TheHighlander wrote:A normal documentary or feature film (not counting heavy special effects) takes 4 months to a year maybe. This guy has been going for 57 months. It's actually insane. He's getting paid by the hour, so I'm not surprised that he's not really pushing to finish.
That said, this is going to be the definitive telling of the Jeff Minter story! It's been edited to God level standards. I don't think anybody has ever spent so long creating a Jeff Minter documentary. Can't wait.
When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. The Jeff Minter Llamasoft story has been told so many times already, it's unlikely going to have many surprising new revelations or discoveries. Most people who would be interested in watching this have probably already heard it. Why spend so much time on a story that's been regurgitated so many times already? And it's not like he's managed to create a huge following as evidenced by his "24 hour" live stream which didn't last 24 hours and had almost no views and yielded a very low amount of money made for charity. Better make it last for what it's worth. 57.000 bucks doesn't sound so bad.
OK "all I know about all this" .. NOT much .. well I have seen if we are talking about "Hearth of Neon" a few cuts/versions .. first of all I know that "speaking about recorded material" ( raw footage ) I'd dare to say "there's probably enough for 2 more documentaries"
As far as I know Paul is NOT paid by anyone for doing it ( Hearth of Neon ) he's doing it all with his own money/what he manages to collect ( don't know how ) and I don't think he has "that much money" for it.
NOW ABOUT THIS
The Jeff Minter Llamasoft story has been told so many times already, it's unlikely going to have many surprising new revelations or discoveries.
YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT
THIS IS WHY THE DOCUMENTARY IS *NOT* ABOUT THAT, it's about NEON THE LIGHTSYNTH
It's *NOT* the "heard and re-heard and told and re-told" "classic" Jeff's history of Llamasoft ( there may be a TINY bit in to introduce Jeff/LS to those that don't know anything about ) but it's really all focused around NEON.
Now about the money/time/etc. I think "most of the time" - from the very little I know about all this ( which is LITTLE ) - I think been spent trying to "make the documentary get into certain places" I don't know how much been spend into editing but I know there's been "at least" 3 .. 4 ? different edits, to focus more on this and that and to adjust various things.
About the money .. "from various things I heard", "even just to sort out legal issues for distro and such" I am quite sure/convinced that 57.000 buck it's "a drop of piss in an ocean" and for doing what he'd love to do with it I suppose figures like $500,000 ( 500K bucks ) would still be "pretty little" probably just about sufficient to say "Good morning sir, will you give a look at this documentary and maybe consider it for .. ?" .. and they'll probably reply "Ok but leave another 500K on the desk and pay me a 100K lunch at that restaurant then we'll talk .. " ...
Keep in mind at $1000 per month you would NOT even find anyone in Italy that would cook a plate of spaghetti per day for you, it's too little ( considering that with taxes and all would get more around $500 per month ).
So yeah in fairness I don't know PRECISELY what's going on but I know Paul been working his arse off for this stuff and been trying really hard to create "a really good product" .. however .. "in a few days I should something it seem so I'll know better".
But yes "what I've seen so far" it's DEFINITELY NOT "the usual LS story", it's NEON.
