The Journey

Moving Visual Poem about the Beating Heart of Adventure

A wise person once said ‘it’s not about the destination, but the journey,’ a sentiment eloquently enshrined in Seattle-based production company, MINDCASTLE’s latest video piece, The Journey.

The film is a poignant reflection on the journeys we all face – internal journeys of soul-searching and self-discovery but manifest in great expeditions like climbing mountings or traversing lakes. “Our goal is to pull people into the story through the rich texture, depth of set design and props, dynamic camera movement, and song choice and sound design,” explain MINDCASTLE co-founders and co-directors of the film, Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger.

“We want viewers to fully immerse themselves in the world we create in our films.”

We put on our gear and ventured forth with the pair to talk about their latest project.

The Plus: How would you describe the style of your film, The Journey?
Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger: For The Journey our goal was to create a film that is beautiful, timeless and spanned many different types of adventure activities and environments. We wanted it to convey the spirit of adventure. To do this we incorporated many classic elements into the entire film such as the 1958 de Havilland Beaver float plane, external frame backpacks and vintage Japanese postcards. We also picked locations that were diverse in their look so that each person’s story felt unique.

TP: What inspired you to make this film?
CW & DK: For this film we were inspired by our surroundings. We both grew up in the Pacific Northwest and there are so many beautiful locations within a short drive from where we live. We love being outdoors and get many of our ideas from exploring and doing outdoor activities. The framework for the voice over came from our journals and experiences.

TP: How the two of you came to collaborate together?
CW & DK: We started collaborating together from an early age and formed MINDCASTLE when we were 16 years old. We originally started our business in photography and we were creating short films and art pieces on the side. We fell in love with the storytelling aspect of filmmaking and decided that we wanted to make films full time. Now we work together on a daily basis both creatively, and also on the business side of things.

TP: Tell us a little about your creative and collaborative process.
CW: I think that when making any project, it’s important to put a piece of yourself into it. It is a way to help bring a level of authenticity into it, especially if it’s a project for a client. We always like to start a project with finding where the heart of the story is and how we can relate to that story personally. Our creative process is highly collaborative. Danielle is really good at honing in on the big picture and seeing the overall vision. I really enjoy working on the small details and so it’s fun to work together because we each help one another ‘construct the puzzle’ so to say.

DW: Since we have been working together for so long our process is really organic and we tend to excel in different areas. I tend to decide things based on gut feeling and I like to move quickly, while Casey can tweak things for hours and has an extremely high attention to detail. And that makes us a good team because we have different yet complementary styles of approaching the project.

TP: What are you working on now/next?
CW & DK: Creatively we are always trying to make new work and write all the time. We have a completed 15 page short film script that we would like to shoot this year and we’re each in the process of writing two different feature film scripts. Besides writing, we have an art piece we are in preproduction on as well as many client meetings and pitches that will hopefully turn into some exciting work projects in the next couple of months.