SCE's Backstory -Page 3

Together with Jeff's friend of many years, singer Emma Jane Conley, who worked for area non-profit organizations as a grant writer, Jeff and Becca worked to draft a grant proposal to solicit funds for the production of their project. Because of the product's obvious link to the visually impaired, they researched organizations that paid special attention to this target audience, attempting to market their idea to one such organization who might exchange funding for copies of the finished product to give to patients. After many phone calls and a few meetings, they found a medical non-profit organization that was as excited about their idea as they were. After a meeting with the Director of Corporate and Foundation Funding in September of 2004, they were assured of funds, promised an advance, and felt positive they this was just the break they needed. They hurried home to begin work on the audio project, which at first involved day trips and afternoons spent creating sound effects that would be used in the background of “End Run,” “Sun Moon Stars Rain,” and a few other short productions. Another friend of Jeff's, local musician Woody Wolfe, who performs at children's hospitals around the world, loaned them a portable digital recorder that made it possible for the pair to record effects almost anywhere. Then the sounds could be transferred to Jeff's computer, which began to serve as “Mission Control” for the project, storing hundreds of files of sound to be edited together later with the voices of the actors.

To cast the productions, Jeff and Becca made a list of all the characters in each feature, and tacked an ‘open call' sheet to the wall in Studio Brick, the facility where Jeff teaches guitar, bass and Music Theory. Slowly, some of the students of Studio Brick, their parents, their friends, and even the owner and dance instructor at the Studio, Nancie Wagner, filled bit parts and supporting roles. Even Jeff's flight instructor made his acting debut. They had no money yet to pay professional actors, and so free talent reigned. To Jeff and Becca's surprise, most of the people involved with the project didn't want to be paid; they only wanted to be involved. Of course everyone was promised a copy of the final product when it was completed. Although they were greeted with a chorus of “I've never done anything like this before!” the performances that filled the portable digital recorder with voices were anything but amateurish.