Cheers, Jay

(Especially anything before 1986, that's what I truly want!)

Hopefully all stays on track for the completion of the film in September of 2013 for the film festival circuit. There are three small shoots/reshoots to go in January, and then it's all "post" from there. My thanks goes out to all of the folks at the camera-giant, Panavision, who have thrown their generous support behind the completion of principal photography of this film! Many, Many Thanks!!!

That's all for now, Cheers!

Just in this year alone, I have brought my humble camera crews to nearly every corner of California, and to the states of Oregon, Washington, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada.

I have met a lot of great people on this journey of 18 years, it'll be sad to see it end! Happy to get it finished , though!!

This festival is a hoot, and should definitely be on everyone's beer bucket list! If you feel like meeting up for a beer, send me a note/e-mail/call. Perhaps we can arrange a good time to get together. See you there!

Cheers, Jay

The first production is in Los Angeles in late March-- all studio interviews. Pretty simple.

The second is set to take place in May at the Brewers Association's Craft Beer Conference in San Diego. (Thank you for the media passes!) I hope to set up as many interviews as possible with attendees and BA staff before the crew arrives. If you are going, and have any experience(s) with craft beer in the late 1970s and the 1980s, please give me a holler! I'll be testing out the Sony F3 camera on this trip. It's probably the smallest camera I've ever used, so it will be interesting to see how well it does.

The third production travels with a small crew throughout Northern California to multiple beer-y locations for many new interviews. This was originally planned for this week, but logistics and schedules didn't jive, so it's a go for mid-July now.

Late summer studio days will be killer: high speed Phantom cameras, Technocranes and one wacky green screen set full of breweriana. And, of course there will be beer. I hope to shoot a couple of interviews one of those days with the trustworthy Panavision F900 camera. The days will be long and the nights even longer. Production assistance is welcome.

After all of this new footage is tallied with the archive from years past, it should be in the 300-400 hours range. A new edit system is on the way to handle it. I'm very excited to tear into the post side of production, but I'm also very ready for this beast to be done. It's going on 18 years now. I must love craft beer, or I'm just plain nuts. Or both.

Next up: Segment writers wanted.

A long story short: I hit a "wall" about 18 months ago, shortly after filming the GABF in 2009. I hired a contractor to work on my house, and let's just say, I believed the company made some egregious mistakes. After a lengthy litigation process, it cost my family a small fortune, (and exhausted all of my time and energy). A settlement was agreed to as of yesterday.

So now, with that major distraction and bear of a financial drain mostly out of the way, Beer Pioneers is back in production. I have two re-shoots planned before the summer is over, a West coast venture in the US and Canada, and another that jumps through the South and up the East Coast. I'll also be editing from today on forward, picking up from where I left off months ago. My rough cut deadline is September 2012, with a final cut going into the fray of entries for the 2012-13 film festival season. That should wrap-up this monster.

Thanks for all of the kind words over the months (to my friends on facebook and twitter, too), I really appreciated the support!

Cheers, Jay

Here's the latest news: Not much has happened. My freelance camera work has picked up immensely, so I've been on other people's projects (all quite positive things) as of late. Of course, this means that post-production of Beer Pioneers has been zilch for the past month. I also expect that this hiatus will probably continue through mid- November.

One reason for the continued delay is because "Beer Guppy" and I are on the move. The next time I blog, I'll have moved the company to its new location in North Hollywood. (The Burbank mailing address won't change, however.) It'll be exciting to work in the new digs.

The best news in all of this is that I do not foresee any delay in the documentary's debut next Summer. Everything is as scheduled.

For now, peace...

Studio shot, behind the scene of me playing around.

Studio shot, behind the scene of camera operator Matt Berning.

Studio shot, behind the scene of me (waiting in the interviewee chair).