“SB-1047 Documentary: The Post-Mortem” by Michaël Trazzi

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

Below some meta-level / operational / fundraising thoughts around producing the SB-1047 Documentary I've just posted on Manifund (see previous Lesswrong / EAF posts on AI Governance lessons learned).
The SB-1047 Documentary took 27 weeks and $157k instead of my planned 6 weeks and $55k. Here's what I learned about documentary production
Total funding received: ~$143k ($119k from this grant, $4k from Ryan Kidd's regrant on another project, and $20k from the Future of Life Institute).
Total money spent: $157k
In terms of timeline, here is the rough breakdown month-per-month:
- Sep / October (production): Filming of the Documentary. Manifund project is created.
- November (rough cut): I work with one editor to go through our entire footage and get a first rough cut of the documentary that was presented at The Curve.
- December-January (final cut - one editor): I interview multiple potential editors that [...]
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Outline:
(03:18) But why did the project end up taking 27 weeks instead of 6 weeks?
(03:25) Short answer
(06:22) Impact
(07:14) What I would do differently next-time
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First published:
August 1st, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/id8HHPNqoMQbmkWay/sb-1047-documentary-the-post-mortem
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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