I've been slacking on post this last week, I get caught up in editing and forget to set 20 minutes aside to write a quick update on what we've been up to. Mostly I've just been hunched over my laptop in the dark, busy cutting and re-cutting the episode(s), both the newest part of 64 Days, as well as touching up the ending of our last one.

Things are going along great - but Amanda and I decided to not release them *before* I leave for Michigan for my birthday. I fly out on the 5th (I'm hoping, being the day after elections, that it will be a "hopeful" flight...) but anyway, I *could* get them done in time I'm sure, but that was a mistake we made with 8. We rushed the episode, and we had a lot of regrets about it.

So, as close as I am to wrapping things up, I think it will best to sit on them for a few days until I get back, take another look at the timeline, and then get to the fun part: posting and hearing all the feedback from all of you. I've been feeling very anxious lately, I miss that feeling of releasing a new episode. It's been too long.

Amanda recently mailed Leslie a handful of Pedal buttons, and Leslie was great enough to take a pic and post it on flickr. I thought it had been a while since we reminded people that you can get free buttons off our Get Involved page. We have tons left, we bought a few zip-lock bags worth from the wonderful Karen Abad, and have just been giving them out here and there. But if you're not someone we run into at LA get-togethers, we'd be happy to mail some out. Just look under the "swag" section of Get Involved, it tells you how to get one (or a bunch, if you'd like).

Okay, I have to work early tomorrow, so I'm going to crash. But this weekend is going to be spent editing, and also shooting a few pieces that we still need... all I'll say is that it involves public-transportation and a scene from one of my favorite films.

Labels: Post-Production

post production - week 45 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Amanda and I had another Thursday meeting - we worked on Episode 9, and recorded some VO for the end of 8. Re-wrote a large block of the 9 script to include things I'd left out. Picked out some music. And decided on the next teaser. Moving along.

We can't wait to release the next episode. I didn't realize how much I miss that feeling of excitement from the first few waves of reactions.

Labels: Post-Production, Vlog, Weekly Update

I'm waiting for some footage I just shot to import into Final Cut for Episode Nine - I thought in the meantime I would respond to a question from Dustrotter. In the comments of our last blog post, Teaser 004, he said:

Hey Mike, would you mind filling us in on your background specifically your education, and professional experience working in "the biz" and how you came to know so much about film? I'm sure it would help guide some of us novices out here. ;-)

Now this background-post might turn out to be very short, because I a) have very little (to almost zero) experience in what anyone would consider the "biz". And b) I would argue I know embarrassingly little about film... or film-making for that matter.

As for "a)", I never took a film class in college, my old friend (now turned sworn enemy), Chuck, took a class at Washtenaw Community College and I was allowed to sit in the back two separate times just because I helped out with the student videos. When I moved out here I had very little interest in interning for a low-budget production house, or being an errand boy on a blockbuster set. Although, I have met some people here who were part of the crew for The Departed. Which I am quite jealous of.

So... as for the "biz", I'd be laughed off the set I'm sure for having no clue as to what role I'd play on a film requiring more than 5 people to shoot. Two years ago, I was lucky enough to edit full-time for NBC's "dot com" department. Mostly cutting behind the scenes interviews, but I occasionally got to leave the dark-windowless editing "office" and help film. Which was always a blast. I'm quite happy behind the camera.

Here I am on the set of Deal or No Deal... I'm not sure what I'm doing with my hand, but I don't think I was digging in my nose :P

So that's the extent of my experience with the more established side of... entertainment'ish stuff.


As for "b)", I don't really have any advice or tips of tech-stuff. I always liked how Olivier put it while we were filming last summer, "what ever *looks* good". I don't know what lenses give what looks (for the most part), I don't know what lights or filters are helpful... I don't shoot in 24p, I don't think it really matters. I just am happy whenever I shoot something that "looks" good, I'm usually quite satisfied with "decent" also.

If I had any advice what-so-ever, I would just say that releasing episodes during this whole process has helped in ways I can't even fully lay-out. The episodes help us see what works on paper and not on video, helps see what story techniques get good reactions from people. Amanda and I have been able to test many of our ideas on a small more personal scale, before the film is even finished... which will hopefully help us avoid many mistakes we've already made. Mistakes that would quickly spoil our entire film.

