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The Background
Last year, four filmmakers came together under the name WhatKey Productions to create a documentary about their hometown. That project was titled Legends of Lacey Township and it captured stories from those who lived in the town their entire lives. The film held fantastic local success, premiering to a crowd of over 300 excited locals in August of 2016. Legends of Lacey Township closes with a segment about the New Jersey Parkway and the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant and how these two key factors greatly helped grow our town and make it what it is today.
The Oyster Creek Power Plant is currently the oldest operating nuclear plant in the country and is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2019. Taking what we discovered about the changes that the plant brought about when it opened in Lacey Township, WhatKey Productions has decided to focus their second documentary motion picture on the plant's closing and use that topic to branch out and touch on topics such as the plant's past and future environmental impacts, its social/economic impacts, as well as how decommissioning a plant works and how plants similar to Oyster Creek handled their decommission impact. On top of these topics, we predominantly want to explore why we are seeing fewer and fewer nuclear plants in the United States and how that could impact our present and future. This project is named Nuclear Shutdown and we aim to release the final product in early 2020, just a few months following the closing of the plant.
The Goal
Nuclear Shutdown will aim to present the many distinct stances on nuclear power from a neutral standpoint. Using scientific research and evidence to show why some people think it is great, and why others would rather see it not used as much. The goal of the documentary will be to share information regarding nuclear power as a whole as well as the impact that a plant's decommission can have to its surroundings. As an example of this: Oyster Creek utilizes water from the creek it is named after to cool its reactor. When the water leaves the plant it runs down into the Barnegat Bay, and as such has warmed those waters over the years. Because of this, Barnegat Bay never freezes over in the winter, however once the plant stops using that water for coolant the bay will once again begin to freeze. This factor alone will not only impact the creatures within the bay, but will also change the lifestyles and practices of baymen who rely on fishing on those waters in the winter for income.
These are the more "unusual" topics that nobody often thinks about that we aim to explore within Nuclear Shutdown by not only looking into and researching the future of the Oyster Creek and its surroundings, but by also finding similar plants that were already decommissioned and peek at what happened there after they shut down their reactors.
In an effort to maintain a neutral stance through this film, we will be interviewing key players in the plant's decommissioning as well as the nuclear power discussion as a whole including:
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) - to get to know how a plant is decommissioned, and how nuclear power works
- Exelon Corporation - the company that owns the power plant
- The Sierra Club and other environmentalist organizations - for their environmentalist stance on nuclear energy
- Environmental Scientists - for the facts behind the positive and/or negative impact of nuclear power on nature.
- Everyday people who live and work in the towns around Oyster Creek - what do they think of the plant and how will its closing impact them?
Who is WhatKey Productions?
WhatKey Productions is a small filmmaking production company comprised of four producers from Lacey Township NJ. Those four individuals are:
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Jeremy Muermann - A TV Production Teacher and hobbyist documentarian from Lanoka Harbor, NJ. He is the Director of “Legends of Lacey Township” and “Baymen’s Heritage.” Jeremy is looking forward to working on a new collaboration with his former students for “Nuclear Shutdown,” and hopes to help further the conversation about energy options in the United States.
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Steven Krawiec - A college graduate who has experience in producing multiple video productions. In high school he was Station Manager of WLTS TV-21 and has been involved with Ocean TV-20 at Ocean County College. He also works for The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College and at The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. He hopes to work for NBC as a producer or as a lighting technician on national tours. Steven is 22-years-old and has lived in Lacey his entire life.
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Winter Rose Barney - STEM-minded since childhood, Winter Rose has always harbored the desire to uncover the why's and how's of policies regarding new technologies. She directs her passion into working as Head Researcher and Program Coordinator for WhatKey Productions.
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Andy DiAngelis - A graduate from the film program at DeSales University and currently a corporate event lighting technician, Andy fills the roles of lead editor and cinematographer on WhatKey Productions projects. You can see examples of his work on his online portfolio.
Why Do We Need Your Help?
Last year Legends of Lacey Township was produced on a budget of just over $800, with all additional expenses coming right out of the producer's pockets. Due to the larger scope and far wider target audience of Nuclear Shutdown, we are looking to raise a larger budget to create a film that will have the quality of production as well as content in order to reach more film festivals and acquire more high-profile distribution deals with online streaming services. Keeping this in mind, our fundraising goals are as follows:
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Equipment Purchases and Rentals ($2000) - Unlike our previous project, we do not have easy access to several pieces of equipment we need to make this film. Fortunately our producers have a decent amount of personal equipment, though that still leaves us lacking in the camera department, which is our main focus for fundraising.
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Audio Engineering and Equipment ($1500) - In the interest of preparing this piece with a goal of not only submitting to film festivals, but also for ultimate distribution with large online streaming services like Amazon, a certain caliber of audio quality and mixing is required. As this is one skill that our producers are not heavily trained in, we need to look outside ourselves to bring on additional team members for the sound department both during production and in post production. Fortunately every member of WhatKey Productions has a vast network of friends, old classmates, and instructors who now work professional sound who we plan to ask for help.
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Graphic Design and Artwork ($1500) - Our next goal is to fund additional artwork for the project. In the past, all of the promotional and in-film artwork has been completed "in house" by Andy DiAngelis, though while he knows the basics, graphic design and artwork is not what he does best, so why not find someone who can make more of our promotional material pop? The money we raise for this goal will go toward things like commissioning a piece to use as our movie poster, graphic design to use both within the film and on additional materials, and creating practical effect graphics to use within the film itself - similar to the large model of Lacey Township that was created for Legends of Lacey Township.
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Crew Travel ($1000) - The final goal is to raise money to have our crew travel to our shoots. Unlike our last project, where everything we needed to shoot was right outside our front door, many of the places and people we need to visit and interview are further away this time. Fortunately, some are still in town, such as those associated with the Oyster Creek Plant itself, though we will also be visiting older plants that have been previously decommissioned as well as conducting interviews with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) who are stationed in Washington DC and Exelon which is based in Chicago. As such, funds to get the crew and equipment to these locations will allow us to plan and schedule these shoots with more ease.
Please note, that nowhere here do we list production payment as a goal and that crew travel is the lowest on the list. This is because the producers of WhatKey Productions plan to put every dollar of this fundraiser straight into creating this motion picture. Filmmaking is more than work to us, but is truly a hobby that we all enjoy and as such we will be putting all money we receive into creating Nuclear Shutdown rather than paying for our personal time and labor.
More Information
Not only will we be keeping this campaign page up to date as we move forward with this project, but we will also be providing updates and sharing our progress on our WhatKey Productions facebook page where you will be able to see behind the scenes photos and info as production continues! If you cannot donate to this campaign, but the project still interests you, give our page a "like" to stay up to date with how production is going!
Every donation counts no matter how small, and we are incredibly grateful for any support you can offer us! Thank you!