In 2007 I faced major changes in my life. Around the time I was researching for a film that I was making about fitness transformations, the ’12-week transformation’ phenomenon that pervades the fitness industry, usually accompanied by stunning before and after pictures.

During my research, I came across a web site hosted by Scott Tousignant. Scott’s site was perfect in subject matter for the film and, even better, Scott lived a short drive away from my home near Toronto.

I immediately called Scott and discussed the project. Scott was excited about the idea of getting involved in a film about the subject of his life’s work and business and Scott opened up his web site’s interviews for my research. I don’t think either of us anticipated the ultimate outcome at the time.

Scott had compiled over thirty hours of radio-style interviews with mostly fitness industry people and I poured over the sessions. I burned the interviews to my MP3 player and took them with me everywhere, listening to them over and over.

Many months went by. Listening to Scott’s interviews combined with the changes I was facing in my own life made me realize that I was not just interested in making a film about fitness transformations but a film about transformation period – the essence of which is change. The one recurring element with everyone who had made a fitness transformation that I researched was that in almost every aspect of their lives these individuals had made major changes – it was a whole-life transformation and fitness was only one component.

The key to making change that was discussed in nearly every interview seemed to be the importance of programming your subconscious mind. That became the new focus and point of departure in the evolution of the ‘change film.’

I visited Scott several times, on the first visit conducting an interview on camera. Upon the second visit I proposed to Scott that we co-produce the film together.

By the summer of 2008 I was ready to roll the camera but how do we interview twenty-five people without going broke buying airline tickets? I had my credit card, not a broadcast network production budget. When I asked Scott where everyone might be in one place at one time, he said, “We’ve got to shoot this on the cruise!”

What was the cruise? The cruise was an event in January (2009) where all of the online business associates gathered to network. By the time we had rolled the first few interviews I knew that we had a powerful film.

We also realized sometime during this process that we had the ability to not only make a great film (11 short films in the end) but that we would be making a completely unique product for the web that had the potential to help millions of people.

So nearly two years after it began as a film examining fitness transformations, The Change Series is launched. I truly feel that this film will change the lives of many people and I am grateful to have been able to meet and work with so many wonderful individuals in the process.

Steve McNamee

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