► Thorium Problem is a video comprised mostly of video footage sent to me by John Kutsch and Jim Kennedy on the intersection of heavy rare earths and thorium. It was the first example of video footage being sent to me for editing help, and also to make the footage avaialble for use in the documentary.
The technical quality isn't great, but the process of editing this helped me think about how to handle the topic of rare earth in the doc, and how it might be done differently than in the 2011 doc.
►TEAC4 (Thorium Energy Alliance Conference #4) was the start of video capture for the new thorium documentary. This time with a load of volunteers & high-def cameras. (The TEAC4 playlist below starts with an invite to TEAC5 to be held May 30th & 31st of 2013 in Chicago.)
This was an incredible bang-for-the-buck. Between myself and volunteers we simultaneously captured lectures, interviews and random discussions. Here's a portion of one such exchange. You can see in this edit I'm experimenting with a post-production image stabilization tool (which I've since learned how to use more effectively). This is a great example of an organic conversation containing at least one sound bite I'll be using.
► Flibe Energy was founded by Kirk Sorensen and Kirk Dorius to develop the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. Kirks and Baroness Bryony Worthington conducted interviews in Huntsville beofore we travelled to TEAC4. Here's an interview session with Kirk Sorensen.
► Before we left for TEAC4, Kirk Sorensen toured Baroness Bryony Worthington through Huntsville's U.S. Space & Rocket Center to discuss America's (and Huntville's) ability to get stuff done.
► On the way from Huntsville to Chicago we detoured to Oak Ridge National Labs for a pre-arranged tour of their nuclear facilities, including the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment and ORNL's molten salt loop!
► We left ORNL to have dinner with some of the original Molten Salt Reactor Experiment researchers, Dick Engel & Syd Ball. KickStarter backers paid for the food on that table. Money well spent!
► The least expensive footage I've shot since Kirk Sorensen visited Calgary in 2011 was... David LeBlanc... in Calgary! He was attending the Canadian Association of Physicists Congress. I captured his speaking engagements (not yet processed). And Chelsea helped me capture the following interview about Molten Salt Reactors. Aren't trees in the background nice?
► Despite having made the public announcement that Chinese Academy of Science was pursuing a molten salt reactor, it was Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering Department that saw the first visit from China (in August 2012) to reveal any details about the CAS project. It was Kickstarter funds that got me to Berkeley, wire up Kun Chen for audio, and get a decent multi-camera capture. Not a great bang-for-the-buck... there's a couple useful moments in the Q&A session, but nothing amazing. It is hard to know in advance how such events will unfold.
► International Thorium Energy Organisation's ThEC12 was happening in Shanghai. China was hosting a thorium conference! Backers helped me raise additional funds specifically to cover this conference. I coordinated with Robert Hargraves so I could interview him en-route from LAX to Shanghai. Here's his ThEC12 talk isolated, as it includes brief glimpes of extensive interviews I conducted with him at LAX, and on the plane itself.
► Here's ThEC12 lectures in their entirety. All 14 hours. The first talk (by Mian Heng Jiang) is helpful. It helps communicate the challenge (or misleading stats) of lowering GHG emissions at home... Often it just means we're moving GHG intensive operations (Manufacturing! Jobs!) to China.
I did capture non-lecture moments from ThEC12. I haven't really sorted all the non-lecture footage yet, but I know there's some good moments in there. On balance the trip was (I think) worth it.