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Geocaching Documentary Ideas


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For a local film festival, I've decided to create a documentary film about geocaching. I already came up with a name ("First To Find: Behind The Scenes Of A Growing Outdoor Hobby"), and a few ideas for it. However, it has to be ten minutes or less. Any ideas of things I absolutely need to put in?

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Based on your title, maybe find one of your local cachers who really focuses on the FTFs - every area has a few of these right? The flick would give some background explanation of GC in general, then profile the "career" of the chosen cacher. Have a scene where he or she gets the "Bat Phone" notification of a new published cache, and follow the action. End it with the interaction of the few regulars who show up within an hour or so of the publish notice and get their perspectives on why they like to try for FTF.

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I will offer my opinion that I think the working title is horrible. I do not think we should be advertising or glorifying the FTF part of the game. Please do not produce a documentary that celebrates the FTF mindset. Find a way to promote the real game/hobby/sport. Not the FTF competitive subset.

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I will offer my opinion that I think the working title is horrible. I do not think we should be advertising or glorifying the FTF part of the game. Please do not produce a documentary that celebrates the FTF mindset. Find a way to promote the real game/hobby/sport. Not the FTF competitive subset.

 

The proposed title seems neutral and does not appear to glorify that aspect of the game.

 

In fact, with careful editing, the right selection of music and possible inclusion of some footage of a reviewer (anonymous to protect the innocent), a documentary could be produced that denigrates the competitiveness of this hobby -- and would still fit the title.

 

How about changing it to "First to Find: Guts and Glory or Nuts and Gory?"

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I will offer my opinion that I think the working title is horrible. I do not think we should be advertising or glorifying the FTF part of the game. Please do not produce a documentary that celebrates the FTF mindset. Find a way to promote the real game/hobby/sport. Not the FTF competitive subset.

 

The proposed title seems neutral and does not appear to glorify that aspect of the game.

 

In fact, with careful editing, the right selection of music and possible inclusion of some footage of a reviewer (anonymous to protect the innocent), a documentary could be produced that denigrates the competitiveness of this hobby -- and would still fit the title.

 

How about changing it to "First to Find: Guts and Glory or Nuts and Gory?"

How does any title that includes "first to find" seem neutral? Color me confused. :blink:

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How does any title that includes "first to find" seem neutral? Color me confused. :blink:

 

It appears your contention that First to Find is a bad thing. It is others' that it is not. The title simply talks about "behind the scenes" of this aspect of the game. These "scenes" could be positive or negative; the title does not indicate either way.

 

We wouldn't know until we saw if the documentary had footage of known hounds congratulating the first of their bunch to get there then having coffee afterwards to discuss (positive) or of vehicles racing above the speed limit towards GZ where we see known hounds vaulting over cemetery fences at night and ripping foliage apart in a frenzy trying to find the container (negative).

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I will offer my opinion that I think the working title is horrible. I do not think we should be advertising or glorifying the FTF part of the game. Please do not produce a documentary that celebrates the FTF mindset. Find a way to promote the real game/hobby/sport. Not the FTF competitive subset.

^Yes, that.

 

Although if you were going to do it, a huge firefight at GZ for the FTF would be nice, and easy enough to make in After Effects.

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Based on your title, maybe find one of your local cachers who really focuses on the FTFs - every area has a few of these right?

 

There are many areas where there are one or more self proclaimed FTF hounds, but it's certainly not universal. In my area, there are a few people that probably get most of the FTFs, but that's mostly due to the fact that they don't work, or have a job which allows them to leave on a moments notice when a new cache is published. Logs which imply that any sort of race for FTF was happening are extremely rare and I've seen caches located in very accessible spots go unfound for a day or two. There are many other places in the world where the number of caches, and especially new placements is so low that the FTF games is non-existent.

 

The flick would give some background explanation of GC in general, then profile the "career" of the chosen cacher. Have a scene where he or she gets the "Bat Phone" notification of a new published cache, and follow the action. End it with the interaction of the few regulars who show up within an hour or so of the publish notice and get their perspectives on why they like to try for FTF.

 

I've been caching for 5 1/2 years and don't recall ever meeting another cacher at cache within an hour or so of it's publication. I've met cachers out in the field many other times and have somewhere between 10 and 20 FTFs (I really don't know the exact number) but the FTF sub-game just doesn't exist to the extent it does in other places.

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How about The Maltese Cache or Geocachers Don't Wear Plaid?

 

On a more serious side, I'm unclear on what the message behind your documentary is going to be. Is it about geocahers whose main goal is to get as many FTFs as possible, or is this going to be a comprehensive introduction to the hobby for people who aren't familiar with it? An FTF film would be aimed at people already engaged in geocaching, while the other way you are targeting muggles essentially.

 

If you want to explain geocaching to the general public, I think the most important question to answer would not be what geocaching is, but why people do it. A lot of times when I tell people about geocaching, their first reaction is "what's the point?" It's easy to explain how geocaching works; it's harder to make someone understand the appeal. Of course, that is something that varies from person to person, but whatever the reason, that's what the audience will base their opinion around. Are geocachers going to be seen as losers with nothing better to do, or are they actually pursuing something worthwhile? We all know the answer to that, of course.

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I think the title will come to you after you make the film. A documentary about the average cacher taking a walk through the park at lunch and finding tupperware in a bush is accurate, but boring. So, what's the hook? The FTF hound who gets the notification of the new cache and gets there at 7AM just to miss the FTF by 5 minutes and then gets to work late again? The tree climbing crowd that meet at a cache and practice one-upsmanship on technique and speed? The night cachers that see the world in night vision? Or the loner that just gets away from everything and spends a morning or day going after a remote hide. Documentaries don't have to always be about the average.

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Well, I would try and see if I could find and interview different cachers with different approaches to geocaching. Some people are in this because they like the outdoors and nature; others may be technophiles who enjoy using their GPS for something other than driving. I'm sure there are many different viewpoints, but it will be important to tie them all together with a common thread. I'm not sure what that thread might be, but hopefully you'll discover it in the process of producing the film.

 

Above all, try to keep things simple. If you only have ten minutes, don't overwhelm the audience with too much at once. Geocaching has a lot of different aspects. As someone who is still new to this hobby, I can tell you it was a lot for me to digest. I'm still trying to work some things out. ^^

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So, here's what I'm thinking. First is the opening credits and a short explanation of geocaching. Also, rules and terms are explained. Then, I interview local cachers. After this, the film ends with a race for an FTF. How does that sound?

 

I think rules and terms is a waste of precious footage...kind of sounds like a SOP at work. If your work influences someone to check out the website, you made it interesting. The rules are on the website.

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I don't worry too much about the rules (other than basics like "trade up or trade even", sign the log, and replace the cache as found) when I'm teaching a 1-hour class. You have only 10 minutes.

 

If one of your interviewees is into FTF races, then maybe you could show video of an FTF race while he/she explains the appeal of an FTF race. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. A lot of people never get an FTF, and really don't care about them.

 

Actually, to avoid video of talking heads, you could use the video of something while an interviewee talks about the appeal of that something. It doesn't matter whether the something is an FTF race, or a terrain-5 cache, or a beautiful view, or public art, or historic locations, or anything else.

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Show a 5 minute clip of a typical family finding a cache in a local park. Bright sunny day, befuddled father looking for an ammo can, worried mom concerned about poison ivy and ticks, smiling kids excited at finding "treasure", then quickly switch to a 2 minute clip showing a bunch of people in a FTF race at 2AM squealing tires and pulling up to a lampost and fighting over lifting the skirt, along with an angry storeowner and police involvement. :D

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