The backstory

Follow the Bones was a film about the design and construction of a new dinosaur museum in the middle of nowhere by one of our pals Martin. We heard about the museum at a backyard bbq. As Martin told us about the design we thought it would make a great documentary. So we gathered the funds, travelled 1000’s of kilometers and got to work. We filmed Martin in his fancy design studio, we interviewed the exhibition designers, the contractors and funders of the museum. We put in a lot of time. We were stoked.

And then little by little we uncovered the real story. It turns out the story of why the museum was being constructed was way bigger than the museum itself. As we followed the story we were drawn deeper into the world of palaeontology. We were invited on a dig and were hooked. This was the real story.

We abandoned the footage we shot and re-focused the documentary on story of the discovery of the bones and the citizen scientists, volunteers, lab technicians and palaeontologists who make these amazing finds.

It meant the whole project took a lot longer. We had to tell our pal Martin that he was cut. He took it well, we still get invited to his bbq’s.

We laugh at the title of the documentary—it’s so obvious, so on the nose. But that’s what we did as filmmakers—we followed the bones.