After my first year of graduate school I was looking for a new project
idea, something that was different and would show my diverse filmmaking
ability. I told myself that when I found the right story to invest my
time in I would know it. And then it happened. On May 4th 2007 the
largest tornado in the history of weather descended on Greensburg,
Kansas. Within a matter of minutes, the town was completely wiped off
the map. It was the first fatal storm in Kansas since 1969, possibly the
most destructive tornado in history. Within hours of the storm, news
affiliates from around the world were on the scene to report and witness
the aftermath of the Greensburg Tornado. Over the next eight months the
story of Greensburg, Kansas would be told in a sixty-minute documentary.
The final story would be released to a television audience on PBS
stations across the country on May 4th, 2008, the one-year anniversary
of the tornado. This is an analysis of the documentary production
process as well as its managerial business components and
implementation.