 Thank you guys all for coming You probably know this is the Vermont production collective roundtable discussion that's not surprising to anybody right and We select a format for this hour that we have here, which is going to like evaporate is I'm up here. I'm going to introduce this prompt But then we're going to do breakout groups with the idea that we'll have smaller groups and people can just share What comes up for these prompts? We've got Brian over here is one of my VPC board members and christened in the back and myself so we'll break into three groups and the Context here is that this is just like an empowerment power and so there's no wrong There's no wrong ideas There could be like really Long ideas. We do want to be a little bit concise But the effort here is that just in this hour we all talk about what comes up and then we'll think of just kind of one thing that is a proactive action item and The VPC if you guys don't know is the organizing group of filmmakers here in Vermont We do events like this, which is essentially just an empower filmmakers We do some legislative stuff and some more tackling the challenges of being a filmmaker in the state and the piece of housekeeping today is Actually who here is from central Vermont? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, we are starting a central Vermont filmmakers meetup group Chad is in the back showing off our email sign-up list if you're interested Remotely Sign up for that because that's gonna be something new that we do we've been doing a Chittin and County meetup Which has been going great and it seems to be a really healthy thing for filmmakers, so The way this is gonna work you guys. This is really the main question here is What is so important about telling your story, right? And so the idea here is just think about like personally What's important about telling your personal story and it could be to if you want to have an angle of What feels important about telling your community story, but the idea is to think about and give value to you internally and what your story might be and Then a follow-up question being is just what's kind of one step? You know that you could do towards getting to telling that story and this is regardless of medium And I'll just like encourage it when we get into groups That You don't necessarily need to say, oh, you know, this is how I'm gonna write my script I think we're encouraging all of us to think ending again Just to give value to like what the story is that you have inside you or what is interesting in your local community? But any questions on that in general? All right. I'm gonna like so we're gonna have to move some chairs guys Guys we have like And then we're gonna get kicked out of the chocolate shop here You guys that like spark anything for you guys Yes Brian and Kristen when you guys are done Yeah, come on up here Well, it was really sweet that was inspiring that Got my synapses firing personally and appreciate all you guys sharing We've got like 10 minutes. We'll kind of like recap what the big themes were for our group You know with the effort that Hearing what other people's perspectives are on this will Get us inspired So we had a group that actually I would say like if we were looking at like a data chart Our top data cloud would actually be weather And considering How as Vermonters Weather is a big part of our life living with nature is a big part of our life Those of us who maybe have lived in other places I came here recently from Brooklyn where you don't care what the weather is really in a way that you do in Vermont and then How weather could also be used as like a narrative device, you know like wind The trees with leaves trees with red leaves trees with no leaves So anyways, weather was a big one we had why it's important is just like the big picture remembering that Everyone has like a unique perspective and Someone brought up. Yeah, every story has been told but it hasn't been told by you Right. So just keeping that in your heart Um One that was about the chapter you are in life. This came up in regards to just considering How at each age you are in your life, you're a different person Your impact on society is different and just considering considering that I'm not gonna know to write these up here you guys, but is this like sinking in for everybody? Yeah The other one was When thinking about someone brought up that they weren't super interested in telling your own personal story But we're interested in their community story and that it helps to build and strengthen the relationship with you and your neighbors and your community And then I think our We had a great one which was that It may not be that important to tell your personal story and just to keep that in mind and that if the story Is well told and an audience But you know no matter what your medium is they're engaging with your narrative and they're They're moved and and your whole Feel is like working And it's not your personal deep. You know, you haven't left it all out there. That's fine Uh, yeah, yeah, um, so I'm gonna leave it at that that maybe it's not important Our And we did have some we kind of got rushed. We had like a few one-liner action items some kind of profound stuff, um Was one just like trust the process and there's a lot of times Coming through life and you're like who actually wants to hear from me or My tiny town of 8,000 people like who cares? and That just comes down to trust, you know, and you having like faith that like the story is relevant There was one too that we talked about like We had a group of mainly vermonters with a New Hampshire aide in there and considering Again, it was like Just thinking about how distinctly Vermont Perspectives including like characters and landscapes and and themes We were just considering it's important to do that and to introduce that to the world. And so this is kind of thinking about like How can It should be well, not it should be but that like we would like for Remoters and their stories to be engaged with people in california and germany and japan and that are small Seemingly small stories that are personal to us and make waves on a global level. That was a summary This group chatted about the weather because that did not come up once in our group But the big themes were Universality we're creating connections through the stories we tell It's therapeutic to tell personal stories It's way for us to create the things we want to read the things we want to watch because maybe we didn't We weren't able to grow up these stories because they weren't being told Um We're also speaking for those who can't speak so we talked a lot about community and like how do we how do we move forward and creating this Part of it is events like this actually getting out of your house and talking to other people and like voicing it saying it out loud And saying that you're not alone and that other people want to hear these stories Something that I love that someone said was we need to create protect our creative time It's so easy to get caught up in like our day jobs or our side jobs or our kids or whoever But like set aside time and stick to it and make sure that you take care of that time for you and for yourself also Make sure that there are people that can hold you accountable to what you're doing So getting out again getting out there in your community Do something as a group do something with your friends do something with collaborative partners because you may let yourself down all the time But you're less likely to let others down if other people are counting on you Ryan So, uh, similarly, we also had a maybe there are more important stories than my own to tell comment made and from You know the the group of folks that we have we had somebody from Uh, from a public who is curating stories Myself who like all my dock work is really telling other people's stories So, you know, it's not necessarily just about telling your personal story But it's kind of like telling the story of what's important to you and that can be done to the conduit of telling somebody else's story Um, another thing that came up was it gives us the power to change hearts and minds. It's a shared perspectives that we have um This sense of connection both I think from Telling a story that you're trying to get the viewer to connect with but also by the process of making a movie Perhaps one of the most collaborative places in the world is on the film set Or what happens after the film or the film? Another one that I found especially interesting was uh, the ability to address topics that may be uncomfortable And I think Sean got a quote about uh, a movie is an empathy machine So we can really connect with somebody when we see them in this life It's potentially a safe space for Having a screen between yourself and any others and then also Just a sense of discovery and learning So be working with other folks that have a certain set of skills and learning something about I think that was kind of the hardest Great One more thing before lukas closes up. We do have our sign-up sheet over there If you guys are interested in essential vermont meetup We have postcards that say a lot about what we're doing here in the community and we've got some free stickers He doesn't want a free sticker To is that we have a sign-up sheet to follow us on instagram But I thank you guys so much for sharing. Um, I know it takes a lot of Heart and brain work to sit together and do that and um, and I appreciate that and I hope it was helpful for you guys