Post Production * Week 112 from mike ambs on Vimeo

I sound a bit under the weather in this update - but despite my sore throat I've been hard at work editing and writing for the film.

Amanda and I have been working over video-chat to work out the rough parts of the script. On top of that, we recently finished our 64 Days Production Journal and I just so happened to get it in the mail today after I started recording this video.

I'm really excited at how they turned out! We'll be posting more on that later - for now, it's time for me to get back to editing.

Labels: 64 Days, Post-Production, Vimeo, Vlog, Weekly Update

A few post back I mentioned: "Amanda and I are very close to working with two very talented people who's work we think is amazing". For some of you who follow the film on twitter, you might have come across the USA Today article that made the announcement a few days earlier than planned - which I thought was quite funny. But in any case:

In May, Amanda and I will be traveling to Northern California - we'll be doing this to film scenes with Larry that are from the perspective of both coming home and (then later in the film) prepping for his next 16,000 mile adventure. We've always known that we would need additional help with these scenes - unlike the strictly documentary part of For Thousands of Miles, these will be specific shots that involve a lot of planning and precision (in some cases). So, after a lot of thought, we approached our 1st choice for the posistion, Karen Abad. And she said "of course!".

I really can't explain how fortunate I feel about the history of this project - I think back to just weeks after this production blog launched (in 2004), when I talked with Amanda about my number one choice, out of *anyone*, for filming this documentary, being a small team of Belgians half way around the world. And by some odd and random string of events - it actually happened. I actually was able to spend two amazing weeks on the road with a team of three filmmakers who taught me so much about storytelling.

And now we'll be working with Karen, whose work on Vimeo I love so much - she's always been such a big part of the film's support structure for me. Has always been very encouraging... and even gone out of her way to self-design and hand-make buttons for the film! She's just been great - and she's immensely talented and Amanda and I are extremely excited to be working with her on this step of the film (above is a picture from our first group chat).

Well, that's one big announcement related to people that we're very anxious to be working with - and that leaves one left to go. But I'll save that for it's own special post. In the meantime I'd like to leave you with one of my favorite Memory Banks from Karen, Memory Bank 120394a.

Labels: Crew, Expedition to Endure, Post-Production

The VGkids were cool enough to let me come by and film them making the film's new t-shirts.

I had no idea the machines they use to print shirts were so awesome - the way it drops and spins around is kinda' hypnotizing. I think I shot way, way more footage of their machine than anything else.

The tees are 100% organic cotton unisex alternate apparel shirts - and all the profits help support our feature film. Get yours at big cartel.

Labels: Post-Production, Store, t-shirts, VGkids, Vimeo

The Filmmaker Summit is just two days away - the event is a collective effort of the teams behind the Workbook Project, Open Video Alliance and Slamdance. I've been spending some of my free-time keeping up with the discussions on WBP, many of which dealing with festivals, distribution methods, social media, and DIY culture in general.

There's a long list of tiny steps that have to be taken before For Thousands of Miles is ready to distribute. My goals for this year are highly ambitious - and I know that my chances of reaching those goals on-my-own are remote. Amanda and I have been fortunate enough in the past to bring on people who are not only amazingly talented, but incredibly supportive in their confidence of Pedal.

But there is one area of this project that is very intimidating to me. And for as far as we've come alone with this film... for all the obstacles and dead-ends and set-backs... the one area where I do feel increasingly isolated is: distribution.

I have heard over and over again - the last three years especially - the importance of a distribution plan *before* you even start your film. This is not to say that Amanda and I have zero plans for the release of FToM - we actually have a strict idea of releasing the film for free online (see Nina Paley). But with this model of release comes an overwhelming amount of preparation... preparation that I feel hasn't been done.

For example - On Peter Broderick's website, he goes into some of the key points behind a distribution team, which include: strategy, foreign sales, outreach coordinators, theatrical and semi-theatrical bookers, and print and online publicists. Do all of these points apply to FToM? No. But enough of them do to make it clear Amanda and I must find a way to really lock down our plans, to really fill in the lines between point a and point b of saying "we are releasing our film online for free" and actually making it happen.


I'll end this post with a few questions: How have (experienced filmmakers) / do-you-plan (aspiring filmmakers) on releasing your film? How did / will you form a distribution team? Was / is this team included in your project's budget? If your film, like many 1st time filmmakers, has no real financial foundation - how did you still go about forming a team of people for something global like this? Any advice could really help put my mind at ease and get Amanda and I pointed in a more constructive direction.

Labels: Distribution, Feedback, Filmmaker Summit, Post-Production, Slamdance, Workbook Project

The last week of work for Pedal has been a big multi-tasking challenge. It always seems like the holidays come with a traffic-jam of task and catching-up. I've been keeping myself overworked with re-writing / storyboarding / scanning those storyboards and editing them into the FToM timeline.

I've been recording new temporary voice-over tracks for pacing. Finishing our 64 Days production journal. Packaging up all the t-shirts, stickers, and (now) little owls that people have been buying from our new store. I feel like I've had great momentum this month and I hope I can find creative ways of keeping that momentum in the next four months!

Which brings me to a question I wanted to ask: Do any of you reading have ideas about how we can be more open in what Amanda and I are working on from now until May (when we film in Northern California)? Are you interested in seeing a list of weekly task? Are you interested in simply seeing more Production Vlog Updates?

I suppose my thinking is, the next few months are going to require a tremendous amount of focus and energy... and I'm a believer in the idea that people's interaction and involvement, even oversight, is extremely motivating and sparks creativity.


Moving on. I wish I could go into details right now - but it's not time for a full announcement just yet, but I'm far too excited to keep it all to myself: Amanda and I are very close to working with two very talented people who's work we think is amazing. One will be (hopefully) involved with areas of filming, and the other will be (hopefully) involved with areas of design and illustration. More on that as soon as possible - we don't like to keep secrets from everyone.

One more small note before I go - we've been migrating all our hosting and registration to Dreamhost, and over the weekend I accidentally deleted the .css file for our main site. So I ended up re-writing it from scratch. Then I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning re-writing 64 Days from scratch. Let us know if you spot any weirdness of certain browsers. Thank you.

Labels: FToM, p52, Post-Production, Store, Twitter, Writing