So if you have a project, a short film, a series you're putting together. Do not keep it together, put it all out there for people to see and give feedback on. The things I've learned in direct reaction to this site has been amazing.

I feel this post wasn't as helpful as Dustrotter probably hoped it might be, I guess I'm still very new at this.

Labels: Post-Production

Teaser 004 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I know this teaser has no bikes, and no Larry. But I wanted to use a shot that was more from Larry's POV. This was taken in Glacier Park, Montana by Olivier - Larry was coming down from Logan's pass and we & the crew pulled off the road just before Lake McDonald to lay in the sun.

Logan's pass was actually closed when we were here, if I remember right, snow had washed out the road and it would be another month before it was open to the public. But Larry, being the machine that he is, knowingly rode out of his way and up the west-half of the mountain range, just to turn back around at the top, and then back-track through Glacier. Took him the whole day. I miss this spot, I hope I get to go back soon.

Labels: Post-Production, Teaser

So, as Amanda mentioned in her last post, we had a meeting last night, like we usually try to do every Thursday, our main focus was to really get down on paper the film's outline.

So after months of me writing random thoughts and scribbling notes on the inside pages of books, or taco-bell napkins, we finally came up with an approach to organize these thoughts to match the film's arch.

I took our five main points, which stem from the idea that there are two overlaying "beginning and endings" for the story, there's the start and finish of the bike trip itself, and the start and finish of the after effects of that trip... and how long they take to play out.

So, since I'm a dork, I color coded the points, and hung them on my wall. Which is where I usually pin my notes and ideas, but now each note or rough-script will be pinned under the appropriate story point.

It's a much clearer way for me to see what areas of the film's points need more work, and which are getting too much attention.

But on-top of getting very far with our layout, we came up with a lot of specific points we'd like to make, we ended up with a lot of sticky notes and a handful of typed pages. The macro above is actually the work-in-progress narration of Larry's last day, and the moment he reached the Atlantic ocean. It's very, very rough right now, but I'm pretty happy with the idea.


Okay, that's all for tonight, I have a lot on my mind. Not all of it good, and I need to get some sleep.

Very quickly though, I wanted to mention two new things on the site. If you go to the main page, you'll notice something new when clicking on the 64 Days box. I'm pretty excited about that. But I'm also very excited about something a few of you may have already noticed to the left, in the sidebar there's a new link which reads: first time here? This page is meant to point out the essentials for new people interested in the project. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Goodnight.

Labels: Post-Production

hello there, friends :p so... i just finished my homework.. very last minute. for those of you who don't know, i'm currently taking a child growth and development class, it's the first time i've been back to school in over 10 years. yikes! i've been a childcare provider for about 16 years and anyway.. this seems like the next logical step, moving on to teach preschool or kindergarten. i was never really a good student so i'm very proud of the fact that i have an A+ so far in this class. mike, on the other hand, probably not so impressed. :P i'm sure he'd rather i be spending my nights blogging here or commenting there, or replying to emails, tagging clips and finding music. i swear it feels like these days he only calls me to complain about what it is i'm not doing :P

anyway... even though my time is spread thin (between working until about 7pm M-F and schoolwork and taking care of my dog and trying to maintain my relationships with friends... oh and visiting the doctor several times a month due the herniated disk in my back), i feel like i'm certainly not putting in my share of hours on this film, but i still really enjoy it. on those thursday nights, during that time i've reserved for pedal and put all other things aside, i really have fun brain storming and collaborating.. watching clips and seeing this story unfold. and meeting new people along the way. i wish i had the energy to reach out to everyone who reaches out to us. i wish i had the time to do all mike askes of me and more. some days i feel like a total loser.

last week mike and i finished writing episode 9 and tomorrow we plan on picking out a new teaser, recording my audio for the last act of episode 8 and fixing our edit on that. i know i'm always way to optimistic about how much we'll actually get done, but i'm also hoping to have a finished outline for the film by the end of the night. anyway.. i apologize if it seems like i'm complaining, i'm really not. i feel totally fortunate to be where i am and doing what i'm doing... just wish i had more time in the day is all.. or maybe more days in the week :)

thanks for watching and i hope we get a new episode out to you by the end of the month. i'm looking forward to having a fun productive night tomorrow. happy humpday everyone. i'm beat and off to bed. night.

