Some of you already have an idea of what is going on, after the email I sent to my mailing list last week about the possibility of the Pike Place Market Beautiful Beasties event being filmed for a documentary.
So here is the story. The last week has been a bit unusual for me. You see, I have been in front of the lens, a position that I am admittedly uncomfortable with, and one that is fairly foreign to me. The picture I have seen in front of me has looked quite a bit like what you see there on the left. I’m not big on self-portraits or posing for cameras, so why did I agree to be in front of a camera, you ask?
For the past week I have had the incredibly good fortune to be featured in a documentary film titled ‘American Dreamer’.
American Dreamer is a new documentary project by an award-winning Seattle director and producer. It is a series that profiles various entrepreneurs in various stages of their businesses, from the Howard Schultzs and Jeff Bezos to the Jamie Pflughoefts (that’s me for those who are new) of the world. From multi-million dollar highly successful powerful corporate leaders down to the mom and pop shop and single business owner/operator.
For the past week I have been filmed for the pilot, which will go in front of a board of influential Seattle business owners this week.
The pilot has featured me and only me (sooo cool), and we have gotten footage of me doing a shoot last Friday (see photo below), at the dog park playing with and photographing Fergie, doing a long interview answering a variety of questions, and working in my office making calls to clients, organizing images and replying to emails.
The director is currently working his magic to create a film that will hopefully inspire critical thinking on the question of the American Dream. I personally look at the series as being a kind of philosophical question, a dialogue of sorts between the participants and the viewers. It really reminds me of a film version of the NPR radio program ‘This American Life’ by Ira Glass, only focusing on entrepreneurs.
To say that I am excited about this would be an understatement, but not for the reasons you might think.
I had dinner on Sunday night with my mom and sister and told them all about the filming and they were looking at me funny at one point and stopped me.
My mom noted that it sounded as if I were talking about doing my laundry or picking up bread from the store. Like it was an everyday, ‘no big deal’ kind of thing.
You see, even though the pilot is all about me, which really is very cool in a kind of egotistical way, it’s the bigger picture that excites me. I really want to see this project become successful, not just for the national exposure it will afford my business and me as an artist and photographer, but for what I truly believe will be a gripping, and fascinating, and educational, and moving program that features real people in real lives, taking unusual tracks and pursuing their own version of the American Dream on their own terms, out from under the thumb of ‘The Man’.
I’m excited about this program in short because I WANT TO WATCH IT!
I apologize for not posting more detailed information on the film, including the director’s name, but since the project is in the very early stages I don’t want to give too much away, and want to protect the integrity of the project. There is a lot to be done yet this year before it can go from ‘film’ to series. I will do anything I can to see it happen, and if that includes being a little bit private on my blog then so be it.
I promise to post more about the film here in the future. Ok, since I am so busy, I probably won’t post anything until it can actually be viewed. But you, my lovely blog audience, will be the first to know. 
