It's been a week since launching t.minus and announcing the Babelgum Online Film Festival. We've been keeping our fingers crossed and carefully monitoring all the available stats - I thought I'd be transparent and share all the info I know with the people who've been coming back everyday to vote.

Up front, the least informative part of this whole process (for us) is the actual vote tally itself. There's no log-in or dashboard page for our progress with voting on Babelgum. So our only insight into where we stand in votes is a once a week email updating us on the count. Since we've only gotten one email so far, we don't know much - but as it stands several days ago, we were at 49 votes. Which was enough to pull us from the back of the line (600+ videos) to the top 20.

Here's a snapshot of our Google Analytics graph from Feb 15th to the 22nd: You can see that the first two days were our strongest, now keep in mind this graph is only for page hits on t.minus, our stats for people actually following the "vote here" link are different.

Out of the 900 t.minus page hits in the last several days, the tr.im url we have linked from the t.minus page has been clicked around 180 times. But it's safe to assume most people, after clicking the link once, would either save a bookmark (if planning to re-vote each day), or just leave a tab open in their browser.

We can tell from our Crazyegg stats that 90% of our t.minus traffic is coming from a) Twitter, b) Facebook, and c) the production blog. So everyone's RTs have been amazingly helpful in keeping the site active and the votes growing!

This basic graph above is very comparable to the Analytics' info - but I've been going through and doing my best to track the tweets pointing people to the contest. It's a rough count, because not everyone uses the tr.im url I'm able to track, and not everyone puts an @Pedal or @FToM - so some slip past my radar, but the above graph is close.

The light blue is the number of clicks on the t.minus url, and the dark blue capping each day's hits are the number of RTs on Twitter. So you can see a very immediate effect from your twitters and driving people to the site - it's especially amazing to watch how fast the stats jump when several people twitter within only minutes from each other. People's likeliness to click and then vote seems exponential to the frequency of the t.minus RTs - which sounds all fancy and science-like.

The graph is, of course, not entirely accurate to twitter's relation to page hits because we've blogged about it, we keep people updated on our Facebook group, we sent out Virb announcements, and contacted some our Vimeo friends about voting. But the numbers are helping in finding what's actually effective and what's not.

Amanda and I have been trying to figure out how to keep the graph tipping upwards - it dipped near the end of the week, but the last two days the RTs have been climbing, and if we can keep that momentum, then t.minus could prove to be very powerful. Making the top 10 of Babelgum could lead to award money; which would immediately lead to paying for help to really getting other aspects of this project moving at full speed.

Thank you so, so much for all your votes, all your tweets, all your support - I don't know how to full explain the way it makes me feel to see so many people fighting for our project. Also, if anyone has any ideas on how we can be more effective in getting the word out, please let us know!

Labels: Babelgum, FToM, Post-Production, t.minus

A few weeks ago Ayz and I were talking over IM - and at one point we ended up on the subject of film vs DOF adapters. Ayz has impressed a lot of highly professional people with his short film White | Red | Panic, which was shot on a tiny little HV20 (no kit was used), and he gave the short an amazing look with color work, and an eye for beautiful shots.

At the time of our chat, I just had received the 16mm back from Burbank, and was surprised at how slow, regarding turn-around time, it all was. (Not to mention a bit expensive, but that wasn't really surprising). I think from the time I dropped off the 4 small reels for telecine, I had to wait around a week to get the 15 minutes of footage back. And as beautiful as the footage looks, as unique and nostalgic a feel as 16mm film gives - the workflow is just not something I am used to.

Ayz, although he has had a lot of success outside of film (and with next-to-nothing budgets), was saying he had decided that he needed to shoot a feature on film - that all his favorite films were shot on 35.

And I should make clear that I don't think people shouldn't use film... I don't think film has no benefit. I'm just thinking out loud and interested in people's perspective on this.


But I was wondering - how do I word this - okay, one of my favorite films is Days of Heaven, I think it's beautiful, I love the slowness and anti-climatic unfolding of the story, I love the sounds and the editing. And I wonder if I would love any of these things less if Terrence Malick happened to, in 1978, have access to a Viper - or even an SGPro, and had made a decision to shoot digitally?

I know that something about the image would feel different - maybe the weight or grain would be slightly off if compared side by side. But I'm just asking - would it really make or break the movie itself?

