I've spent the entire week writing and re-writing and scribbling notes on script print-outs and combing paragraphs with highlighters. Which has meant two things; first, I've made a lot of progress with the film's narration and structure and story... and second, that I've fallen behind on everything else in my life.

I have a pile of dozens of emails that I need to reply to, I have phone calls to make that I kept postponing, I have t-shirt orders to package up and drop off at the post office, I have a mix CD to finish up for all our Kickstarter supporters... Storyboards to edit into the timeline, voice-over to place and, of course, dishes are piling up in the kitchen.

I plan to force myself to step away from the script over the weekend and do some serious catching up - but I do feel really good about the last week. Not to say I haven't been struggling with certain parts of writing... I have, as far as I can tell now, two areas of the script, totaling no more than a page, that need to be written or finished. Those areas are; one, the very last line of the film, and two, the bridge in story after Larry McKurtis has returned home but before he had seriously committed to his upcoming 16,000 mile adventure.

Amanda and I had a Skype call with Larry on Thursday and talked about the fast-approaching trip to Northern California to film additional scenes of the film. I'm really excited about running around the Sierra Buttes and seeing Larry and Jay again - it's been too long.

Labels: FToM, Kickstarter, p52, Post-Production, Writing

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

Erica and I stayed in a hotel room 15 stories up in Detroit for New Years Eve. It was a quiet night in and I enjoyed looking down at the few people (brave enough to be outside in single-digit temperatures) walking across the mostly empty streets just before midnight. We had a good view of the lights along the Ambassador Bridge as we were falling asleep... and I laid there thinking about about a lot of things really: I'm a year older... I've learned a few more lessons (the hard way)... I thought about the film and last year of work that's been put into Pedal.

This post isn't a resolution of any kind - but it is what I see happening with the project within the next year... what Amanda and I will be working hard to accomplish. 2010 is going to be a big year for Pedal - there's been an overwhelming amount of effort behind getting ourselves positioned to burst past some of our last and largest hurtles.

I've been frantically going over and over in my mind everything that needs to be prepped for this late-spring / early-summer. I have to say that I get so excited and anxious when I think about the scenes we'll be filming with Larry... they will be something very different from our 64 Days on the road. A more controlled environment - one that mostly will be indoors, lit very unnaturally, shot very particularly. Almost everything we're planning to capture should stand out very dramatically against the bicycle trip's footage.

Enough about that for now - there's still a few months for details on our upcoming week in Northern California.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared to say this out loud... to put it here in writing - but inside I do feel Amanda and I could have For Thousands of Miles done this year. I want that... so much. We're close enough to the end where it's something that's within reach. I've been patient for so long... and perhaps it's dangerous to focus on the end before we're there. It's a goal... but it can easily become a distraction.

2009 was a really exciting, really stressful, really amazing year for all things Project Pedal and life in general - and I know 2010 is going to be even better!

Before I signed off - I wanted to write about two quick things. The first being our long, long, long-overdue opening of the Project Pedal store! It's a humble grand opening - but we've posted our new FToM stickers, Project Pedal buttons, as well as our new FToM unisex tees.

The second being - I stumbled across a site called Project 52 that had a simple but great challenge: Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year.

Earlier last year I was closer in the habit of 2 post per week - but I know these last two months especially I've been struggling to keep up. So I've signed up at 52 in an effort to not two weeks go by between updates this year. I'd also love to get Amanda writing more here - we've been working a lot over iChat and Skype and I think her perspective on this leg of production would be interesting for people. Remember - if there's anything you'd like to know more about, please let us know. We're always happy to answer questions and be as transparent as possible.

Labels: FToM, p52, Post-Production, Store

Amanda and I had already been struggling to get Pedal off the ground for 3 years by the time we released Episode One (in Dec of 06). Even at that stage in pre-production, the story driving the feature length film had evolved quite a bit since day 1 of planning.

The project was always growing, and always structured around a current understanding of our own personal experiences with long distance traveling.

