En route to Austin

We’re flying to Austin, Texas to spend some time doing the very last next to last shoot for the Mad City Chickens film! This would have been it for production, but due to Robert’s untimely flu symptoms earlier in the week, we’ll still be shooting one more bit of video with Craig Johnson upon our return from the Lone Star state.

So what’s in Texas? Chickens of course…and good story. You can create all the exploding eggs and choreographed chicken sword fights you want, but it ain’t a good film without good story.

Battle Fatigue

Robert caught a bug (non-avian) and found himself laid up in bed for several days, forcing a rescheduling of the narration shoot with Craig Johnson to a later date.

The push to finish the chicken film continues…

Leading Bird Flu Expert Dr. Michael Greger added to MCC

We are thrilled to announce that we met this morning with Michael Greger, M.D., Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger is a leading avian influenza expert and author of the book Bird Flu. He spoke on camera for nearly 35 minutes discussing the H5N1 virus that has been so prevalent in the news of late.
Dr. Greger confirmed the information that has been put forth by many of the other chicken experts in our Mad City Chickens film…namely, that chickens kept in cramped, overstressed unnatural conditions, the conditions found on many of the so-called factory farms, are the ones most likely to contract this virus. In addition, he made it clear that the keeping of small flocks of pastured birds, birds that are kept outside in the sun and wind, are not a danger.

Special thanks to Lisa Cross, the Pandemic Influenza Emergency Preparedness Coordinator of the Central Michigan District Health Department for all her help in working out the interview location and details.

Additional thanks go to Cheryl Long, Editor-in Chief Mother Earth News, Tabitha Alterman, Associate Editor Mother Earth News, and Erin Williams of The Humane Society of the United States for their assistance in setting up initial contact with Dr. Greger.

Karen Chin of On-The-Earth comes to the Rescue

With only a few short weeks left before the completion of the film, we have just three final Mad City Chickens shoots to go…two out-of-state and the third with actor Craig Johnson. But disaster strikes again!

Our Panasonic camera is again experiencing mechanical malfunctions. Unfortunately, time and budget constraints are not allowing for repair shop delays or the high cost of camera rental.

Here’s where the spirit of independent filmmaking comes into play. Without any hesitation, video producer Karen Chin of On The Earth Productions has most graciously agreed to let us use her Sony HD camera to finish the shoots.

THANK YOU KAREN!

Craig Johnson agrees to return to MCC

In June of 2007, we had the pleasure of working with actor Craig Johnson as he read several lines of narration for our Mad City Chickens film. At the time, Craig’s character was limited to just one segment of the movie, but we had it in the back of our minds to expand his role if time and circumstances allowed.

Today, we received an email confirmation from Craig, and he has agreed to return to do more. We hope to shoot the rest of his narration within the next week or two