I guess, at this moment, I have almost no interest in shooting a feature or even a short on celluloid. I think it's very interesting having mixed formats to play with; 90% of For Thousands of Miles is filmed on HDV, but the 15 minutes of 16mm we have to use really stands out against the rest of footage, but so does the Mp4 in it's own low-quality / personal way.


I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on this - what's your favorite film? Was it shot on film? And what do you think would be the difference if it had been shot digitally?

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

Last year we entered part 1 of 64 Days into the Babelgum Online Film Fest' - it was the first time Babelgum ran the competition and they had partnered with Spike Lee and Cannes. Amanda and I were pretty amazed at how many people took a moment to vote for our project - and because of all your efforts we made the 10 finalist for the contest. From that point, a panel of judges picked the top 3 that went on to meet Spike Lee and attend Cannes.

This year I've submitted a special 22 min edit of parts 1 & 2 under Babelgum's documentary category. Voting is open until April 2nd (but it looks like you're allowed to vote once a day).

If you support this project - if you believe in the story Amanda and I are trying to tell - if you'd like to see us stay independent - then this could be our best chance at moving forward and completing the film on schedule.

There's a total of $125,000 in awards for winners spread across four categories. If we placed top three, we would secure the funds needed for travel (follow-up interviews), additional HD storage, minimal but essential camera equipment, promotional expenses, etc.

I also wanted to introduce a new branch of the site that we'll be using to power time-sensitive aspects of Pedal (like this online film festival), it's called t.minus, and the site is very simple: there's a current focus, a how to help, and a large countdown of the days left to do so. You'll also notice a special link in the left sidebar of this blog when there is an active event.

I know that voting takes time - and that doing so several times a week is redundant and not the-most-exciting way to spend your time online. But your support is greatly appreciated - the efforts that so many of you are willing to put forward for this film are really amazing to us. Thank you. Thank you.


Also, while you're in Babelgum be sure to check out and vote for the short film White | Red | Panic by our very talented friend Ayz Waraich.

Labels: Babelgum, Post-Production, t.minus

Back in January, I wrote a post about planning for the future by making the most of tools we have online: Twitter, Facebook, social maps, etc. It focused on the importance, for indie filmmakers, to build an audience outside of a theatrical distribution deal. Because if you're not a rare-enough-breed to make it into Sundance and then on-top of that strike a fair distro' deal... then you're stuck with your film and no one to watch it.

A photo from our Pedal Push Party fundraiser back in May of '07, just days before we began filming in Washington - via Mike Hedge.

But there's another aspect to planning for the future that I've been thinking about: the actual event(s). Sure, you've made the most of social tools and built up a great base of people interested in your film. Now you have to plan the events these people are interested in attending - at this stage, you could blow it without any past experience.

I think it's important for Amanda and I to release the 64 Days episodes for a number of reasons - one being that they are great learning experiences. We learn what people react positivity to, what they react negatively to... or what they don't react at all to.

64 Days - Part 1 from mike ambs ☂ on Vimeo.

And it's not a clear 'do this, and not this' learning experience. There are aspects of the episodes that I personally love, and that people seem to not care for, or at least they aren't moved in the same way. But regardless, what I know at this point, after only releasing a total of 9 episodes, compared to what I knew before is a - not huge, but still - vastly beneficial gap.

So I have to take that into consideration when realizing that the day will soon come when the film is complete, and I will likely not have a distribution deal, and I will need to plan the actual screening events for people to attend. Will I be ready?

This idea is not set in stone, and I'm sure people's reaction to this post will help shape my decision, but I am currently thinking of planning a series of 64 Days events. A multi-state, re-occurring screening event of the 64 Days episodes - both older and new releases - at venues ranging from local-movie theaters to art-friendly warehouses.


We have a very ambitious goal of having the film at 90% complete in 11 months - it's ambitious because there's still three follow-up interviews to be scheduled (and plane tickets to be bought), we have pick-up shots to film with Larry in Northern California, we have more Stockpile footage to collect, there's 64 Days episodes to release, and I still have a day job, etc. But let's go with the 11-13 months from now the film will be 100% complete, that leaves us enough time to plan 4-6 events in cities like: Ann Arbor, San Francisco, LA, Austin, Seattle, Chicago, Fargo, Portland...