Now it's been over two years since following Larry McKurtis across the country, and Amanda and I have gone through several variations on roughly the same story during the writing and editing process. One of the most important changes has been the interview segments, which I wanted to talk about in this post.

During our 64 Days on the road, we filmed as many interviews as possible, with people taking their own bicycle adventures. We always expected these interviews to fit into the film as the driver for a reflective, post-trip narrative.

After two years of writing and editing and more writing, I've been more and more accepting, specifically the last 4 months, of the reality that these interviews don't fit smoothly with the rest of the film. They don't need to be in the film... they don't bridge any thoughts or moments that otherwise feel rough. The only reason it feels that we would use the interviews is because... well, typically you see interviews in documentaries.

And that doesn't seem like a very good reason to use them.

The other day, Amanda and I had a long brain-storming session over iChat, we did a full read-through of the script as it stands today, and discussed the few pieces of the film that are still just notes in an outline. One of the most important things we talked about was "what" For Thousands of Miles has evolved towards.

We both agreed that FToM closer resembles a documentary like Earth, or March of the Penguins then it does Man on a Wire, or Dig!. I've always heard that documentaries really find their story in the editing room - I just hadn't assumed that FToM would become the film it has.

I remember pretty distinctly, for whatever reason, watching Earth in the theater and thinking a lot about the basic format being used: visuals of different animals making great journeys, and an (all knowing) narrator talking about those journeys. Elephants traveling across great desserts... Birds migrating over some of the highest mountain ranges in the world.

And I started to really consider this format for the film... I wanted to treat FToM like a case study. Like we were learning about this species of animal; people, that sometimes would travel impossible-to-imagine distances for seemingly no reason. Sometimes alone, sometimes in small packs. A big focus of this study would be the after effects that these youthful adventures would have.

Pedal has never been a project about someone's personal experience - it was never intended to tell stories from one person's trip. And although visually we follow one person from coast to coast, there are many layers in the narration that feel more generalized... That these emotions aren't unique to Larry's experience - that most people go down a long and exhausting road internally after they've come home.

Also, one last thought before I sign off - I've never been able to explain Pedal as a *this* meets *this* kind of pitch. It's been 6 years of working on this film and I just could never do it. But after talking with Amanda and really going over things - I think I'm finally comfortable with mashing two films together as a close'ish representation of what people can expect.

So, here it goes, you're the room full of execs / producers and I'm the awkward, sweaty, unproven filmmaker pitching his film in 5 words or less: Winged Migration meets The Mirror. Now comes the part where I wait nervously for someone in the room to say something.

Labels: FToM, Inspiration, Post-Production

I've had several days to think about the two possible directions I mentioned in my last video update. First off, thanks so much to everyone who gave their advice and helped me weigh the pro's and con's.

After a lot of consideration - I've decided the next step in post-production is continue moving forward with FToM, and to hold off longer on another addition in the 64 Days series.

There's a lot of little reasons for this, but for the most part, I left LA behind with the idea of focusing 100% on the film.

I feel that 64 Days, being a supplemental aspect of the project, needs to take a back-seat while I'm being so heavily supported by Erica. She has been bearing a great deal of financial stress the last three months - and I am trying to not waste any of support she has been willing to give.

On a related note - for whatever reason, we've been getting a sudden increase in donations and I wanted to stress how amazingly helpful they have been. The recent PayPal donations and the $1,000 Kickstarter campaign we ran in June have helped me work full-time on FToM and narrow down 115+ hours of footage into a 4 hour rough-edit segment. And that has been an huge step towards finishing the film, so thank you so much!

That's all for tonight - I'd like to write a separate post about the specific steps ahead, as always I'd love to hear questions and comments regarding any aspects of the project.

Labels: 64 Days, FToM, Fund, Post-Production

Post Production - Week 88 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I was up late last night working - and decided a video update was long, long overdue. I've been finished up on a huge step of post-production for almost two weeks now, and I've been waiting to make that announcement on video.

