three pages

Pedal * Blog

I’ve spent most of the last week going over and over the same three pages of script. I’m not at the stage yet where I feel mostly frustrated, I just have yet to find how they fit together and overlap.

The three pages all deal with the moment Larry arrives at the Atlantic Ocean, in Bar Harbor, and for the first time in 4,200 miles, has reached the end of the road.

z1u t068 c Larry BarHarbor 20091017 160259 three pages
The first of the three pages was written well over a year ago, and the 2nd two are variations on the same moment from different approaches. One version focuses more on the “chain of events” perspective; that Larry’s own experience will go on to influence other people’s experiences, and how that relationship feeds itself at a level that often goes unnoticed.

Another page deals with the rush of emotions that come at the very end of any long adventure… all the memories associated with your trip, all the struggles and little memories seem to snap together at once and it’s an overwhelming rush that comes and goes all too fast.

z1u t068 c Larry BarHarbor 20091017 151353 three pages
Some of the script tries to touch on how these memories are all filed away in your brain, how the human body works in an environment that’s always changing and always challenging. There’s also a layer of the anti-climatic, when you come to end of something grand and ambitious and no one around you seems to have any idea or any or interest.

I guess I just thought that writing about this might help me find what I’m looking for, and also it’s been 9 days since my last post and I wanted to let people know what I’ve been working on piecing together. All this talk of Bar Harbor and arriving at the Atlantic has reminded me of this video Amanda and I recorded, knowing that we had finally made it to the end of production:

Bar Harbor (Aug ‘07) from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Also, before I sign off, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the feedback on the Digg*athon question. I’ve been working on putting that together as soon as possible. Stay posted.

  • some people try to do the impossible... then when they reach the summit, they do hit a miraculous ending where they start crying... it is a moment. it is a destination....

    I believe the Pedal story is more about people's journeys... It's about Larry's journey. It's about your journey in life.... and if it's about that, then reaching the East most ocean is not an end to any kind of story... it's merely one more paragraph in the journey of life....

    Mike


  • Hey Hedge - I like that :) and yes, Pedal is definitely about people's journeys. And it's about understanding that journey and how long that whole process can take.

    Reaching the east coast isn't the end to someone's journey, especially not Larry's, but there *is* an expectation for it to be the "end".

    When you're riding along, it's your goal, it's what you're trying to get to. And when you reach it, you go through a lot of emotions very quickly... and then they're gone. It's somewhat anti-climatic. It can take months to begin to realize that you're no where near finished with your experience.

    But that's a different part of For Thousands of Miles ;)

    Thanks for the awesome comment.
  • Larry
    That's a tough one. You should just say Screw It and make a full blown slow mo CGI explosion sequence where I'm jumping from explosion to explosion and I battle roll into the Atlantic and come out with two lobsters in my hands....
    hahahahaha
    Remember when we spoke about the movie my ole buddy Ram and I want to make that's just one long action sequence?
    Oh boy hahahaha
    keep in there, you'll get smacked in the face with a fist of inspiration soon enough old boy.
  • As the long as the lobsters you pull out are at least 4 feet tall and you have to fight them both to the death before drowning them in butter and eating them.
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