Ashley Terry (Right) and New Wife, Rachel 
WWOOF: The Movie Trailer from Ashley Terry
My wife and I were married in July, 2008. The month before, my soon-to-be father in law gave us $15,000 to spend on the wedding. But my wife and I have that old-fashioned, American entrepreneurial philosophy that if you want something done right, you do it yourself. So we made everything ourselves from the cake to the wedding video, and our friends and family lent their expertise for things like bartending, cooking the food, the photography, etc. Even the officiate was a friend of ours. When all was said and done, we still had about $12,000 left over. Wooohoo!
So before settling down and making babies, we decide we should see the world. Shouldn’t be too difficult with $12,000, right? First off, we consider plane tickets. “Let’s see, we’ll go to Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, India, Madagascar, Kenya, South Africa, all over Europe, Brazil, Ecuador, then come home. $35,000?!?! Okay then, just Japan, India, Kenya, and all over western Europe. $7,000? Okay that’s do-able.”
And then we go from there:
• Passports and visas- $400
• Shots for Diptheria, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, etc.- $500
• Eurrail passes- $3,000
• Sony PMW-EX1 XD-Cam with 2 SxS cards and 2 infolithium batteries- $7,000
Pyrenees Lounge: Overlooking the Pyrenees Mountains In France
Now we’re in debt before we get off American soil. And we haven’t booked our hostels, travel through Asia or Africa, or taken into account how we’ll buy all the little knick-knacks that we want to pick up along the way. You know…like food. And unfortunately, those magic plastic cards have their limitations. Especially in France, come to find out. Apparently they don’t trust our American credit system. What’s that all about, I wonder? Anyway, what do we do about this?
A friend of mine spent a Summer touring through Europe a few years back and I remember hearing him talk about an organization called “WWOOF”: World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. He would work for a few hours a day on the farm in exchange for room and board, then he would go sight-seeing when he was done. It was a great way to explore local culture, learn about agriculture, and commune with nature… and a membership is “dirt” cheap.
So we look into it. Each country has it’s own WWOOF organization, so we join in Japan, India, France and Italy. We also join “WWOOF Independents” for countries that don’t have their own WWOOF organization. This gives you access to places like Kenya, Greece, and Croatia. So we figure that into the budget:
• WWOOF membership fees: $100
• Not having to pay for food and lodging: Priceless
Of course, we still manage to make room for the touristy things when we can. It is our honeymoon, after all.
Ash Standing Next to a Cherry Tree
That being said, here’s where I’m at with “WWOOF! The Movie”:
• I’ve made a trailer to exhibit the nature of the film in a nutshell.
• I’ve created a website where people can go to stay updated on the project.
• I’ve joined social networking sites to build the hype.
• And I send e-mails to WWOOF hosts, volunteers, administrators, and other fans of the movie on a monthly basis to maintain interest in the film.
Now the fun part: editing the 40+ hours of footage we’ve shot. In the meantime, I will be applying for grants, holding fundraisers, and appealing to investors, producers, and sponsors for funds. I’m also submitting a call for entries from other WWOOfers to incorporate their videos into the final project, assuming they give me footage that is rich and compelling enough to maintain viewer interest on the big screen.
Ashley Terry graduated from the University of Montana in 2004 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Media Arts. Since then, he has worked in broadcast news, commercial and television production houses, radio, and internet broadcasting. In 2007, he started “AT Films” as a professional wedding and event videography service provider and the business has since branched out into the world of documentary and short film production. He is currently working on a documentary called “WWOOF!” about the collective of organizations that make up the World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms coalition.
4 Comments
It is a great experience, and UK has a lot of WWOOF hosts. I’m sure that even if you don’t find a host that grows herbal remedy plants or deals specifically with medicine, many can teach you plenty of homeopathic remedies. As you said, it’s very accessible, especially if you’ve got no strings holding you down, so just find something related to what you want to learn about and go for it.