Also - and more importantly, I need people's input on what the next step for me should be.

Labels: Editing, FToM, Post-Production, Vlog, Weekly Update

I just finished watching a really inspiring video, twittered by Zak Forsman, of Nina Paley at the Phily DIY Days meet-up, that I mentioned recently, presenting the revenue results for her Creative Commons free-distribution approach. Yep, that's right, she has made money by giving her film away for free.

My favorite part of her presentation was early on when she defined "free" as having more than one meaning: there's the free as in "free beer", and there's the free as in "free speech".

Nina released her animated film, Sita Sings the Blues, five months ago under a Creative Commons Share Alike license. Now this site, has for several years, published under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license, and that license applies to all the content we post here; the episodes, the teasers, the production updates, etc (unless specifically said otherwise).

What these licenses mean is pretty simple and straight forward; under both, people are free to share your work - this includes downloading it, making copies, uploading it to a bit-torrent site, etc... any means of sharing are allowed! They are even allowed to make changes to your work - in a film's case, they could re-edit or re-mix scenes - as long as they released that modified work under the same license.

But what you can't do under our project's current license, that you are allowed (and encouraged) to do under Nina's is sell the content. It's not even required that you cut a percentage of the profits with the person who created the work. Although, in most professional cases, that person or organization does share their profit.

She brings up a specific example of this in the video, a Film Festival downloaded her film, put it in their schedule, and sent her a short email afterward saying something along the lines of, "hey, we put your film in our fest'. We'll send you a check in a few weeks". Her film played there, did very well, and she received a check for a few thousand dollars.

That is how film distribution should work! It's not there yet, but people like Nina are working very hard to prove that it is a viable option for both filmmakers and theaters. It's really inspiring and encouraging to see this model working, and working so well, even in it's early stages of approach.

The way in which Nina makes most of her money is through selling "containers", more specifically: DVDs and merchandise. This has been a hard sell for other filmmakers and distributors, a huge majority are still hard-pressed to understand that just because someone can stream or download a film for free, doesn't mean they will not pay for it.

The more people that see Sita Sings the Blues... the more festivals it plays in... the more people who watch it online - enjoy it - and suggest it to a few friends... the more word of mouth: the more DVDs Nina sells. It's as simple as that.


The distribution of FToM has always been something I knew would have to be different - it's just not a film that is designed to be played in theaters all across the US. It's not a blockbuster, or a sleeper hit, or fun for the whole family. And I'm okay with that. I'm going to plan according for it, which means I won't be submitting to all the major film fest' with the hopes of being picked up. I'll still submit, but I won't be holding my breath.

FToM is guaranteed to do far, far better with a release approach similar to Nina's. And honestly, whether the film is more or less likely to be successful under this model is besides the point - I want to help push this form of distribution forward. I think it's important.

I think as more and more theaters upgrade their projection equipment to include digital, the more they tap into the internet, the more unavoidable it is to see organizations and companies come forward and help showcase film's with Creative Commons licenses. Most likely using something close to an on-demand / streaming / bit-torrent approach.

And that, to me, sounds like a very, very good thing.

Labels: Creative Commons, Distribution, DIY, FToM, Post-Production

I kept putting off updating the blog this last week - I was hoping I would be done piecing together all the elements I need for the next t.minus campaign, and that I could write a post announcing it was up and ready for people to look at. But... I've been running into some problems with that, and I needed to step away from it until I figure out how to fix them.

I realize that's not the most the exciting update - but the last few weeks have been incredibly routine. A lot of repetitive editing, repetitive tasks that I need to stay on top of: updating cycling forums about Stockpile, emails, newsletters, et cetera.

To be honest it's been a bit emotionally draining. I know some might argue that I need to keep a reasonable positive spin on my updates and what I say publicly, you never know who's reading or paying attention to your project. But I think all filmmakers go through different funks during each stage of production. It's hard not to - and it's even harder when you're going through it alone.

