4 days left

I'm going to try to keep this post short tonight - although I have a massive amount of info' to share with everyone, I think it's best if I pace myself.

Tonight I'm just going to lay the ground rules for the next few days. As the title of this post says, there are 4 days left until we leave, in an RV, up the Pacific Coast for a 5 day shoot of what will become the pilot-episode for Project Pedal.


I'm going to post, at least once, every day up until we leave for filming - while we are on the road, we have a long list of free wi-fi hot spots along our planned route. That is, until Nevada, there just isn't anything in Nevada. We'll do our best to publish what we can, when we can.

Tomorrow I have a final meeting with Matt, the producer, we'll go over last minute details. Then around 9 o'clock at night, Tim will be coming in from Hawaii, Nick, my brother, flies in on the 2nd from Detroit. The DP (who is no longer Olivier, but I'll get into that story later) gets back into town on the 3rd. And we all leave, as one big happy family, very early on the 4th.


Don't forget to read over the little update-box-thingy that I just worked so on, you'll find it near the top of the post column, just under the header. It has all kinds of entertaining (some people might disagree) info about the trip.

the script

Okay - here it is, the first few pages of the script I've been working on for the pilot-episode. I've only posted up to the Ferry in San Francisco - because last night, while working on it at 2 in the morning, I realized that those scenes (during the Ferry ride) were to short. I need to use that time to get the audience more familiar with the main cast... and I just blew past it in the early drafts. Aside from that: Enjoy.

1) Location: Five miles north of San Gregorio, CA, State Beach - early morning - Hwy 1. Wide angle shot (20 feet off the ground) of a smooth rolling hill covered with several dozen cows, the Pacific ocean stretching out behind it into the clouds. The shot holds static for a moment before panning (clockwise) slowly - revealing a long and lonely road, steep green mountains to the east, a car approaches from the north, as the camera finishes it’s 270 degree rotation, we see 4 bikers on the shoulder, the car speeds by without notice.
Tim has his bicycle turned upside-down, the back tire removed, his stuff scattered around him. Amanda snaps photos of the lazy cows, while Nick and Mike look over the maps.

2) A shot from across the road - pushes in fast on Tim - he works quickly to remove the tire.

Mike V.O.
“Only an hour and a half ago, we woke up on the beach outside San Gregorio.

3) A close up shot of a tent with it’s back to the ocean - Tim unzips the flap and steps outside into the sand - he is munching on a health bar.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“After a quick breakfast - we took down our tents and moved on before attracting the attention of local authorities...”

Jump cut shot of the tent collapsing - revealing the ocean.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“Only after the four of us finished packing our belongings, does Tim find that his back tire had gone flat sometime during the night...”

4) Tim changes his tire out on a picnic table overlooking the State Beach - the camera sits in the middle of a field of bright yellow flowers.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“...28 minutes later - we are on our way.”

5) A wide shot from the center of the road, the camera is slowly dollying forward - the 4 speed past on all sides. The camera then tilts down - the road blurs past the lens.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“5.7 miles later - in between Tunitas Creek Road and Half Moon Bay, Tim’s back tire, again, goes mysteriously flat.”

The camera is still CU on the road, blurring past the lens - it tilts up quickly to reveal a flat tire wobbling down the road.

6) Cut to a CU of Amanda - she snaps a photo with her Nikon F-105 of the cows in the field. The camera whip-pans towards the cows, but instead we see an insert shot of several photos of cows hanging from a cloths-line in a dark room. Each individual picture fills the frame as the camera tracks abruptly to the next picture - we hear a camera “click”. We then cut back to a profile shot of Amanda, she begins to reload film into the camera. Tim sits behind her, changing his tire.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“By the time Tim patches his second flat in under 6 miles - he will have spent a combined 62 minutes unpacking, dissembling, patching, re-assembling and re-packing. Needless to say, the 4 of us begin to worry, at our current pace, we will not reach San Francisco by 1:45 to catch the ferry across the Bay to Vallejo.”

7) Several short shots - jump-cut together: ECU of Tim’s hands feeling over the tire for glass... rocks... anything. Side shot of Tim closely watching the tire spin through his hands. A shot of Tim spinning his tubeless back tire rim with one hand while feeling the inside with his other hand. He finds nothing.

8) A static shot - with the long swaying grass in-between the lens and the 4 riders. They slowly head off into the distance. A cow “moos”. Title card reads: ‘DAY 7’.

9) The camera peaks out from the corner of an isle at a small local connivence store.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“We stopped on our way through Montara to shop for the essentials: Pop-tarts... bread... gatorade... and peanut-butter.

A downward shot of an empty belt in the check-out line. A small handful of items are pushed forward into the frame.
Amanda picks through a small organic fruit stand while the guys eat a quick lunch.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“...23 miles exactly to the Golden Gate - another 7 to the ferry terminal. 9:14 in the morning - the highest climb between point a & b is a modest 600 feet above sea level. It appears... that we might made our ferry after-all."

10) Important note: the following is one long shot - the 4 climb on their bikes, Mike half jokingly checks Tim’s back tire before pushing off, it’s still full. The 4 ride down the Hwy’ (this shot, over the next .9 miles, is speed up) a short distance. The camera dollies in-front of them, looking back. Only seconds later, the 4 stop in their tracks (the speed returns to normal)... the camera pans 180 to reveal a massive road block. No traffic is allowed through. The 4 stand there baffled - things no longer look so good.

