get on the good side of the film-makers, one of the mining companies paid for their airfare from Anchorage to the “exploration site,” put them up in a lake-front condo, and fed them while they were filming and interviewing pebble mine employees and supporters (booklet, pg 19). That obviously took some pre-production planning probably while they were in Bristol Bay networking with people.
The filmmakers pretty much stumbled upon their hero subjects, the people they followed and interviewed throughout the summer, from just hanging out in the boatyard (booklet, pg 15). It sounds like from reading the blog that concepts and communication objectives were determined from Travis and Ben throughout their summer in Bristol Bay. With each person they met they had a different perspective about the shape of the film. Their concepts were developed along the way through socializing and networking with locals, which in my opinion was the key to their success, and the key to them surviving an Alaskan Summer. Their pre-production and their production were pretty much interlaced throughout the entire time they were filming. Doing this enabled them to get the real side of the story, and ultimately to produce a moving environmental documentary.
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