Quote:
Originally Posted by
VeganFromMars
1) You said your passion is documentary filmmaking (cool!). What's your favorite documentary?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
VeganFromMars
2) What's your big breakthrough one-that-makes-you-famous documentary film going to be about?
I've written a treatment for a BP oil spill documentary:
[SPOILER=Warning: Spoiler!]
Breaking the Habit
Black:
Audio fades in to reveal to the ear a montage of news footage from numerous sources reporting on the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Opening credits fade in and out.
Fade in:
An aerial shot of the Deepwater Horizon engulfed in flames surrounded by fireboats. The montage of news footage continues through the first 45 days of news coverage.
Cut to:
Transocean CEO Steven Newman: Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their loved ones during this difficult time.
Cut to:
Van Jones: They had no idea how much harm they were gonna do.
Cut to:
Mary Burkeen: I feel we've lost more than anybody else. Our son, we'll never get him back.
Cut to:
Janet Woodson: Not only are there turtles dying, but my brother and ten other men died out there too.
Cut to:
BP CEO Tony Hayward: We're sorry for the massive disruption that's cost their lives.
Cut to:
Jones: This is a company, by the way, that makes $63 million dollars a day in profit.
Cut to:
Janet Woodson: I've always been worried about him working on a rig.
Cut to:
Jones: We can put in a $500,000 contraption, and then we won't have to worry about any oil spills.
Cut to:
Burkeen: When they get all this cleaned up, they can have their shrimps and turtles and everything back.
Cut to:
Hayward: There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do.
Cut to:
Jones: Or we can save $500,000.
Cut to:
Burkeen: But we're never going to have our son back.
Cut to:
Hayward: I'd like my life back.
Cut to:
Jones: They decided to save 500,000 bucks.
Cut to:
Woodson: I never would have dreamed about the rig explosion.
Cut to:
Jones: A tiny act based on greed had nonlinear, insanely horrible outcomes.
Cut to:
Karl Kleppinger Sr.: Now they need to look at all the evidence and see if it was human error or what.
Cut to:
Burkeen: They have not called us one time to say we're sorry your son has lost his life.
Narrator: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded claiming the lives of eleven people and unleashing 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, thousands of animals' suffered painful deaths and many Gulf Coast residents whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean suddenly had no way of earning a living. The local economies of the Gulf Coast were severely crippled. All because of A tiny act based on greed to save the company $500,000, as Van Jones puts it. Within days after the tragic incident, many fingers were being pointed placing blame on everyone from President Obama to former-President George W. Bush; from the Minerals Management Service to Haliburton.
Texas Governor Rick Perry even blamed God, saying, From time to time, there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented. But this was no act of God or some kind of natural disaster, and no one president can be blamed for this corporate catastrophe. As a society, we are dependent on oil, foreign or otherwise, but we don't have to be. If we look up, we will find the solutions to our addiction to oilthe sun and wind. Solar panels and wind turbines can not only free us from our dependency to oil while powering the United States, but also put Americans back to work.
Cut to:
Jones: If we want the jobs of tomorrow, we need the technology of tomorrow.
Cut to:
A segment on the history of oil production in the United States.
During the next segmentThe History of Oil Production in the United Statesan animated timeline will be shown that moves along with the narration. As this segment progresses, images from these time periods will be wiped in and out, along with charts and graphs for further illustration.
Narrator: Our addiction to oil began more than 150 years ago. On August 27, 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well 69 feet deep near Titusville in northwestern Pennsylvania. Just five years earlier, the invention of the kerosene lamp had ignited intense demand for oil. By drilling an oil well, Drake had hoped to meet the growing demand for oil for lighting and industrial lubrication. Drake's success inspired hundreds of small companies to explore for oil. In 1860, world oil production reached 500,000 barrels; by the 1870s production soared to 20 million barrels annually. During the early twentieth century, oil production continued to rise. Up until the 1910s, the United States produced between 60 and 70 percent of the world's oil supply.
