You may have heard, that we softly launched the new IMA website on Tuesday? Well, we were kind of busy with that recently. But we’ve kept our eyes on a couple of other projects, including a major video documentary. You may recall our first major documentary, on Maya Lin which we debuted on ArtBabble. A pic of Dan on location for that documentary, below.

Senior New Media Producer Dan Dark, on location in Walla Walla

So speaking of documentaries. In December, Danny Beyer and I spent a week in NYC working on our next documentary, featuring the artist duo Type A.  This is a really unique project for us, because we have enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with them – in fact, they’ve become ingrained in IMA’s culture through their work in 100 Acres….even on this blog. We’ve been even luckier in that we’ve received the full support, encouragement, collaboration and engagement from IMA’s contemporary curator, Lisa Freiman. It’s the makings of something special.

Stay hydrated! Simple advice.

In fact, this might be our most prolific collaboration with any artist. We’ve got hours and hours of team building raw footage, a Flickr set, blog posts, hilarious phone calls, hugs, the exchange of gifts and more.  It’s lasted years. They’ve also given us (and ArtBabble) one of the best In the Factory series to date. You can view that below. I implore you to at least watch the beginning…which will prompt you to watch the end.

It’s already become a very special project (and we’re a couple of months away from completing the documentary). Type  A have opened their studio to us, befriended the entire IMA family and been incredibly kind, patient, funny and inspiring collaborators. They even gave us hockey tickets for a Rangers game.

Our week in NYC was intense and we shot hours of footage. Interviewing people is an exhausting process and during the week we conducted on-camera interviews with several different people involved in Type A’s career (you’ll meet them in the video) and we grabbed tons of studio b-roll footage. It was an intense but good time.

The final day of shooting at Type A's studio

We’re a couple of months away from completing this video. Danny is currently editing the piece, sifting through all of the footage and searching for usable nuggets. There are plenty.  Even though it’s not done yet, I can imagine the final product being well over twenty minutes long, in which case, this would be our longest documentary to date. We’ve come a long way.

So while you’re waiting for this release, take time to watch Type A’s In the Factory interview (above) or check out their section on the IMA site and what they’re doing in 100 Acres. We love them.

But please don’t misunderstand…it is not that we aren’t excited. We are. We just have to get excited months before most people outside the museum know a show is coming. We start planning projects like the BTM site really far out so that we can be ready with cool stuff to keep you engaged as the buzz for a show starts building. For BTM we wanted to be innovative in how we presented info, give you some streaming video and create a unique feature for Project IMA, a special fashion event.

New Media still has a few BTM projects to finish. There will be a video trailer coming soon and we are working on video loops that will run in the galleries. But by the time the show opens we will be on to other things, like a documentary about Maya Lin’s work, the new series, In the Factory (look for this in March) and some other super secret stuff we can’t yet mention.

In terms of web projects, we learned some very valuable lessons in this development process that will inform what you will see in future projects. Look for us to keep innovating our presentation of video and we will strive to make every web project engaging and interactive. So take a look at BTM and tell us what you think. We’ll keep it in mind as we continue working on the To Live Forever web site (the show that opens in July)!