post production - week 20

post production - week 20 from amanda walker on Vimeo.

BUTTONS!!! need i say more??? to get yours send me an email with your address. we're getting new ones in. we'll post a pic when we do and you can choose the one you like.

Now We're #5 :)

I was so surprised and excited yesterday when I got the Babelgum email updating Amanda and I on our status in their online film festival (that I mentioned here last week). We have jumped from #11 (only top 10 qualify) to #5! I am flattered. I am pumped. I am scared like hell that we'll get bumped off now - I'm sure there's a lot of people who are either a) barely hanging on to the top 10, or b) just a few places behind like we were last week.

The voting ends May 7th, which leaves *exactly* sseven days from now to hang on.

I know a ton of you voted already - and I want to give you each giant bear hugs for it - but if there's anyone you know (a friend... a friend of a friend) who might be into our little project, and would be likely to take a moment for good karma, you can use the "share this" tool at the foot of the post to share our instructions on how to vote for 64 Days.

It's a great little tool - it makes it super simple to re-post a new blog, share on Facebook, or even something as fast as a Twitter. I'm holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed... the idea of finding ourselves in the top 10 for this contest makes me a little light headed. Too much excitement and suspense. Thanks to everyone! It means the world to us!

Post Production - Week 19

Post Production - Week 19 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

We're #11 :)

A few weeks ago Amanda and I entered the Babelgum online film festival - assuming that we would probably get blown out of the water and not stand a chance.


But! I've been getting weekly emails updating us on the status of '64 Days - Part 1', and we are currently ranked at #11. The reason I'm writing this is because the top 10 submissions go on to be judged by a panel of "industry experts", and then the top 2 from that are watched personally by Spike Lee.

Whether we'll make it that far seems kinda' crazy to me - but I'd hate to be one position away from ever knowing.

So - how can you help? To vote in the contest, you'll need the Babelgum player (I'm not happy that people are required to download software just to cast a vote, but they insist). You can click here to download it for free.

Okay, so you've done that, now the easy part: open up the Babelgum program, and you'll be greeted with this screen below:


Where you can do a quick search for "64 Days" - we should be the first result that comes up.


If you click on our thumbnail and choose play, you'll see on the right side of the player a whole list of social tools.


The star at the top is all you need to click to cast your vote, select the number of stars and ta-daa. You're all done, and we owe you a huge, huge, huge thank you!

We really can't stress enough how much we appreciate this - being a finalist in the contest could do so much for the project as we struggle along with post-production.

Be the 1st to Write a Review

So, being the tech savvy genius I am - heavy sarcasm - all this time I had thought that Pedal's feed was all correctly entered into iTunes. Obviously I had never thought to double check, but the point being, *now* if you go into the iTunes Music Store and search for "Project Pedal" (or just click here), we come up with a fancy logo and everything. We're moving on up in the world.

Anyway, I should get to the point of this quick post, I still have a lot of logging & tagging to do this weekend: If you'd like to, or if you're bored at work, or if you want to write a review in exchange for us writing you a review... whichever, we'd be very flattered if you'd help our "street cred" on iTunes by taking a few minutes to sign in and say something about the podcast. Good or bad... although I would be a little bummed if our 'first' review was "your podcast sucks and so do you".

Thanks everyone! Hope you're having a great weekend.

Post Production - Week 18

Post Production - Week 18 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

The Following Preview...

Our friend Justin moved to Sacramento a few weeks ago - and LA isn't the same without him around, but luckily he's coming back in a few months - and since then, it looks like he's been busy making a lot of videos (and also, gathering from his twitter: hanging out at the mall for their free wifi).

The other day he surprised us with a "commercial" for "Project Pedal dot com", which I can not say now without thinking of the ending in this great video. This was so awesome I had to share it with everyone on the site.


ProjectPedal.com (The commercial) from Justin Adams on Vimeo.

Justin has already made a follow up to this video, you can watch it here - I have to say I've never seen a better impersonation of me.

If you're so inclined to make your own Pedal commercial :) send us a link, we'd be a) amazingly flattered, and b) more than happy to post it here on the blog. You can be funny (like Justin), or dramatic, serious, anything really.

Be sure to drop by Vimeo and leave Justin a comment if you liked his videos - he'd love the feedback.

thinking about "scalability"

Last month, Bill Cammack wrote a great post about the scalability of shows, in which he asked a lot, I should stress that: *a lot* of good questions that people should really consider as early as possible in their work.

It's an interesting read, and although the post seemed to be mainly geared towards "online shows", I thought about it in terms of projects in general. I left a comment saying, "[this post] made me think about the scalability of, not only “shows”, but projects. Are Amanda and I prepared to have Pedal grow in the way we really want it to...? How do we prepare for that. How do we evaluate our strong and weak points. Lots to think about".

In which Bill commented back a whole list of even more questions to dwell upon :)

It’s interesting that you mention the word “project”. My original title was “Does Your Project Scale”, because the same applies to websites, social sites and films, like you’re making.

As far as your production team’s concerned, you should definitely consider what happens if Pedal grows. You should also consider what happens if someone sees the work you’re putting in and wants to hire you to do other films or commercials... If someone sees your style and thinks it would be perfect for their project. Does that take away from the future of Pedal? Does that add to it?

