If you followed us throughout the month of June, you no doubt know that we were traveling through Zimbabwe and Mozambique with the Egyptian national soccer team as part of WE MUST GO, our documentary chronicling the squad’s efforts to reach the 2014 World Cup. If you’re a football fan, you were psyched. If you’re a Sesame Street fan or one of our Kickstarter backers, you were probably thinking, “What the hell is happening with I AM BIG BIRD whilst you traipse around southern Africa?!” Fair question—and one we’re glad to answer in this post!
Knowing full well that WE MUST GO would take us away from Big Bird for a few weeks in June, we planned ahead. We worked with Josh Johnson, our LA-based composer who has scored every Copper Pot project to date, to make a schedule that would allow him to get working on the music while we were shooting. Before we left, we sent Josh Act I of I AM BIG BIRD, which is roughly the first 20 minutes of the film (which we think will come in around 85 minutes).
While we were away, Josh sent us clips to review. During a very long day in which we sat in customs in Harare, Zimbabwe for 6 hours, we were able to go through a bunch of material he sent and send him notes back. In other words, I AM BIG BIRD didn’t miss a beat. Not only has Josh scored the entire first act, but we’ve been able to share our thoughts with him AND he’s already gotten us revisions. It’s sounding GREAT!
Upon returning to the States, we jumped right back into Big Bird—this week alone we cut four scenes (and this is a holiday week!). Though these scenes aren’t locked, they give a good indication of what the movie is going to be. When we feel a scene is close, we send it off to Josh, who is writing music as we go. It’s an exciting process that is moving along nicely (I literally just knocked on the wood desk I’m working at—superstitious much?) Once we finish a first rough pass of the movie, we’ll go back in and fine tune things and we plan to be ready to start submitting to festivals by late summer/early fall.
All of this is meant to say that I AM BIG BIRD is on track and, with any luck, you’ll be able to see it in a theater near you in the not-to-distant future!