Behind the React Documentary

A documentary about React, produced by Honeypot.io, was released on February 10th, and Carl Vitullo spoke with two of the people instrumental in making it happen: Ida Bechtle, staff filmmaker from Honeypot; and Christopher Chedeau, whose contributions to the React and JS ecosystem are nearly innumerable — React, React Native, Prettier, Docusaurus, Excalidraw, and more.

We talked about the documentary itself, how it got made, and some other behind-the-scenes info — an unofficial “DVD commentary” for the documentary.

• Ida on being a 1-person production team [00:01:06]
• Christopher Chedeau as a driving force [00:01:50]
• Why Honeypot makes these documentaries [00:04:15]
• Getting trapped in a park while filming [00:05:49]
• Jordan Walke's participation [00:07:04]
• About the focus on the early days of React [00:08:44]
• Deciding where to focus your attention [00:10:24]
• Going in a submarine and ignoring your manager [00:14:10]
• Making Prettier pretty through data [00:15:15]
• Ida's documentary process [00:16:58]
• Christopher's involvement in the early days of Reactiflux [00:21:20]
• Christopher's largest human-centered accomplishment [00:26:15]

• (00:00) - Main recording
• (01:06) - Ida on being a 1-person production team
• (01:50) - Christopher Chedeau as a driving force
• (04:15) - Why Honeypot makes these documentaries
• (05:49) - Getting trapped in a park while filming
• (07:04) - Jordan Walke's participation
• (08:44) - About the focus on the early days of React
• (10:24) - Deciding where to focus your attention
• (14:10) - Going in a submarine and ignoring your manager
• (15:15) - Making Prettier pretty through data
• (16:58) - Ida's documentary process
• (21:20) - Christopher's involvement in the early days of Reactiflux
• (26:15) - Christopher's largest human-centered accomplishment

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