We want to tell stories.
Science stories. Social stories. True stories.
Pioneer3 is an upstart independent documentary film and photography skunkworks in Somerville, Massachusetts with a focus on nimble, verité storytelling. We aim to capture the unique impacts at the convergence of people, community, place, and technology.
What’s In a Name?
Pioneer3 is, in part, a reference to the “pioneer class” of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Ryan’s high school alma mater. At the time students attended anywhere from one to three years, making hard delineations of who was a pioneer challenging. (He attended the second year the school was open.)
It’s also a nod to the Pioneer 3 spacecraft. Mostly a footnote in space history, it failed its objective as a lunar probe, lobbed into space for a mere 38 hour before falling to Earth.
It did, however, help in the discovery of Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, proving failure can also be good science.
Pioneer3 is led by non-fiction veteran Ryan Shepheard. For over twenty years he’s brought creative storytelling, clear visualizations, and technical skill to award-winning films for PBS series NOVA and American Experience, Smithsonian Channel, History, and Discovery; and traveled from the wreck site of the Titanic to Papua New Guinea.