Behind the scenes of the 180th pacific coast scout group journey video

­Act V – Behind the Scenes at Project Journey EXT. SFX SCHOOL – DAY ALEX DANG faces camera, sharing his story of behind the scenes at Project Journey (B-roll count: 3-4) ALEX DANG

If someone had asked me six months ago if I could execute on the full production of Project Journey, including scripting in less than 8 weeks, I would have told them that would not be possible. If you ask the same question to me today, I would tell you that I am now a believer.

I am a believer in the sense that the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group is truly a magical program to develop one’s self as well as others. It is a place where we believe that #yeswecan do anything that we set our minds to.

When I started this project, I had only been with the Rover Crew for less than 4 months. I knew very little about what it truly means to be a part of something. I knew that it was a good place to be but not exactly why.

Over the next 8 weeks of storyboarding, scripting, filming, editing and extremely late nights, it was clear to me why this Group was the place to be.

From the beginning, the team knew that we had an aggressive schedule to maintain. Not only did we have to do all the filming and editing, we had to come up with the right story and script to distill 7 years in-the-making down to 7 a minute of video.

The first milestone was to complete the story framework. A meeting between seniors, past presidents and the project team was planned to distill the history of our Rover Crew down to something that could be put together into a video. This was the most critical part. Getting the story just right from the source and developing a script and storyboard is definitely not trivial.

As the days passed by, the story was coming to fruition but some tinkering needed to be done. We started to get off track and behind schedule. Days turned into a week, which eventually turned into two weeks. 5 weeks now remained until the unveiling at our gala.

It may seem like a lot of time but lest we forget, we aren’t experts on making videos and we also have our day jobs as students and employees to take care of.

The script and storyboard were given to the production team. From there, they had to plan out the logistics of filming, scheduling the actors and finding the right equipment. As another week passed, it put us further behind.

The next 4 weeks are forever ingrained into my memory and beliefs. It was humbling to get support from the entire Rover Crew. A lot of different Rovers were coming to pitch in, even ones that weren’t involved but caught wind of the project. The amount of support that was offered was energizing. It was clear that it mattered to them that we were successful…together.

Production spanned seven days, straight. Tiring and grueling, the filming team worked endlessly with the actors and extras, sometimes to the extent of doing retakes over and over to get the shots where they needed to be.

The final part was editing or otherwise known as post-production. We showed the raw footage to a few skilled friends and explained to them what we were trying to do. They loved the idea and message so much that they jumped at the chance to help us put the finishing touches to the film.

Remember how we were behind schedule just about every step of the way in this project? It seemed like we were battling the clock every step of the way, unsure that whether or not we would make it. In the home stretch with all the extra help from our Rover Crew members and skilled supportive friends, we completed the video one day ahead of schedule!

I look back to this experience and am very thankful for it. It really opened the door wide to a new familiar place, a place where I knew I could achieve anything. 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group is a place where people PERSIST and grow together, a place where our journeys in life come together.

Camera fade into JOURNEY title page.