What happens if a channel wants to pick up Pedal and show it in weekly chunks? Are you prepared to re-package? Are you saving split-track versions of your audio for each episode? That way, if you need to change music or dialogue, you can do so with minimal hassle...

There was one question that stuck out for me more than all the rest - which are all important questions that Amanda and I need to address sooner rather than later. For those of you who have been around this site a long, long time, you might know that at one point, we did have to make a decision regarding the "re-packaging" of Pedal, there was an opportunity to pitch the idea to Discovery, and break it up into 9 or so episodes. This changed almost every "artistic" choice that we had made in the years before. And we changed all this without having ever having considered it before.


It ultimately lead no where and we were left to start from scratch again a year later, but it taught us an interesting lesson and I think made even clearer to us how important it was to tell the story the way we had always wanted. Some things just don't translate well in certain mediums.

I know someone could make a very entertaining series on the trials and tribulations of a groups' coast to coast bicycle adventure. And it could be "epic", and "dramatic", and packed with "cliff hangers" at every turn. But... Amanda and I have no interest to tell *that* story, we entertained the idea for a year, and I think now we would not do so again.

That's not to say we don't want Pedal to grow - it was just a side thought I had from reading Bill's comment.

So, I would agree that thinking about how to best prepare your project to "grow" or to "scale" is important - and easier said than done, but it's even more important to know as early on as possible "how" you want it to grow. For Amanda and I, having not put much thought into that in the early planning stages, let us get side-tracked.


One aspect of the project that we've given a lot of thought to before the fact, is the 64 Days series we've been releasing. We know that at one point, it will break off onto it's own as well as support the feature film. And we would be far more open to re-packing those episodes - but the film, I believe we're concrete on.

But having said that, don't be afraid to take risk and experiment with opportunities that come along. I suppose this post doesn't have a lot of answers, it's just been something that's been on my mind since reading Bill's post.

Episode eight: 64 days - part 3

Episode Eight: 64 Days - Part 3 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

so this is episode 8. initially we planned on making this 3 parts. first the story of our break-up, followed by the story of our relationship, and ending with the decision for me to continue working on pedal. a few days ago we decided to end it after the 2nd part. mostly because it was getting too long. we plan on adding the 3rd part to a future episode, most likely episode 9.

i have to say that mike and i are both very worried about this episode. i am normally pretty shy and get very awkward in front of the camera.. and although i have a lot of face time in this episode, that's not what i'm worried about. i'm happy to say.. after this episode, i think i'm finally starting to get over that and warm up to the camera. i'm pretty happy with my camera time and our voice overs. so, no.. that's not what worries me.

i can't speak for mike and i'm not sure exactly what his worries are, probably something like, people won't like this episode as much as the last two. but for me, i think of this episode as the story of one of the most important times in my life and i just want it to be perfect, and i don't think that it is. i'm afraid it was rushed, i'm afraid things were over looked, i'm afraid it might be boring.

so.. that's that. i hope i'm wrong. i look forward to your honest comments.

needlessly so

Yay, it’s my first official project pedal blog post! (Mike made me say that).



So, we wanted to talk about the overall tone of the last two episodes. We have gotten some really great feed back. We are so overwhelmed and thankful for the incredibly kind things some of you have said. I can’t begin to tell you just how happy and relieved I am that our episodes are touching people the way we’d always hoped.

I also want to respond to some of the other comments we’ve received about the episodes being so “heavy, solemn,” or “mellow dramatic.” First of all, we really appreciate these comments as well; they let us know what we can be doing better. That’s one of the biggest reasons we started this website. So thank you very much for bringing this up.

It’s true, they have been a bit heavy, but I don’t believe that they are needlessly so. I believe there is a reason behind every creative choice we make. As the story unfolds, the audience will learn these reasons.

Episode 6 starts off very heavy, the reason for this is that we were trying to convey exactly how Mike felt during the months immediately following our return from filming. Letting everything sink in and returning to normal life was hard enough on it’s own, even for Larry and I, but for Mike the pressure of writing… finding the words... explaining what had happened…

The ‘64 days’ episodes are very personal to Mike and I. They tell the story of what we experienced while on the road filming last summer. Living out of a van for 2.5 months, sharing a tent, while trying like hell to make something out of our more than 3 years of preparations and hard work. And all of this after just ending a nearly 5 year romantic relationship. So, yeah, it was pretty intense.

Cross-country biking is intense. It is fun, and difficult and freeing, and a life changing experience, one you’ll never forget. These episodes are not about biking. These episodes are about us… and our struggles. They are about our trial and error experience of making a film with no previous experience. They are about our relationships, and emotions. These episodes are about our adventure.

This is one of my favorite comments from Ivan:

Riding a bike is just a metaphor, right? Your movie is really about life, it's about living it, giving, sharing, enjoying, meeting, and looking back.

Ever since Mike and I met, everything for us has seemed to come in the form of trips. That constant theme of the road… a perfect metaphor. On a bike or in a car. We fell in love while driving from Michigan to New York and past the atlantic ocean. We took a leap and left our lives in Michigan and followed our dreams to California. We grew and experienced adventure together biking up the pacific coast from Santa Monica to Seattle. Then there’s the road trip that ultimately led to our brake-up and of course, this trip. This is our life, really. This is our journey. It’s not always so serious. We laugh too. You just have to wait and see.