We’re 9 stops in, 3 weeks behind us, and as we move from city to city we become more and more inspired by the people we meet. I personally never expected how touching this experience would be. It’s amazing to look in the face of someone who’s just realized something that will make them happier and more connected with what they do. But more on that in a later blog post perhaps.  :)

Similarly to last monday, today we answer one of the top questions we’ve been asked over the last week:

Q: What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out?

A: We wish we knew that there was something to wish we knew. 

What does that mean exactly? Well, let’s start off by saying that we’ve always had a blast doing what we do. We’ve always approached imaging in a way that made us happy. We thought to ourselves, “how would we want things done if we were on the other side of the camera?”, and that has always guided us well…

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it’s september 17th and we’ve been on the road for 10 days now. during that time, we’ve visited Las Vegas, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and San Jose and we’re now making our way to Sacramento. we’ve seen some incredible places on the way to our stops and have met people from all walks of life. but the best part is just how connected people are to the main message of this workshop series: the idea of having purpose behind your decisions.

over the years, our philosophy has shifted. we’ve evolved as storytellers and so has our approach. we share a bit about our journey at the beginning of each KNOW stop. we realized that once we started approaching shoots of any kind from a more personal level, we became more connected with what we were doing and so did our viewers.

KNOW is about finding your voice: deciding what type of stories you want to tell, and defining the approach you’re going to take when you tell them. the moment you find your voice and start communicating strong messages with it, you become completely irreplaceable as a storyteller.

one of the most interesting questions we got over the last 10 days was about this exactly - how to become an irreplaceable storyteller, and how it pertains to us as a team:

what one thing caused you or brought about the discovery of your voice?

as with most things, this was a somewhat gradual process. it took us a while to figure out what fulfilled us the most, and that was when we touched people emotionally. we were most moved when we made a strong impact, not because our imagery was “cool”, but because it was meaningful.

having said that, there are a few things that stand out as having been significant moments in this journey of realization…

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it’s official! the KNOW tour has begun!

Vegas was a great crowd to kick off the tour with. what was really interesting was the amount of thought everyone was putting into the way they go about their projects. you see, we challenged them to think of a shoot, either past or future, and to reference it in their minds every time we covered a new topic. it was great to hear about some things that would stay the same but also how some approaches would change for certain situations…

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we can’t believe that we’re so close to the start of the KNOW tour! we’re just two days away and it feels like just yesterday it was September of last year when we started putting puzzle pieces together for this journey.

today i flew into Las Vegas, our first city on the tour. this Saturday we’ll be joined by supporters and attendees for the first of 37 intensive workshops. but in the meantime, the rest of the team is making their way in from San Francisco and we’re tying up some loose ends before our marathon begins!

one thing we’re giddy over is the fact that we got to see the KNOW books in person for the first time today! actually, i have yet to see them and i’m DYING over here… but the team sent me pictures and holy yowzamoles do they ever look sweet! but more than that, we’re really excited to share them with attendees of the tour. we talked about the book in a previous post and how it bloomed into a 380-page field guide (it was originally going to be a 70-page workbook). what’s great about it now is that while it certainly ties into the content of the workshop, and the two are meant to go together, the book itself is packed with practical information that will be valuable for a ton of people, even those who can’t make it to the tour.

once the rest of the team arrives in Vegas, we’re going to start unboxing all kinds of goodies that will be shared with everyone. our supporters have sent us mountains of gear, from lighting and audio equipment to camera support tools and accessories that make filmmaking more creative and fun. we’ll be talking about all of this gear, doing live demos, and best of all, if you’re coming to the tour you will have the opportunity to play with, test out, and evaluate everything that’s there. you’ll also be able to ask us questions about it all, and talk directly with the manufacturers too – they’ll be at every stop with us…

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over the last week, we’ve been working away diligently on creating feedback for the films that were submitted for the Big Shorts challenge. our hope is that this feedback will help filmmakers see their pieces from a new perspective and give them inspiration to find new ways to improve their storytelling.

but we also hope that even those who may not have participated in the challenge can take something away with them too. so head on over to the Big Shorts Feedback page, click on any film, and open up its corresponding PDF feedback form to read our take on the piece. try watching the film first and write your own feedback too and see what you’re able to pick out, and then compare it to ours. do you agree? disagree? got additional thoughts you think will help?

we really want this to be an all-round educational experience for everyone who visits…

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