I guess I would just love nothing more lately than to focus on editing - to be able to pass off all the areas of responsibility to someone else. But I know everyone reading this could use an extra hand and 8 more hours during the day.

Some of you reading might already be aware that currently Amanda is currently volunteering in Thailand with under-privileged children. So... perhaps I'm just feeling more on-my-own than I normally do.


I can say that music has been a huge, huge help recently, I've been able to catch up on a lot of the suggestions from our ♬ suggestion page. As always, if you've heard any great music recently that you think would be a perfect fit in For Thousands of Miles, be sure to drop us a comment in our Disqus thread.

We do listen to all of your suggestions - almost all of them are added to an iTunes playlist that I try to keep current and use as a source of inspiration when writing and working.

Labels: Editing, FToM, Music, Post-Production, t.minus

I'm sitting by the open window right now, enjoying the smell that comes after a mid-west thunder storm, and an iTunes playlist from Jon. It's almost been 10 days since my last post, so I thought I'd better check in and give everyone an update on what I've been busy with.


FToM: First on the list, the film. I've still been very busy going through clip by clip and dropping what I like in the timeline. I'm probably 1/3rd of the way through the 2nd TB of footage.

Two days ago I sent a FCP project file to Amanda, she has the back-up drives in LA, and I've been waiting for feedback on what she thinks so far. The way it's cut now, it's not much to look at, but when looked at side-by-side with our notes on the arc of film, I can see a pattern emerging, and places where certain moods and points can be made. I'm anxious to be sitting back in-front of the typewriter again.

Stockpile: I've been pushing hard promoting Stockpile on Vimeo, ACA, and popular bicycling forums (like Crazy Guy on a Bike). We're already getting some great feedback and interest so far. And today a few more clips were shared in our group.

One reader replied, "I have a good feeling about the project. It looks like the personal essence of the moments will come through. Teaser number two shows, to me anyways, how profound it is to be insignificant. Good luck on the project."

Our main goal with Stockpile is to be able to visually show just how connected we are by the places we've been - how our experiences are intertwined in ways that are easily overlooked. We have a long way to go before we reach the number of videos needed to do that, but with steady pressure and outreach, by the time the film needs it, I believe we'll be prepared.

Kickstarter: Our Kickstarter campaign finished a few days ago and we were able to overshoot our goal by $105! I've adjusted the funding progress by by $1,105, which felt great to do. I can't thank everyone enough who donated, twittered, and help spread the word in anyway. It's by far the biggest jump in donations we've received since coming home from production two years ago.

It turned out to be a really impressive and supportive community of people. of all the sites we've joined that had fundraising support, it's been by far the most successful.

Also, of course, a huge thank you to those of you who have recently donated via our new funding site. I know we had a few people do so during the Kickstarter campaign and I didn't want to sound like I was leaving them out.

I'm excited about the next round of funding - and have been thinking of ways to incorporate a breakdown of upcoming expenses that we can split into individual campaigns.

t.minus: I've also been putting together the next t.minus project. If any of you have dropped by the site recently, you'd have seen our 'currently closed' splash page - hopefully after this weekend I'll have it swapped out with all the new info.

I can't say too much about it at the moment, but I can tell you it's a collaboration project that anyone can be a part of! And, if I can make up my mind on a design, there could be t-shirts involved too.

Labels: FToM, Fund, Post-Production, Stockpile, t.minus

Since my last post, about simplifying my editing workflow, I've been cutting For Thousands of Miles like a mad man. I created a separate sequence, nicknamed The Odyssey, and went from a blank slate to over 2 ½ hours in the last few days.

Editing FToM Screen Cast from mike ambs on Vimeo

It feels so refreshing to just filter out the beginning, and the end of FToM, and just focus on the chunk that deals with a more linear (emotionally) arc. Treating it as it's own separate piece has lifted so much of the pressure and confusion from editing, and I can see already that having this larger, more complete block of the film actually in front of me, will make it much easier in the near future to tie it back into the bookends of the film.

