Another one opens.  I was thinking about that saying and how true it has been for me, throughout my life.  It has also been very true for the women I am interviewing for the Beyond Sixty Project.

I did phone interviews with two women today, preparing them for future filmed interviews.  They both talked about “the doors.”  My first three inteview subjects talked about them as well.

There is a clear commonality among all of my story tellers and it is resilience. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulty and adapt well in the face of adversity.  I am fascinated by it and why some women seem to have more of it than others.

Doors are opening and closing all the time.  The need to change or adapt is perched on the doorstep.  We lose loved ones, build and change careers, get divorced, raise children, deal with illness and muddle through days frought with challenges.  But we continue to open new doors. We are driven to keep learning about ourselves and others.  We want to remain productive and relevant.

Most of the women I am speaking with tell me they have a network of friends and family that provide encouragement, love and support, all necessary to build and feed their resilience.  Each woman talks about her need for balance and flexibility and how she creates the most nurturing environment for herself in order to remain active and in pursuit of new challenges.

I love hearing the stories.  They are all so completely different yet common in their resilience quotient.  They are risk takers and curious about life.  They are continuing their journeys through new doors every day.

I am excited about opening the door to my fourth filming next week.  I hope you get to open some new doors this week.

Happy first day of summer!

Melissa

 

So many of you have asked me about Sara, Susan and A’Lelia’s stories, intrigued by the teaser content in the Beyond Sixty Project website.  Today we added expanded content from each interview and you can check it out by going to: http://www.beyondsixtyproject.com

I am confirming our next three interviews which will take place during June, July and August.  Stay tuned for excerpts and information as we continue to add new stories from other fascinating women!

Aside from your interest in the women and their stories,  I am regularly asked about how I find women to interview and what the process of filming is like.  So let’s go behind the scenes to give you a better idea!

I spend much of my time at the computer researching women that I feel would have diverse interest and appeal for the project. Through search engines I am usually able to pinpoint their address and possibly phone number, or if they are somewhat famous I may locate their agent.   Then the calls and emails begin.  I have had some of the most interesting calls with women from all over the country. If they agree to be a part of the project we do a short interview session on the phone and decide on a film date. I then begin to craft the interview questions based on the uniqueness of their story and will have one or more phone conversations with them prior to filming..

My partners at Expressway Productions and I travel to the interview location, which could be their home or business, and spend a full day with each woman.  It is not just me with a video camera perched on my shoulder!  Our team consists of a primary camera man, a second camera, lighting and sound techs, a production assistant and me.  The set-up and break-down of the lighting and camera equipment can take an hour or more on each end, so I have plenty of time to sit and talk with the interview subject.  By the time we leave, at the end of the day, we have several hours of film and have made a new friend.

Then the real work begins.  Editing.  Our wonderful Editors at Expressway Productions know the themes I want to capture.  We spend hours watching the original footage to find the short clips we want to capture for a teaser and the longer pieces of the interview for the more comprehensive story.  Once we have the content edited there is correction to sound and visual as needed.  I have been in awe of the editing talent and can spend hours in the editing room watching my vision come to life.  It is fascinating, tedious, time consuming and very rewarding.

As I sit here prepping for my next interview in three weeks, I am looking forward to meeting this woman and helping her tell her unique story.

Thank you for your continued interest in the Beyond Sixty Project.  If you know of a woman between the ages of 60-100 who may be willing to tell their story please get in touch with me.

Melissa