Film Day for Week Without Driving

In preparation for the third annual Week Without Driving challenge (September 29 to October 5), we have an ambitious plan to produce 24 short videos for an "Advent Calendar" of tips and tricks for navigating Dallas by walking, biking, and public transit. The idea is to publish one short video each day starting September 5 to help challenge-takers prepare for the challenge starting September 29.

Sounds cool, right? 😁

EVENT SCHEDULE
On Saturday, August 16th, the plan is to meet at Mockingbird Station to capture footage for our WWD Advent Calendar videos.

• 9:00 AM @ SMU/Mockingbird Station, shoot outdoor scenes. Expect to be on the move; after shooting our station scenes,
• NOON @ TBD, break for lunch
• 1:00 PM @ TBD, shoot indoor scenes
• 3:00 PM @ SMU/Mockingbird Station, wrap-up. The tentative plan is for our movement to bring us back to SMU/Mockingbird Station where we started.

WHO WE NEED
We need volunteers! You don't need to be pros or have experience; amateurs welcome! (Although if pros did want to volunteer, we'd be very excited to have your help too 😉) We'll take as many people as we can get. At a bare minimum, we need:

• 3x actors to appear and speak on-camera
• 2x camera operators
• 1x cart guy -- someone to pull and watch over the cart with all our stuff as we move from location to location

The more volunteers, the better! More actors = each memorizes fewer lines and more character variety. More cameras = more angles, potentially wrap faster by allowing us to work multiple scenes simultaneously. More assistants = makes the whole operation run more smoothly and can serve as non-speaking background extras.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

• JULY 31, THURS: Last day for anyone to post ideas for WWD Advent Calendar on the r/dallasurbanists subreddit. This cutoff gives us time to select the final 24 tips & tricks for the advent calendar.
• AUGUST 10, SUNDAY: Target date for final shot list and video scripts. This target is to give volunteers time to review lines.
• AUGUST 13, WEDNESDAY 6:30 PM: Online table-read. Please RSVP to both events.
• AUGUST 16, SATURDAY 9:00 AM: Film Day
• SEPTEMBER 5-28, FRIDAY: One video published per day for 24 days on the Dallas Urbanists STLC YouTube channel and Instagram account.

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WHAT IS WEEK WITHOUT DRIVING?
Week Without Driving is a challenge that invites people who typically drive—especially elected officials, planners, and community leaders—to go a week without driving in order to better understand and address the barriers nondrivers face. In 2024, over 520 groups in all 50 states and D.C participated in the annual challenge.