But editing isn't all I've been busy with, over the weekend I did some updating and re-designing of Stockpile (which will go live in the next few days), I've been putting together a 60 second promotional video for it also - something that the awesome people over at Adventure Cycling suggested we try. We're really excited about the upcoming mention of Pedal in their Bike Bits newsletter, I can't wait to watch all the newly submitted bike-trip footage.

Back to work for now - be sure to let us know in the comments if you anything questions about what's going on behind the scenes of Pedal.

Labels: FToM, Post-Production, Stockpile, Vimeo

I'm excited about editing today - last night I was making changes in the film's timeline - currently I am working on the section of For Thousands of Miles that deals with Larry's trip in a more linear fashion. FToM doesn't start that way at all, and I was using a different (more structured) approach earlier on - but that approach carried over into other areas of the story.

And I realized last night that those solutions didn't work on this problem. So I'm excited about today because I'm going to try something very simple to solve something very complicated. I'm going to run through, clip by clip, and drop in the shots that I like. That's it.

It's how I usually go about editing more personal videos, not too much thought, not too much structure (at least at first), just grab what catches my attention, and set it in the timeline.

On the 1st of two hard-drives I have somewhere around 1,170+ individual clips, ranging anywhere from 20 seconds to 20 minutes. So, it's not to say that this is a quick solution, but the approach is familiar, it's simple enough to provide immediate gratification, and sometimes that's very important when editing.

Will I end up with a 5 hour rough-cut of a part of the finished film that is supposed to only take up 30-40 minutes? Yes, at first I will. But that's ok. I'll start picking it apart when the time comes. Time to get to work!

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

It's been over 10 days since my last post and always feel awful when the blog sits here quietly for that long. I guess I've been in a bit of a mood the last week and every time I sat down to write something... I just kinda' blanked out. "Why is that?", you might be wondering.

I think it had something to do with where I'm at in writing the script recently - I've come to a point where I need to find a way to say what the trip means to the people in our film.

That might seem like an easy'ish thing to do... but I've been trying to find the words of how to express my own bike trip for the last 6 years... I've never been happy with anything that I've come up with. But it's time for me to make a decision on that - I can't let the film collect dust forever just because I'm lacking the perfect way to express something. It's become a fight of what needs to be said and what should left for interpretation. It's slowed me down... and that always leaves me down.

But - moving on: tomorrow Babelgum will announce it's winners in the film competition. It's been nerve-racking this last month waiting for the final results... especially considering we reached this point last year in the competition. Regardless though of what happens tomorrow I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone again for all their support and votes - we couldn't have been finalist the last two years without you. Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow - and keep an eye our twitter accounts (@Pedal, @Manda, @FToM) for word on Babelgum!

And before I go - I know I've been jumping all over the place in this post - I wanted to mention the virtual panel discussion happening on the New Breed Workbook Project. I did a video-response with my perspective on film festivals. If you have any thoughts be sure to drop by and join the panel.

Labels: Babelgum, FToM, New Breed, Post-Production

I have great, great news! When we first started t.minus to encourage and simplify the voting process for 64 Days in the Babelgum film festival, it required people to create an account, download and install software, oftentimes people needed to restart their browsers or computers to finish the installation, etc. Basically, what I'm saying is that was a terribly high number of hoops to jump through just to start casting votes.

As of this morning - Babelgum has relaunched a new design of their site, and it appears to be from the ground up. No more software necessary to watch or vote! If any of you out there tried to vote before, and were one of the many who had issues or ran into bugs with the player, then this is just in time! And for everyone else who's been voting once a day, well, now it's much easier.

We're really getting down to the wire in this contest - from what we can tell, we're very, very close to the top 10 position (possibly 15th place in the Documentary category, though it's hard to tell). And with 12 days left, we're gonna have to push this very hard to make sure we a) don't get bumped back on the list, and b) manage to move up in the top 5 positions.