It would require lots of organization, lots of volunteers, lots of aspects of event-planning that we aren't familiar with. We would need to be able to build onto each event - drawing on more interest, giving those people who are present at the events the info to help spread the word (if they enjoyed 64 Days), as well as request to see the actual film when it's released. Stickers. Buttons. Fliers. Organization. Fold-out chairs.


If you are making an independent film - I would highly recommend making (promotional / behind-the-scenes / tie-in) episodes to: a) help spread the word, b) set a tone for people to associate with your film, c) make your mistakes early on (when the stakes are less high). And if you have those episodes, it's time to put them to maximum use: a) organize events, b) meet the people face to face who enjoy your stories, and c) be involved with the community you're building on a personal level.


Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the idea of a re-occurring 64 Days event. Would you go if there was an event in your area? What would you expect from the event based on other events you've gone to? Would you be interested in getting involved?

11 months to go - time to get to work.

Labels: Post-Production, Stockpile

Teaser 011 from mike ambs ☂ on Vimeo.

This was one of the rare days that the wind was to Larry's back - which also meant that I didn't have to fight the wind when working the crane.

Most days it felt like trying to steady a massive sail with a camera on the end of it - but this day, the wind kept perfect pace with us, and I could move the camera almost anywhere without any real resistance.

This shot is a snippet from the middle of a longer 360˚ that follows Larry. But if I posted the whole rotation, it would be about 2 min... and that's not much of a teaser.

Labels: Post-Production, Teaser

The last few days I've been doing some research and trying to collect inspiring stories of people doing unusual things in their life. I've selected, so far, six people to write about - but I'm looking for more.

These people will end up being tied into a section of the film talking about what core ideas are behind people setting off to swim great rivers, or climb challenging mountains, or bike huge distances, etc.

I thought I'd mention a few of the people I'm writing about now, and see if any of you had great suggestions that I could research for the film.

The first two people are college friends - Thelma Jones and Doris Roy. The two young woman left Buffalo, NY, on June 22nd, 1944, and headed west through Ohio, then south at the Mississippi where they eventually took a freighter to New Orleans. From the gulf they circled around the coast toward D.C.. They were both 21 years old.

Then there is Donald Forest - he climbed his first mountain at the age of 40, having never shown any interest in climbing before in his life. Several years later he reached the peaks of 27 of the highest mountains in the Rockies - all within the same year - setting a record.

I'm also researching Gertrude Ederle - who had lost much of her hearing, at an early age, after a deadly case of the measles. She would become the first woman wade into the waters off Grey Nose Cape, France, and 14 hours later, reach the other side of the English Channel.

Then there is Martin Strel, born in the Republic of Slovenia, in 2007 he spent 66 days swimming the length of the Amazon. In the end he travelled over 3,270 miles... a distance wider than the Atlantic Ocean.

And last there's Thomas Stevens - a miner from Colorado, who at the age of 29 bought his first bicycle (weighing 42 pounds) in San Francisco. On April 22nd, 1844, he left the Bay area and 103 days later reached Boston, becoming the first person to ever cross the US by bicycle. He decided then to keep traveling, becoming the first to bike around the entire Earth. He returned to San Francisco by steamer in Jan of 1887.


I'm open to more historical cases of great adventures - but at this point I'm specifically looking for more and more modern stories of travel. People who, at the later stages of their lives, decided to up and backpack across the world... Or run for years at a time. The suggestions should be physical accomplishments. I'm looking forward to everyone's ideas! Thanks in advance.

Labels: Post-Production

Post-Processing of 16mm from Pedal :) from mike ambs ☂ on Vimeo.

A few days ago I spent the afternoon at Pro8mm in Burbank - I was able to watch them develop / process / telecine / whatever-you-call-it the 16mm footage from the film.

It's been ever a year since the footage was taken, because of that, I lost the blue channel on a few of the reels - but they managed to recreate most of the info that was lost. The footage turned out really beautiful - it felt so good to put in the film's fimeline and see it side by side with the HD footage. Here's a few quick still-frames:




Sorry this post is so short, but last night Amanda and I managed to map out 70% of the film, in a much more scene-by-scene structure then we ever had before, so I have lots of writing to do today.

Labels: Post-Production