Hey everyone!

Since our last post we've been hard at work every free day we have editing video. We're glad to announce we've gone through over 100 hours of concert footage and lined it all up and trimmed the fat. We've also gone through half of our interviews and began cutting and editing everything down to the point where we can put it all to music.

We're also pleased to bring you this quick snippet of footage we put together from our interview with Kermit Ruffins, one of the founding members of the Rebirth Brass Band and the current leader of the BBQ Swingers, outside of his regular Thursday night spot at Vaughn's Lounge in the Bywater.

Thanks again for all your support and feel free to send us a message through kickstarter or send one to emailus@brassrootsmovie.com if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Dear Brass Roots Supporters,

First and foremost we hope that everyone had a happy Carnival Season and has started 2012 off on the best foot possible. Secondly, we'd like to take a moment and apologize to everyone who has asked about the progress of the documentary and has yet to receive a response.

As many of you have noticed, things have gone pretty quiet on our end since late 2011 and it would seem as if production on the film has stopped or paused. Let us assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. We have been and continue to be hard at work on the documentary and have every intention of finishing it this year.

That being said, we'd like to apologize for having gone so quiet in terms of updates and having stopped the newsletter without much notice. The truth is that, between our regular responsibilities (we all have day jobs and our sound editor has an adorable one-year-old child that has taken up a lot of our time) and editing the hundreds of hours of footage (that's right, HUNDREDS), we had to make sacrifices with our time and the newsletter was the first to go. This wasn't a conscious decision as much as it was just a byproduct of us not having enough hours in the day to keep up a thorough newsletter active and, because the intangibles of editing down footage is hard to translate into a weekly update, we struggled to fill the weekly e-mail with fresh content.

That being said, we're sure you're very curious as to how the documentary is progressing. Though we have finished the majority of our filming and have been in post-production fro some months now, we have to admit that we underestimated the sheer magnitude of our project. Before we even launched our Kickstarter, we had been filming for close to two years and filmed for another six months after we received funding. This translates to a whole lot of footage that the three of us have had to comb through in order to find the best video, audio and interview footage that we can use for the film. Let us tell you, it has not been easy.

Thankfully, we have finished most of what is the hardest part of the editing which is synchronizing our live concert video with our audio and are now going through all the footage and trimming the fat, so that only the best shots remain. After that, we will go through all our footage and compose the documentary as you would a song, looking for the universal themes that appear throughout all our work and weaving them into a coherent narrative so that we can represent the true spirit of New Orleans brass band culture. At this point, our goal is to finish the film by fall of this year so that we can submit it to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, as well as other noted film festivals next year.

We know that this has been a long time coming but we ask that you continue to show the incredible patience you've given us thus far. Though it seems as though we are far from finished, we are actually in the home stretch and it's all thanks to all of our backers, friends, family and other supporters that have shown us all the love and support that we've needed to keep focused on the goal of finishing this project.

As a special thanks to everyone involved -- whether you've supported us with a donation or not -- here's a short video featuring the Hot 8 Brass Band performing their song "I Miss My Homie" with some interview snippets from Tulane professor Matt Sakakeeny and Hot 8 leader Benny Pete talking about the effect of the band losing three members to violent crime.

Backers: stay tuned for an update later on that will link to a high-quality version of the video that you can download and share with all your friends and family.

Once again, thanks to everyone for all your support and stay tuned as we continue working on the documentary and updating y'all on our progress.