I know I've mentioned it on this blog before - but doing well in this contest could secure us the finishing funds towards For Thousands of Miles. It would greatly speed up post-production and give us a head start on promotional funding, and allow us to hire help that we desperately, desperately need. Thank you so much! We can do this.

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

Post Production - Week 65 from mike ambs ☂ on Vimeo.

Big announcement this week - it's been a few weeks in the making but we're finally ready to release the new design of the For Thousands of Miles site! I worked till 4 or 6 in the morning for about two weeks straight getting all this coded correctly and set up. We're really proud of the new site and we hope it adds a lot more interaction to FToM! We could use a lot of help in spreading the word about the new site - if you're up for blogging about it we'd be flattered.

There's a few more little additions I'd like to make over the next few weeks - but they weren't critical enough to push back the release. So stay tuned for those and be sure to leave us any comments or questions you have about the new site. If you think something is missing we'll try to include it.

There's 19 days left to vote for 64 Days on Babelgum - again, this contest could fund our entire post-production process! If you enjoy the 64 Days episodes, or Pedal on a whole, please take the 60 seconds each day to vote for us. It really means a lot to us. The t.minus website lays out quickly and clearly the steps you can take to get involved.

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

I've been thinking about this for several weeks - and I've been hesitant to write about it, hesitant to ask people about it, hesitant to really admit that it's a problem. But we desperately need help with this film. Not in all areas, but there are goals I have that, it is becoming more and more apparent, will fail if it's just Amanda and I.

I can handle the editing. I can handle the writing. I can handle keeping myself on schedule - not that I don't fall behind, but it's more a matter of too much to do and too little time (or not enough help).

And because of this I am always falling behind in one area of the project as a whole - I am always falling behind on emails, falling behind on blog post, on vlog updates, on reaching out to new people, on making advances with the script, on encouraging write ups and interviews to get our name out there. The weight of these un-marked to-dos has been growing the further into post-production I get.

An example; we have goals of planning multi-state screening events of 64 Days to build more awareness and practice DIY distribution (for when FToM is released). This is something I could take on myself - the managing of localized people who are helping to book venues, RSVP guest, handle equipment needs, etc. But I could not do this while at the same time writing as much as I need to, and editing the film. So I feel stuck - I know it's something the project would benefit greatly from, but how do I pull it off without more help? How do we find more help when we have no budget?


I suppose this post is simply a feeler - I'm curious about people's thoughts on this. What people's ideas and suggestions are on the possible trade-offs for people joining our team. We have a long road ahead of us... there's a lot of work left to be done... and it's a lot to ask of people. Is it crazy to pull outside people into this mess?

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

Post Production - Week 64 from mike ambs ☂ on Vimeo.

A quick update on what I've been keeping myself extremely busy with the last week - keep checking back at FToM - it won't be long before we launch the new site. I've worked very hard on it, so I hope everyone will find it much more useful and engaging.

Also don't forget there's still 28 days left of voting for 64 Days in the Babelgum film fest! Winning would give us all the money needed for post-production! Greatly speeding up our schedule.

Labels: FToM, Post-Production, Vlog, Weekly Update

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

When Amanda first posted about us (mainly me) being concerned with our lack-luster number of RSS subscribers - ie: less than 5,000 - It came across as a "why do our numbers suck" post, and that's a fine question for us to be asking, our numbers do need improving just in a general sense.

But I'm less concerned with specifically the RSS stats, and more with our lack of tools in place to prepare ourselves for the future.

Even if our blog has subscribers in the thousands, we have nothing in place right now to make the best use of that readership. And that, out of everything, is what I stress about the most. Mainly because it's a problem I don't have the technical skills to solve on my own, but also because for every week that goes by, on editing and writing, it's another week we have make-up for in the future.

I have ideas on what tools I think we need, and I've been searching, within my little social circle, for someone qualified to help build them. And I'm interested in building tools that would help every filmmaker, and even beyond that, tools that could easily be used for projects of any kind.

