Climbing a narrow staircase and lugging heavy camera equipment to the top of the West Virginia State Capitol.

Scanning about 900 photos, post cards and other documents.

Shooting and acquiring nearly 70 videotapes.

Poring over multiple versions of the script.

The making of "A Moving Monument: The West Virginia State Capitol" was a massive undertaking by MotionMasters that involved more than a year's worth of production and fund-raising work.

Members of our crew did months of treasure hunting for video, pictures, interviews and memorabilia to create the first documentary ever produced about the story of West Virginia's Capitols. We shot the present day Capitol from virtually every angle...at day...at night...in the fog...when fireworks exploded in the sky over Charleston. Our cameras rolled when the Capitol's chandeliers were taken down for cleaning and restoration — the first time since the building was completed in 1932. (For more information about Acu-Bright, the company that did the restoration, visit its Web site).

We were there when Capitol architect Cass Gilbert's great granddaughter visited the majestic building for the first time and when some fourth-graders had their very first tour.

The mission to tell the story of West Virginia's Capitols also took us to our nation’s capital where we shot footage of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Supreme Court (both designed by Gilbert) and interviewed William Seale, author of "Temples of Democracy," a comprehensive book about the nation's 50 state capitols.

To piece together the past of the six statehouses that have served as our state Capitol, it required more than just finding interesting subjects to interview. For several months, MotionMasters searched for powerful images that would make the video compelling. Our efforts to ferret out excellent archival material involved sorting through stacks of weathered, old photos and antiquated tape formats.

The team at Archives and History in the West Virginia Division of Culture and History — particularly Debra Basham, Dick Fauss and Ed Hicks — went above and beyond the call of duty to help us find real gems. The unearthing of classic video allowed the documentary to feature such vintage clips as President John F. Kennedy's address on the Capitol steps to First Lady Opal Barron's interview in the grand reception hall at the Governor's Mansion with its architect, Walter Martens. The oldest footage we located was black and white film showing the aftermath of a fire that destroyed the second Capitol in Charleston in 1921.

We played the role of detective and burned lots of midnight oil to see the documentary to its completion. To whittle the finished product to 58 minutes and 30 seconds, we went through the painful process of condensing 25 hours of footage and winnowing down pages and pages of narration. But every step we climbed up that narrow staircase at the state Capitol and the mountain of other tasks we scaled along the way were all more than worth it.

"A Moving Monument: The West Virginia State Capitol" is a documentary that will serve as an important educational resource and be enjoyed by many future generations of West Virginians.