Kickstarter is a special site - and it has fostered a special community. I've always loved the internet, if not simply for it's unique ability to inspire. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can start sharing their labor of love - and stumbling across these hard-to-find projects usually leads to new ideas and new relationships.

I first mentioned Kickstarter, because one interesting project I came across recently was called Lake Beast, in particular a post that was written about "what was inspiring the look" of this animated short film.

Which the last week'ish left me wondering: what films have / are most inspiring the look and feel of For Thousands of Miles? Many of these have actually been films I've seen long into the writing and creation process of Pedal. But they stuck with me... I have vivid memories of sitting in theaters in Los Angeles and seeing a movie that suddenly overwhelmed me with that sense of "this is what I want". Those moments and films are important to hold onto - they can serve as guide-lines.

In no real order of importance - here is a short list of five films that have an influence on me, and how specifically they influence FToM.


Stranded - I've come from a plane that crashed on the mountains: Main influence: message.

I might get a few strange looks for this... but when I was young, I was fascinated with Alive, a film about a group of real-life teenage rugby players who crash and survive in the Andes Mountains for 72 days. I watched it dozens of times during middle and high school.

The recent documentary, Stranded, is a collection of first-hand accounts with the actual survivors of that crash. Aside from it being one of the most visually engaging and crafted documentaries I've ever seen, it's also one of the most inspiring stories I've ever heard.

It's been one of the clearest examples of people's inner strength... of our ability to, in the most nightmarish of situations, not only simply survive, but to tap into a part of ourselves that is buried... that is often unnecessary in our routines.


The Mirror: Main influence: chronological-structure.

I remember first watching the Mirror, a Soviet-era self-reflecting film by Tarkovsky, the cinematography was stunning... each scene was so perfectly choreographed between the actors and the camera to maintain a constant mood of dream-like reflection.

But what stood out to me the most, was the story was told in an order that was defined not by date, but more by when the director seemed to full piece together that event's meaning or relevance. It was the first time I'd seen this done so beautifully... and the first time I felt at all confident that, yes, I could tell FToM in a similar way.


City of God: Main influence: narrative-structure.

Similar to the Mirror, City of God is able to start a narrative, but then side-step into an important and directly related side-narrative, while then smoothly coming back full-circle to where it started, now having explained all the pieces of the puzzle the audience needed.

This kind of nonlinear story-telling seems most necessary when dealing with real life, which is often full of so many more layers and back-stories than fiction. But most importantly, just because X happens before Y, doesn't mean it's understood in that order - sometimes Z, M, F and H have to happen before X seems to have significance.


Gerry: Main influence: pacing, visual.

The first opening shot of Gerry, aside from the 13 seconds of blue, is a near 8 minute continuous shot following the main character's car through Death Valley. Not a shot that everyone would be excited to sit through, understandably... but for me it was hypnotizing.

We've been trained to expect a certain amount of important information to be shown / explained in a certain amount of time when watching a movie (or TV show). But when a film takes an editing or pacing approach that goes beyond when we naturally expect a cut or a break, we begin to look closer at what's being shown - what's being said.

Is the film showing us clues, is the film setting a mood or level of reality that shifts the audience's perspective?

As a story-teller, you run the risk of pushing many people away with a shot that exceeds 3 minutes, 4 minutes, even 8 minutes - but sometimes that's a risk worth taking if important to the "way" in which someone begins to watch and take-in your film.


Days of Heaven: Main influence: visual, narrative.

This film is such a source of inspiration and nostalgia every time I watch it. The wide shots of the sprawling farmland just before sunset... the extreme close-ups of the grasshoppers clinging to strands of wheat. This is one of the films that I have a hard time putting into words.

There is something about how far-back the camera sits from people during a conversation... Or where the editor starts and ends that conversation which leaves something to the imagination. There's a drama that plays out that doesn't leave you gripping the edge of your seat, but allows you enough space to study the strange, predicable human-behavior the main cast finds themselves playing out.

Not to mention is has my favorite line from a film: "Looking for things. Searching for things. Going on adventures". I have that quote, from Linda Manz's character, written on a yellow post-it and taped to the front of my typewriter. I keep it there as a constant reminder of what For Thousands of Miles is supposed to be at it's simplest.


That's the end of my short-list for FToM's biggest inspirations. What are your most inspiring / motivating films?

60 days left: Don't forget to help us reach our post-production goal on Kickstarter - you can back our film for a dollar, or help spread the word.

Labels: Film, Inspiration, Kickstarter

It's interesting how people can go on considering something a "character flaw" or a "weakness" for years, and that something as simple as a single sentence can turn that all on it's head.

Perhaps it's more to do with double standards - that something I struggle with myself; something I would label or consider a flaw, would be the same thing I would describe as "that's just how you work" to another person.

But for the last several years, I've struggled with the issue of setting aside a piece of the film's script if it seemed unfinished or "off". I have always tried, and 90% of the time, unsuccessfully, to admit that I am stuck on a specific page, and let myself move on to another scene that might come out more naturally.

