Click here to learn more about this new series from Edge studios, and follow @npquarterly and @offthehookshorts on social to see episodes of “Off the Hook” as they are released.
(Saphia sits in front of a white background.)
SAPHIA: Hi, my name is Saphia, and I am the creator of “Off the Hook.” I just wanted to come on and say thank you so much for watching season one and thank you for your patience as we take some time in between seasons to gear up for season two. So in lieu of an episode this week, I wanted to come on and give you a little behind-the-scenes knowledge of how we made season one happen.
As you know, we film and post weekly, and that means that all of our creative work happens within seven days. We start off the week with a creative meeting, we go over the script idea, and then I take that idea and I film it. I film, record, and act on my own. I have developed some tips and tricks to make that feasible for one person. And then the rough cut goes off to our post-production team, and that team polishes the video, does the animations that you saw, and then we are ready to post and share with you.
The most important part of all of this for us is the creative intention of this work, and the story that we are trying to tell, which is the story of a personal quest for liberation. And the creative question we are trying to answer is, “What does it look like, now, to go on a personal quest for liberation? To actually try and put into practice the teachings that are present in our literature, most notably—for our character—in the work of bell hooks?” And this character is grappling with what liberation even means, because it is both personal and communal.
In the first season, she is focusing on housing because bell hooks says that housing will be the site of class struggle in this country. And she is trying to think about how her liberation is wrapped up in the liberation of others, how she can contribute to the solution for housing. And in the next season, she will be thinking about communalism.
That’s all I’ll say for now. Please stay tuned, and thank you for being here. Bye.
(Saphia waves to camera. Fade to outro.)
This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.