Ash
Found this website during a random browse and am very interested in what I read and saw. I too have a desire to do all I can to contribute to saving this wonderous planet. All of nature to me is so beautiful and mind-boggling in it’s ability to sustain itself despite the ongoing abuse it receives from human beings, not really understanding the consequences of their nonchalant or careless actions resulting in further ‘pollution’ of the earth. There is so much I would like to do in many different ways and to offer this as a contribution that would be a priviledge to ‘give back’ while I live on this planet. My interests are PEOPLE and EARTH. The latter encompasses the first and includes of course, environmental/nature preservation as well as preservation of all its other creatures; an essential part of our earth evvironment; ‘the companions of man – and woman!’ – smile. From the age of six, I think, I wanted to either be a veterinarian or paediatrician, so basically an animal or ‘earth’ doctor. I would refer to a paediatrician as an ‘earth doctor’ because human beings are an integral part of the earth enviroment and their actions can either heal and preserve ‘the land’ or quite literally harm and destroy it. In Michael Jackson’s ‘As it is’ rehearsal video/’movie’, he mentions that ‘we’ have only 4 years in which to correct the damage already caused environmentally and if we do not accomplish this, the further damage caused will be irreversible. Right NOW we have something of a chance. I guess the irreversible picture would be very similar to that potrayed in the film ‘2012; ‘we were warned’, as the advert posters read. . . I think perhaps the most powerful or most effective way to ‘reach’ or have human beings understand the massive impact they as individuals have on their physical environment is simply through ‘CARE’. When human beings become present to or aware of being cared for, they discover value in themselves and with this comes a deeper desire for self-preservation which naturally leads to a desire to preserve too what they will then be able to perceive and appreciate as necessary for this preservation and well being, namely other people and the physical world they live in. When people are ‘in health’ and take responsibility for maintaining this experience of health and when support for the maintaining of personal health comes from an ethical and ‘individual-empowering’ team of health care professionals as well as responsibly practising alternative therapists, it emphasises the grave and priviledged responsiblity the world’s health care system has to people in their care and this responsibility I believe involves ‘updating’ and transforming their treatment focus toward empowering rather than ‘overopowering’ patient’s/ clients; allowing the public they serve to acknowledge their own capacity for and with that their own responsibility in maintaining balanced health and well being with the supportive backing of the facilities and specialist technology at their fingertips. Once a human being discovers their own inner reserves for causing and maintaining health, it is a profoundly personal and empowering experience which creates a real desire to live life with fullness and with that a desire to contribute to taking care of the earth – the source of that physical life. So finally, (smile). I have joined this site to keep abreast with what positive work is being done to preserve our ’source of life’, the earth and it has also given me encouragement to explore the possibility of fulfilling a career in Medicine. I wonder if in the immediate communities where ‘WWOOF’ offers farm placements, there are medical projects or institutions where I could garner some medical experience to support my medical school application? I’ll explore this site further to find a list of WWOOF locations and research for some info about possible opportunities like this. Wish me success! Thanks. Anyone who reads this share – feel free to share in response
) Anyone who would like to encourage me – you are very welcome to 
)
Ash, Terry? have you any feedback? Thanks.
TAMMY, UK
p.s. I think the membership fees to join WWOOF as a volunteer are incredibly reasonable and makes this great programme very accessible. It is an EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY.
Hey, Robbin! The Trentino area of Italy was my favorite WWOOF spot on the whole tour! Well, that and Japan. And Aire Du Temps in the Pyrenees… okay we had a lot of great times! But in response to your post, you can certainly e-mail me at:
ash@wwoofthemovie.com
or reach me by phone at 503-502-6540.
I see what you mean about there not being a specific “contact me” link on the website. I’ll fix that. Thanks!
Ash
AT Films
http://www.ashleyterry.com
Hi Ashley!
I am about to WWOOF in Italy and would love to talk to you about it but I can’t seem to find a “contact me” link anywhere!
Please drop me a line!
-Robbin