I can (and have) spent days, weeks even, on one paragraph, one moment in the film. Playing it over and over in my head, reading it out-loud countless times till I can perfectly see or feel all the pieces in place. It can be a terribly slow process.

And because it can be slow, because I can look back on two weeks worth of hard work and find that I've only two more pages to show for it, I've always considered it a severe weakness... a severe character flaw. And maybe what I read this morning doesn't change that.

But as I was eating breakfast today, I was skimming over an interview between Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, who together wrote the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are. Here's an except:

Eggers: Spike's method of working is the definition of organic. It had to be very real. I always would prefer to write alone, and send stuff online, and write marks on a piece of paper, and send it back. That's how I do things. But he really wanted it to be like, "Let's talk this through. Let's act this through, figure it out. What would he say here?"

Jonze: I think sometimes that was really frustrating for Dave because he just wanted to be productive. I definitely work a lot slower than Dave. He's very experienced as a writer, very disciplined, always moving forward. If he gets stuck, he just puts something in a placeholder and keeps moving. But, if it doesn't feel right I'll stay in that place until I find what feels real or right or true. I don't want to let go, I don't want to leave it.

The italicized-emphasis being mine - that one thought, from a director I look up to in so many different ways, seemed to put into question everything I often worried would stand in my way of finishing Pedal.

It's the first time I've allowed myself to think "that's just how I work". I do have flaws, I have many self-imposed hurdles that might or might-not ever go away. And realizing this today, doesn't leave me thinking that it's necessarily ok for the sake of just being ok, but that it's not going to change, and that it will be ok if I find a way to work with it and not against it.

Labels: Dave Eggers, Good to Know, Interview, Spike Jonze, Weakness

I read a great quote this morning from Steven Soderbergh (thanks to Erin's Tumblr),

"I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don't care if it's a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. I think the world would be unlivable without art."

And it left me wondering what all of you do to create? What is it you work on to keep yourself from going insane? I would say, I have a good idea what many of you work on, because I follow many of you on sites like Facebook, Vimeo, and Twitter.

But some of you might not be so upfront about what you create - whether out of modesty or shyness, etc. But I'd love to hear it - I'd love to see it. I'm looking forward to your comments!

Labels: Community, Create, Inspiration, Sharing

Up past my bed-time getting some writing done - wanted to check in to update people on how writing has been going, and also to say thank you for all the amazing support we've been seeing through Kickstarter.

Labels: Kickstarter, Post-Production, Vlog, Weekly Update, Writing

Okay, my friend Eric suggested I get a little more sincere in my Kickstarter project description, so I wanted to give that a try:

There's a part of me that assumes when I mention, "I've been working on this film the last 6 years", that people automatically connect the dots, that they fill in the gaps of that statement and with it; understand how personal and important this film is to me. And that might be an unfair assumption.

The truth is this project means everything to me. This project has stemmed from a 55 day bicycle ride from Onsted, Michigan to San Francisco that I took in 2001... and ever since those two months, I've been haunted by the experience of my days on the road. The memories of lonely sunsets watched from empty back roads in Montana's badlands. The memories of endless waving fields through North Dakota. The memories of feeling small against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

The first few years after my trip I bottled everything up that I felt and learned from it - there was a frustration of being unable to put into words what it all meant. How profound it became once I was back home and able to pick each layer apart and let it sink in. I felt separated from everyone I was close to before leaving, I felt still on the road in many ways.

Then I began to write things down, and those things first evolved into a book, and then later that unfinished book evolved into a film outline.

This is what I want / have to show in the finished film. I've tried to stress the importance of this project to me, I've tried to make clear that for as much as my trip left me feeling alone, disconnected, and lost - it has helped me understand people's strength, their deep drive to feel alive and to love. This is what i need to show *you*.

I know all that might seem funny for a documentary about someone riding a bike for 3 months straight. But in order to successfully ride a distance of 2 or 3 or even 5 thousand miles, you have to, piece by piece, leave behind the person you thought you were.

Labels: 6 Years, Kickstarter, Post-Production, Update

I put a lot of work and thought into our recent Kickstarter campaign - and the honest truth is, I know full well it's a big goal. A goal that percentage-wise, isn't in our favor of reaching.

We could have gone for a smaller amount, and we might be forced to do so 3 months from now; dividing the first round of funding towards securing equipment, and then a follow-up for travel expenses, and another for additional storage to actual edit the footage we took, etc.

That would be a safer way to approach the next steps in post, but in the spirit of biting off more than we can chew, we went with the whole needed budget. I would love nothing more than to sit back and let the magic of the interwebs reach out into the world and find new people who might fall head-over-heals for our project. But... they say better safe than sorry, and in this case, I feel it's very, very important to reach to this goal. And I feel that to do so, we're going to need to pull some major strings, and think of some new and very effective ways of reaching new people.

I am open to suggestions. Actually, the entire point of this post is a call for new ideas. Don't hold back, I am interested in any and all possible forms of outreach. Raising the last $8k of our goal is going to take some serious hard work, and some serious love.

Labels: Ideas, Kickstarter, Outreach, Post-Production