11) Back at the organic fruit stand.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“The girl selling fruit explains the only way around by bike is back to the 92 to the 35. Looking over our maps, we realized we’ll have to back track down the 1 almost 10 miles before going another 12 out of our way...”

12) Cut to a shot of a large green road sign along Hwy’ 35 that reads: San Francisco - 8 miles. Pan around to show Tim hunched by his bike, pumping air into the tire.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“Tim’s flats continue. But they come on more slowly now - every several miles, to keep us moving, Tim simply pumps air back into the tube.”

13) The 4 ride down a sidewalk that runs parallel with Palmetto Ave - a large wooden windmill peaks over the trees behind them.



Several shots of the 4 making their towards the Golden Gate - the hills are becoming impossibly steep.

Mike V.O. Cont’d
“Sparing as little time as possible - we asked a stranger to take a picture of us in-front of the Golden Gate. After Crissy Field the traffic became overwhelming - the hills un-ride-ably steep... with no time left, we rushed between bumper to bumper traffic to make our destination.”

14) Cut to the large cement park outside the Ferry Terminal - the streets are over crowded, we see the 4 rush in from the left of frame, they are running with their bikes now, dodging pedestrians, jumping out in-front of traffic. They hurry in through the Gate.



15) The 4 stand at the back of the ferry as it pushes off. The following footage is cut & shot with a heavy-home-movie feel to it (Note: perhaps use a different film stock...) The mood begins to shift from frustrating to calming. The ocean is beautiful - they take pictures of Alcatraz - Treasure Island - etc.

"tomorrow"

Okay, "tomorrow", for those who've read the last post, turned out to be eight days - I guess I really dropped the ball on that one. In my defense I've been very busy, I just started two new jobs, one at iFilm and a second at the Huffington Post... still it's no excuse. But moving on:

25 days left until we begin filming the pilot episode - I'm very excited, everything seems to be falling into place perfectly and out of control-craziness all at the same time. I suppose it just depends on the mood I'm in. Here's the run down on the checklist:

The route & crew "pit-stops" / camping sites ** The route is planned out, at this point, turn for turn. And I'm over half way done mapping it out in google earth, which helps me visualize the locations we're heading to, as well as sharing it with people on this site. Which also just means I'm terrible with maps.

The equipment [which is actually not entirely up to me] ** The other day I met with Matt, the producer, and two of the people who will be helping film the project - we went over the things needed for filming... a good sized RV with an editing station inside, a small jib arm for some nice off the ground shots, I can't remember the model number of the exact HD camera their looking at... I just know it runs somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000. Which is fine by me, assuming it doesn't cut too much into other important expenses - doing more harm than good. We're packing along some 16mm, probably some 8mm also. Audio equipment obviously. You get the idea.

The exact dates ** We'll be filming from June 5th to the 9th.

The loose story [yes 'Pedal' is a documentary, but for purposes of the pilot, we are staging a few details] ** Stay tuned for a post about the pilot's story.

The cast ** will be made up of Tim, my friend from Hawaii, Nick, my younger brother, Amanda, my girlfriend, and myself.


And that's the checklist, really the hardest part of preparing was doing the scouting for the locations - now that it's done - as Matt said, we just have to show up. One of my only real concerns is that... well, here's an excert from the Washington Post:

A huge mushroom cloud of dust is expected to rise over Nevada's desert in June when the Pentagon plans to detonate a gigantic 700-ton explosive -- the biggest open-air chemical blast ever at the Nevada Test Site...

Yeah... I'm not sure how that will affect what we're trying to do since we'll be riding through Nevada in June. I guess we'll see.

scouting / day 3

I have to admit at the end of day 2 - I was feeling very down about our location scouting. The weather was grey and rainy, the landscape wasn't changing enough, etc.

Not to mention our being very, very limited on time... meaning we wouldn't be able to drive as far east as we hoped, which turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Instead of staying on US 50 for the next 400 hundred-some miles, like the ACA maps suggested, Amanda and I headed south on 95, after Fallon, towards Death Valley. Which proved to be the picture-perfect "loneliest road" I was looking for: a straight shot of highway for as long as the eye could see, with no traffic, dead grass and sand on both sides, high mountains in the distance.

We also passed through Goldfield, NV, an amazing ghost town - after a google-search I found that back in it's day, it was home to over 30,000 people - in 1906, when it produced 11 million in gold. The town also had one of the longest bars in history - requiring up to 80 tenders at a time to serve drinks. Now that I've read so much on it - I can't wait to go back, just passing through gave me chills. The Goldfield Hotel is still in perfect shape, and had a reputation of being the finest hotel between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific - in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech from the main balcony.


But moving on - I'm very happy with the scouting in retrospect, we have three very different landscapes now: the ocean, the mountains, and the desert. Actually, make that five - add in: big city and one-street-towns. It should make for an interesting progression. For those who aren't caught up on the upcoming pilot episode, here's the plan:

June 5th - 8th, a small cast and crew will travel from San Gregorio, CA to San Francisco, to Fallon, NV... and from this point on we'll pretend we are continuing east, but actually we'll be heading south towards Death Valley. The four days of shooting will be editing to look like the second week of a coast-to-coast bike trip.

Tomorrow I plan on posting the loose outline for the pilot - I just have to re-type it on the computer, I've only been using the typewriter.