TransGeek is available for streaming! You can buy or rent it now at https://transgeek.vhx.tv.
Watch here for more streaming options.
Watch TransGeek
Watch the Trailer
While you wait for TransGeek to show up at a festival near you, enjoy our latest trailer:
Getting to the Finish Line
We can see the finish line from here!
It’s been a long road. I sat down to do the first interview for TransGeek nearly six years ago. In that time we have recorded the stories of dozens of folks. We have seen hope grow, and had our hopes dashed. We have seen our world change in ways that we could not have imagined. After all this time, TransGeek remains an important and timely project.
As I look for the final bits of b-roll and Lisa polishes the final edit, we are facing a few more challenges to getting these amazing stories on the big screen. So what’s left to do? Color correction, sound mix, motion graphics, promotion, web extras…and more.
Enough more that our funding is beginning to run short. We have reserved what we need to fulfill the rewards we owe our wonderful and oh-so-patient Kickstarter supporters. But that leaves us a nearly zero balance in the production account.
So what to do?
We are applying for completion grants, a form of funding specifically intended to aid independent film productions that find themselves in this sort of situation. Producers with films that are essentially finished can seek funding to put those final touches on and get their film in front of an audience. This is where you come in…
WANTED: Grant Writer
If you agree with us that TransGeek is an important project and have some experience writing grants, we could use your help.
We are all working hard to get the film out. By enlisting the aid of someone with grant writing experience, the rest of the team would be able to concentrate on the work best suited to their talents.
Want to help? Know someone else who could? Email me, Tweet at me, or Leave a message on Facebook. Together we can make sure that these remarkable stories are seen by a wide audience.
Seeking screeners:
As TransGeek Movie moves into post production, we are looking for a small group of people willing to view work-in-progress cuts, and give us detailed feedback/criticism. If you are interested, please message us on Facebook or DM us on Twitter.
You can see a synopsis of the film, and read about our team at our “About” page.
Gaming History, “Old Sküül” Style
Occasionally I take advantage of my privilege as a documentarian. Last weekend, 
interviewing Jennell Jaquays and Rebecca Heineman was one of those times:
I was fortunate enough to find a copy of Jennell’s D&D module. “Dark Tower” on eBay, and brought it along to our interview at Olde Sküül. She graciously consented to autograph her work.
The inscription is for the members of a D&D campaign lead by my co-producer Mallory.
Mal seemed pleased when
The Newest Addition to Our Team
We have a new co-producer joining us.
Mallory Anna Wood is a trans lesbian feminist activist and writer. She’s also a tabletop and PC gamer, a cartoon and horror film fanatic, and a huge science nerd.
Mallory’s involvement in the film began as a friend and general cultural consultant, and has slowly metamorphosed into her current role as co-producer. She adds a critical transfeminine perspective to the production team, as well as keeping the project aware of and involved in trans youth culture and activism.
[Edited to update bio. 13/Nov/2018]
Well Deserved Recognition
Our friend, and the producer/assistant director of TransGeek Movie, Sayer Johnson, was named as one of the 2015 Trans100 last night!
Sayer is a parent, partner, artist, social worker, and lifelong activist. He proudly identifies as a queer transgender man. Sayer sits on the board of the LGBT Center of St Louis; and is President and Co-founder of the Metro Trans Umbrella Group. Sayer worked with MTUG and The University of Missouri St. Louis, to help create the first conference on transgender issues in the St Louis Metro region. He has a screenplay called “Intentional” in pre-production. Sayer has also helped to bring the stories of trans people to NPR’s acclaimed “StoryCorps.” He spends as much of his time as he can with his family and working to help create power for transgender people in St. Louis and the metro east regions.
Without Sayer’s friendship, encouragement, and patient guidance; their would be no TransGeek Movie. He has guided every step of production; schmoozing with potential participants; and gently guiding my understanding of the cost and rewards of living an authentic life. Sayer is a fierce and loving advocate in all he does. This film is only a small part of his amazing work. I am very lucky to count him as a friend and creative partner.
Congratulations Sayer on a well deserved honor. You are awesome and we love you!
Methods of work: Testing the design and automation of lower thirds.
From the nightly news, (does anyone watch that anymore?) to mocumentaries, directors have found it necessary to identify the person speaking on camera. The typical device that is used to do this is the “lower third”. So named for it position, (occupying the lower third of the frame, below the image of the speaker).
For TransGeek Movie, I wanted to design a lower third that was visually interesting, distinctive, and easy to reproduce It should not, however, disrupt the viewer’s experience of the voice of the person on camera.
I have not settled on a final design yet, but I think I will be using an animated lower third that emulates an old school, 17 segment, alphanumeric display. This is easy to read, and adds a bit of geeky eye-candy.
There will be many lower thirds throughout the film. Composing and animating each would be far too much work to do manually; and prone to error. Automation is a lovely thing.
I designed a template in Inkscape, an open source vector editing package. I then wrote a bash script that modifies the template with the appropriate text. It outputs the individual customized frames, using Inkscape’s command line interface; and then strings it all together into the final animation using avconv. ImageMagick is used for creating the key channel.
I am currently using Kdenlive as my editor and compositor.
The result is satisfactory. At least until I get a real graphic artist and editor on board.
It doesn’t hurt that my test clip features Mattie Brice sharing some wise insights.
Edited 16 Dec. 2014 for clarity.
Clip Reel
While we work on our trailer, we thought we would show a few of our interviews in more depth.
Here we are a few selections from our interviews with Anna Anthropy, Alicia E. Goranson, Mattie Brice, Cheryl Morgan, and Tab Kimpton. The footage is uncorrected, and the edit is rough, but the interviews speak for themselves.
This is the clip reel we showed at GaymerX2.
Editing is hard!
I‘m getting ready for GaymerX2 and the Kickstarter. That means editing; a lot of editing.
Editing is hard. Yes, the mechanics of editing are hard; but much harder than the technical aspects, are the decisions about what will not make the cut. Reviewing so many interviews for material for the finished film, and more urgently, the trailer; I am struck by how many powerful, eloquent, and important words are not going to get into the final documentary. I have an embarrassment of riches. So many people have been so generous with their time, and thoughts. Every decision I make hurts.
Alicia Goranson quipped at the end of our interview, that she would be happy to see 30 seconds of our one hour interview on screen. I think she will get more screen time than that in the trailer; but her comment does give a sense of the enormity of the task.
My goal is to launch the Kickstarter campaign very close to GaymerX2. The vaugeries of moving halfway across the country, the day job, and Kickstarter’s approval process may have negative influences on those plans; but I want to start sharing some of the awesome footage we have recorded.
See you at GaymerX!