Labels: Post-Production

Get Involved Screencast from mike ambs on Vimeo.

This is a quick screencast that covers the newly designed Get Involved page that I forgot to mention (outside of Twitter).

We tried to put everything into one place so it was as easy as possible to share. We're always looking for ways to make it easier and more user-friendly, if you have ideas we'd love to hear them.

Thanks for watching this boring screencast.

Labels: Post-Production

Yesterday was the first time Amanda and I have been able to really work together in a while, she's been going through some things and I really didn't expect, last night, for us to get as far as we did with the script for Episode Nine. But, around 2 o'clock this morning we finished writing the next episode, nine has gone through a ton of changes since we first outlined it, but we're both really happy with what we have on paper.

I'm very anxious to get to editing it, and also to film the several pieces we still need to piece it all together. On a strange but related note, if anyone out there happens knows of a really great underwater (preferably HD) clip of blue or sperm whales, please send me a link of where to watch it.


Last night I also sat Amanda down to play the first 6+ minutes of the For Thousands of Miles timeline, with the exception of one 20 second shot, Amanda seemed to really like it. We're trying to build on that, but before we get too far, we know we need to really lock down the film's outline.

I was walking home from the Redline subway station the other night, and I wrote a bunch of ideas I had about narration for this episode, but when I got home I thought it would work better for the film, and I had Amanda read those too. Which she got really excited about - I guess I'm mentioning it because I was very relieved... sometimes I worry that everything I need to say in the film... I've already said in the early episodes.

A part of me wants to just share the notes now, but I guess it's way too early for that.

Anyways, thanks for bearing with us between episodes, I know it's been ridiculously slow... but I hope people like nine, we've worked hard on it.

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

Teaser 003 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

This is Larry. This is somewhere between point A and point B. Where ever it is... I miss it. I miss kneeling on-top of the van, working the crane, watching Larry push through the wind. Knowing that every mile meant something to him... something people wouldn't see passing by in their cars. Something subtle.

Labels: Post-Production

Since coming back from the road last summer, we've been making (and putting off) plans to go film follow-up interviews with several people from the road. More importantly, much of the film is structured in a "looking back" kind of way, and we have still yet to fly out to visit Larry for a week, and film all the every-day-life shots we need with him. I'm still trying desperately to pay my rent *and* put aside money for these things... and so far, in the last year, it's been not so great savings-wise.

So, we need to start looking into documentary or narrative film finishing grants... and, since none of us have taken any film classes where they teach you that kind of thing, we have zero idea how to go about this. I've done some searching online and managed to find a handful that don't really apply to us, or that have already closed their deadlines. Yesterday my friend, Eric, said I would just write a letter and then mail it to grant-giver-peoples that I could find directories of at the library.

Which sounds easy enough. Yet, I am confused easily... so I thought we'd turn to the blog and our readers to ask for advice. Does anyone out there have any experience with applying for grants? Does anyone have any good links we could look into?

It's taken us five years to get to this point - and I feel like in the last 2 years we've made leaps and bounds considering it's our first film. Considering before this, I'd never edited anything over 5 minutes. I think we're doing okay, but a film grant would help tremendously. Tremendously.

So it's time Amanda and I start looking into this - we'll post whatever we find on our end, and look forward to hearing any advice anyone has. Thanks!

Labels: Post-Production

Post Production - Week 42 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Coming home to find things like this is very touching, it keeps me going, it keeps me focused and ambitious. So thank you, Lori, for writing this.

I know my own journey will continue. I've not reached the Atlantic coast yet. I undoubtedly have thousands of miles to go. Every biweekly trip I make to Texas or California to visit my children or my wife brings immense fatigue to my body but resolve to my awakened spirit. With each milepost sign I pass, I find reasons to be thankful for this journey whether the desert basins are ablaze with sunshine or enshrouded with pregnant monsoon clouds.

I embrace the long hot black road now. God only knows what my final destination will be. There is no guarantee for success in my life. But like Mike, I "keep going, keep trying after failing, time, and time, and time again." Entire post here...

Labels: Post-Production, Vlog, Weekly Update