As fear grew that American oil reserves were dangerously depleted, the search for oil turned worldwide. Many of the new oil discoveries occurred in areas dominated by Britain and the Netherlands: in the Dutch East Indies, Iran, and British mandates in the Middle East. By the early 1970s, the United States depended on the Middle East for a third of its oil. The oil embargo of 1973 and 1974, during which oil prices quadrupled, and the oil crisis of 1978 and 1979, when oil prices doubled, graphically illustrated how vulnerable the U.S. had become to foreign producers.
Today, the United States, with its dependency on oil, is funding both sides in the war on terrorism: the U.S. military with our tax dollars, and supporters of Islamic militants through our gasoline purchases. Ninety-seven percent of transportation in America is dependent on oil. The 230 million vehicles on U.S. Roads today burn more than 55% of the oil we consume. And these vehicles emit almost a third of the greenhouse gasses we put in the air.
Cut to:
A segment on the explosion with interviews of the Deepwater Horizon workers, Transocean and BP leadership (especially Steven Newman and Tony Hayward), and surviving family members. Some of the questions asked of the leadership will be: What was the cause of the explosion? Could it have been prevented? What steps could have been taken to prevent it?
Some of the questions asked of the surviving family members will be: What would you like to tell Steven Newman/Tony Hayward? This tragedy could have been prevented with a $500,000 device that they knew about. How does that make you feel? Additionally, we will investigate the Minerals Management Service, the government agency responsible for inspecting offshore oil platforms.
Cut to:
News footage dealing with the Minerals Management Service revealing employees spending time trading links to Internet porn, shaking off crystal meth buzzes, and partying on the dime of the oil companies that they were supposed to be regulating, instead of inspecting offshore oil platforms.
Cut to:
A segment detailing the effects of the oil spill on the Gulf Coast with interviews of fishermen/women, restaurant owners, workers and owners of tourist attractions, visitors, members of the cleanup crew, and the administrator of the compensation fund Kenneth Feinberg. This segment will also investigate the $20 billion compensation fund which was set up to reimburse residents, fishermen/women and business owners for lost revenue following the BP oil spill.
Cut to:
The final segment outlines a detailed plan to rid the U.S. dependency on oil, replacing old ways of energy production with new, cleaner ways of powering Americawind and solar power.
Cut to:
Jones: If you want to see the future of America's energy source, look up. Look at the sun. We have a Saudi Arabia of solar energy. We can put people back to work right now manufacturing the solar panels. Solar panels don't put themselves up, somebody has got to put those solar panels up.
Cut to:
An interview with a CEO of a solar power company with cuts to said CEO showing and further explaining his or her product in the factory where its manufactured and on residential and commercial buildings.
Cut to:
Jones: We have a Saudi Arabia of wind energy. We have workers sitting idle right now in Ohio, Indiana, Michiganthe so-called Rust Belt. Some of the best workers in the history of the world. Wind turbines. Boeing-level engineeringa jet engine in the sky. 8,000 finely-machined parts in each one. That's a caras much steel as in 26 cars. You could put your autoworkers back to work, your steelworkers back to work just repowering America with the Saudi Arabia of clean wind energy that we have.
Cut to:
An interview with an executive of GE Wind Energy with cuts to said executive showing and further explaining his or her product in the factory its manufactured and locations where its been installed.
And guess what? If you build a wind farm, a wind platform out there in the Gulf and something goes wrong, you won't have a massive wind slick that comes and destroys the whole economy. There's a smarter way to do this. If we had sane energy policy we could put Americans back to work. If you want the jobs of tomorrow it's very simple, you make the products of tomorrow. The products of tomorrow are in clean energy and clean energy technology.
Fade to black.
Roll credits.[/SPOILER]
It could be the one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
VeganFromMars
3) Do you have any veg*n restaurant suggestions in Washington DC?
I've not been to any yet.