INSPIRED: The Movie Presentation at ECU from Steve Yu on Vimeo.

Although we’re not quite done with the film yet, we have received interest from some organizations and universities in sharing some of the lessons we’ve learned in creating INSPIRED — both from a filmmaking perspective as well as a health and fitness perspective. This was my first attempt to present the “story” behind the creation of the film, and what we’ve learned…while it was pretty rough around the edges it was a great experience that will help us in future presentations.

A special thanks goes out to Rebecca Allen from East Carolina University, who brought us out to ECU for the presentation. We always appreciate it when others have an interest for what we are trying to do.

So – yes, I know…this blog is so out of date. I think sometimes I am not sure what types of topics people like to read about.  You can help me out some days by suggesting topics to write about…sometimes I get hung up on that part…thinking that I’ll be redundant somehow.

For those who are following our progress, things are still moving along well!  We have recruited the help of two editors to help us finish the film for the Sept Sundance submission.  We hope to have a rough cut in the summer, to do some focus group testing.

Currently, trying to re-assess our financial situation, with upcoming costs for music, animation, and post finishing.  Still a ways to go before we’re ready for Sundance, but we have loads of good stories and unique perspectives on a topic that has been documented many times over.

Also, from what we’ve learned about being consistent and accountable, we decided to create some fitness journals, which we will put online to help raise additional funds to finish the film.  I thought that instead of a tshirt, perhaps a tool that would help others be more successful would be a better way to help our fundraising efforts!

This week we were fortunate enough to meet up with Bone Crusher, who is a great rapper out of Atlanta, as well as one of the greatest success stories from VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club.  Whenever we try to get someone else to help us with our project, the trick is to get them to see how valuable it could be to the world, as well as their own interests.  We’ve been really lucky with celebrities so far, but the key is to just keep on trying.  Sooner or later things fall into place.

No word yet about whether he will help us out, but we are crossing our fingers…

See me trying to pitch it to Bone Crusher…

  

Click To Play

 

 

In December, Mariah and I visited Dr. Brian Wansink’s Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, after he graciously invited us to Ithaca after hearing a little bit about our project.

Dr. Wansink is the author of the fantastic book, Mindless Eating, and is doing some really interesting research related to why we eat, and the factors that determine how much we eat. The lab was pretty cool, an extension of his office, but it looked like a regular kitchen/dining area you might find in a typical home. The idea is to recreate settings that cause people to forget they are part of an experiment.

We spent an entire day (10:30am – 7pm) filming in the Lab, with Dr. Wansink and one of his research assistant’s Lenny, and we did get lots of really good footage. They were so helpful and willing to spend the day with us…what a great trip!

Below is some of the footage we shot, that will be integrated into the film…hope you find it interesting!

Many thanks to Dr. Wansink, Lenny, Ben, Michelle, and Pam for all their help. I’d urge anyone interested in their research to check out his book, or his audiobook (we have both)…and also his website, www.mindlesseating.org.

So I’ve decided to start sharing more semi-raw footage from the documentary on the web…It helps me to measure the value of content as I get feedback from others, and it also helps other people who might be struggling with their weight…providing some inspiration (I hope) and some good quality info.

Revver is kind of like YouTube, except for it does stick ads on to the end of each video. The idea is that people who post good content will be rewarded when viewers watch the video and subsequently click on the ad at the end. While we are against having sponsors for the film who might dictate what the film is ultimately about, the Revver model might allow us to raise money to ensure we can complete INSPIRED at the quality level we envision.

So while it’s not exactly “selling out” to corporate advertising, it kind of is. We’ll give it a try to see what kind of ads they stick on the end of our videos, and go from there…if it ends up being a bad idea, we’ll stick to traditional fundraising methods!

We can’t really urge anyone to click on the ads, but we would love for you to share videos with others by sending links and adding the videos to your blog if you find them interesting!

This week I received an email from a non-profit film and video organization in Atlanta that I had applied to:

Steve,

Congratulations, I am pleased to inform you that the Board of IMAGE Film & Video has approved your project INSPIRED: The Movie for fiscal sponsorship. Your contract will be mailed to you shortly. Please sign, keep a copy for your records and mail back to IMAGE. Feel to contact me if you have any questions.

Best,

Holly

So…now we can start accepting donations that are tax deductible for the donor! Great news!

It has been about 18 months since we began production on INSPIRED: The Movie, and I think I’ve started to understand more about inspiration, and how powerful it can be, and maybe what it cannot be.

“INSPIRED” as a title is perhaps a bit broad, and possibly misleading. Since what we have learned is that “profound life change” only begins with inspiration. It is a starting point in most cases. Sometimes it is only a single event or person or story, that is enough to start us down a path of change, and the entire journey ends up having little to do with the inspiration that started it all. Sometimes it is the inspiration that guides every single action that leads us to a new possibility in our lives.

INSPIRED: The Movie is about how to lose weight. If you’ve ever wondered how people do it, why people do it, and why some people always fail, then this is the film for you!

What we’ve come to learn over this whole process is that quite often inspiration alone has little to do with our probability for success and degree of success. We’ve worked with people who have been inspired countless times, sometimes weekly, and a year later they are not much further than they started.

What I think we’ve learned is that as each of us is different, our minds work vastly different. Some people’s minds are able to translate a source of inspiration into a long chain of consistent behavior, and others, cannot seem to last a day or two from a source of inspiration. It’s so complicated I’m sure we don’t really have the answers yet. Why people are generally optimistic, or generally skeptical, or lack confidence obviously relate to how focused and consistent we can do what we know we should do. The real “secret” is figuring out what causes us to do the right thing day after day, because in the end it is all about how consistent we can be.

I am certain we cannot come up with a perfect formula, but I am also pretty confident we have nearly nailed down the things we can do to reduce the “random” nature of our success in losing weight.