I'm not a fan of forums, I've never been able to get into them or find them efficient - even in the 90s, when that's all there was outside of IRC. And there are a handful of tools, like Ning, that allow you to structure your own social network, but I'm snot ure a network, or a forum, is exactly what an indie film "movement" needs.

Before I talk about the two tools I've been thinking about the most, I wanted to stress that my main motivation behind worrying about this at all: is planning for the worst (or to be realistic, planning for the most likely). It's highly unlikely that For Thousands of Miles will blow people away at Sundance. Hell, it's unlikely it will even get into Sundance. It's even more unlikely that the film will be picked up by any distribution house. It's even more unlikely beyond that, that even if we got an offer for distribution we would take it. Amanda and I have come way too far with this film to sell it away for a next-to-nothing first-time-filmmakers compensation, loose all our control of the film, have them make a half-assed attempt at a theatrical run, and be stuck in a shitty DVD-release contract.

So, I want to plan on distributing this film ourselves. I don't want to spend a great deal of energy and time cutting For Thousands of Miles, and then, when it's complete, have it sit on a shelf and collect dust because we didn't have a plan B in place. It is time for Amanda and I to start putting into motion the audience now that will want to see the film later. So we can hit the ground running when it's ready to be seen.

Okay, two quick tools: A basic map-based request tool. Arin and Susan of Four Eyed Monsters used a Google Maps mash-up, plus a piece of code a friend wrote to allow those interested to put their name and zip down. Once that number reached a certain point, it was enough for Arin and Susan to cold-call theaters, which got them several screenings of their film all over the country.

I'm working on a map that has "phases" to it, all states begin at phase 1, all states have a low, realistic goal of needed request. Once a state reaches that first goal, let's say California needs 100 people to complete the first phase, it moves onto phase 2 and Amanda and I are required to dump more resources there with the people interested in the film. Using the first 100 request as a stepping-stone, asking those people to see if their friends would like to request the film, and so on. Mailing out flyers and buttons to those people. Branching out in baby-steps. I have the map designed, and the state-shaped-links are all entered into a basic template... but I'm having issues building a smart request tool around it.

Which brings me to the second tool I've been thinking about. Amanda and I had lunch the other afternoon with the lovely Jessica Stover, from Artemis Eternal, near the end of our lunch, we started talking about Twitter. Jessica said that Twitter seems to be nearing the point where a filmmaker could almost drive their entire movement with Twitter alone. Which got me thinking about Facebook Connect, which then got me thinking about Twitter Connect (which doesn't exist... yet).

A tool that I would give anything for; would be the ability to have people interested in the film, request it not with a basic "fill in your general info here" box, but to link their request to their twitter account. Allowing you to build a movement not enclosed on a forum, but open on Twitter's timeline. It's such a simple, powerful, immediate tool that tying it into a film's network of fans would be very interesting.

Giving you options of having people's activity on your map, or community, be broadcast automatically to their stream (if they want it to).

With the way things generally work now, a person would fill in their info for the map, request the film, be taken to a thank you page that ask them to also twitter about it. I'm sure someone out there is working on such a tool for general use, but in any case, I am looking for people savvy enough to code it.

Online tools are always presenting themselves, and people are always looking for new ways to take those tools and expand on them. Indie filmmakers stand to gain so much by re-packaging those tools to best fit their project. Do you have a project of your own? How are you planning for the future?

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

Our friend, Zadi, from Epic FU, sent us a link to the Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition, the description sounds perfect for us. First off, if you are selected for the film grant, you retain *all* rights to your film! Secondly, they not only award your film money, they provide all the steps necessary beyond post to see that it gets out into the world.

A downside is they only accept 2,000 submissions, and that is going to fill up insanely fast.

So Amanda and I, after we both got out of work yesterday, spent as long as we could working on the submission requirements. Which has been a real wake up call for us. The only synopsis for the film we have is around 300 words, Netflix requires that plus a longer synopsis preferred to be around 1,000 words.

They also require a script, or in our case a detailed treatment of the film... which I've never written. A budget breakdown of the expenses left in post-production to distribution. Bios for the cast and crew. And a 1,000 word cover letter introducing myself and the project. None of these things are something we have prepared sitting filed away for ready-use. Which is resulting is long nights writing treatments and budget-drafts that we have no real experience with in a professional setting, which, I'm sure, Netflix is expecting.

But nothing like a hard deadline to get you moving on to-do's you've been putting off for months. Our Without a Box information has been lacking under 'For Thousands of Miles', so all this work will pay off and make it easier to submit to upcoming festivals.

We have very ambitious goals for 2009 - and I have a feeling this stress is only the tip of the iceberg for us.

Labels: FToM, Post-Production

I'm writing this post on my flight home from Michigan to LA - we're about an hour outside of California right now and these Spirit seats are killing my shoulders. I think I'll be taking a hot bath for sure when I get home - I'm gonna barely be able to move.

Thanks to everyone for baring with us over the holidays on the site - I know it's been far too quite the last two weeks but I'm very, very anxious to get back to work. Which includes more post and video-updates. I'm behind on a teaser, so perhaps I'll have to pick out two.

For those of you who follow the project (and also my personal updates) on twitter, you might have seen an update before Christmas about the first 13 minutes of the film. Amanda and I haven't got a chance to discuss it yet, she watched it alone while at her family's. I'm sure we'll talk about it tonight on the way back to North Hollywood from LAX (she's picking me up).

There's been a lot on my mind the last few weeks and I'm going to posting questions here on the blog about what all of you think out there on several different subjects (including: a request the film tool... bettering Stockpile and finding creative ways to reach out to bicyclists with trip footage... a FToM website redesign... ways of reaching out to press... and a project roadmap...).

Amanda's post about readership and subscribers and my concerns with it got a lot of people talking - and it was great to hear the feedback, as well as helpful. So, I think we'll try to keep that going - we're always weighting the pro's and con's of focusing our energy here or there on aspects of the projects and we could benefit a lot from outside opinions.

Okay, well I'm down to 20 minutes of battery on my laptop, so I'm gonna turn the overhead light off and catch up on some podcast. As always we'd love to hear any questions you have about the project or just filmmaking in general. Hope everyone had a wonderful New Years.

Labels: FToM, Post-Production, Stockpile

Six years ago, before Pedal was a film, it was a book I was writing. Something I had started a year after moving out for the first time to Ypsi. The prelude to that unfinished book was a chapter about "Voodoo", something my Cross Country coach, Mr. Hunt, had the team do in preparation of a race.

We of course ran everyday, and he carefully laid out specific exercises to work different aspects of our body... oxygen delivery, sprints, endurance, on and on. But he was big on preparing us mentally too. And the habit he helped form is something I still find myself using today.

So basically, Voodoo was simply lying on our backs, closing our eyes, stretching out and visualizing the race course. What moments we'd surge around corners, what moments we'd speed up into a sprint and move ahead of a pack, how we'd move when the gun sounded. We'd go over it again and again, Coach Hunt would talk us through the race.

I would imagine at what points my legs would go heavy and numb, what mile my lungs would taste like blood, when the acid would start to replace the lack of oxygen in my muscles... but visualizing each meter, each mile helped break it down on the day of the race. I'd feel prepared, I'd barely have to tell myself to kick when coming to the foot of a hill I'd already sprinted up dozens of times in my head.

So, where am I rambling with all this? I've been using this technique with 'For Thousands of Miles', I've been playing music and going over each cut in my head. What the first frames of the film are, what shot follows next. I've been trying to break down the edit in my head moment by moment so that when I'm sifting through thousands of clips, I barely have to ask myself how to use them, I'll just drop it into place where I've already visualized it dozens of times before.

If anything... it helps me feel not so lost and overwhelmed.

Labels: FToM, 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