bad news + good news + other random thoughts

I've been holding my breath all week waiting for the follow email from Babelgum on where we stand in the online film festival, only to find out today, after checking their blog, that we didn't make the top-top cut. I thought it was a wee bit lazy of them to not email the top 10 finalist the judge's picks. But, oh well, we were *this* close to getting Spike Lee to watching an episode of Pedal. Perhaps next time.

Thanks again so much to everyone who voted and had everything to do with us getting as far as we did. I'm sure just being in the top 10 sent a lot of new people to this blog. And that's always a plus.


So, I suppose that was my bad news, I do have some good news though - but first, very quickly; I get Google alerts whenever the little magical robots that scour the internets find a new reference to "Project Pedal", and the other day I got this alert, it was so simple, but really, really flattering. Thanks, Lars!

Okay, the good news: tomorrow I'll be getting a paycheck from my new job (this is my 2nd check, my 1st one went all to rent) and as soon as it shows up in the mail, I'll be rushing to the nearest ATM, and then rushing back to get more hard-drive space! I can hardly wait. We have a little less than half the footage to finish importing, and Amanda has been helping me log and tag what we already have. I don't think we'll meet our original deadline for having all this imported and organized, but the money just wasn't there in time (for the space we needed).

I'm really anxious to see the last half of the trip's footage - there's a lot of shots I've been nervous about finally seeing, mostly the moving crane shots of Larry biking. I'm hoping out of the many hours I took (of that kind of shot), that there is at least one solid 10 minute one-take that works out for us. Or else... I will be very sad.

A Person Who Does Not Share

Coelho, a best-selling author, had the below to say when asked why he leaked his own books - including 'The Alchemist' - onto BitTorrent, a few FTP sites and Rapidshare.

“Since the dawn of time, human beings have felt the need to share - from food to art. Sharing is part of the human condition. A person who does not share is not only selfish, but bitter and alone...”

I like this man. Anyone out there disagree with what he did, or people sharing online in general?

The Results Are In

Sorry for being slow on writing about this news, I received an email a few days ago about our status with the Babelgum contest (the voting is now closed as of the 7th)... and I've just been slammed at work the last week. I probably should be sleeping now judging off how my body feels, but I can't wait any longer!


So, the news is, Episode Six made the top 10 videos in the Documentary category for Babelgum's Online Film Festival! I can't even find the words to properly thank each one of you out there who voted. I know this wasn't the easiest contest for people to participate in, and knowing that so many of you went through all the steps of downloading the software, installing it, signing up for an account, searching for our submission, et cetera; means the world to us.

We are really, really flattered - and really, really nervous. From this point, the top 10 list is handed off to a panel of judges, who narrow that down ever more.

It looks like we'll be finding out as early as next week whether or not we'll need to make plans to fly to Cannes, in France, to be awarded by Spike Lee himself! We're keeping our fingers crossed. Although, it doesn't look like I'll be able to attend if we are so lucky - I don't have a passport, and am not sure I could get one in time for the 20th of this month. But Amanda will be able to represent the both of us.

We'll keep everyone posted - no matter what happens, again, all your support has been so great. We really couldn't handle the pressures, and dead-ends of making this film without you. Thank you so much.

post production - week 21

celebrities who love pedal

The other morning, while I was stuck in the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic where the 101 meets the 405, I saw that I had an unlistened-to voicemail. Usually I am terrible about getting to them, they always build up to the point where my phone's inbox is full and I'm inevitably forced to spend an half an hour trying to catch up on messages people left weeks ago. I know, it's a terrible, terrible habit.

But I'm getting distracted, so I flipped open my phone, entered my pin, and listened as my old boss from NBC, Scott, told me to go onto Angela Kinsey's (who plays 'Angela Martin' on the Office) MySpace page, and read her most recent blog post. He then said "that's all I'm gonna say, just go check it out". I could tell from his voice that he was... a strange combination of excited, and a little beside himself.

So, I sat in traffic for another 30 minutes, and finally arrived at work in Venice. I started importing a tape into Final Cut, and took a moment to open up MySpace to see what Scott could be so excited about. I guess I didn't really know what to expect, I think I was waiting to see a video of the old NBC editing gang running around the set of the Office. But I didn't see anything like that, so I started to read.

It was only a few paragraphs down that I experienced some kind of mini-heart-attack, I stumbled up and backwards out of my chair, I felt like I could have jumped right through the roof... or passed right out, it was a toss up between the two.

Angela, from the Office, who just so happens to be one the most adorably-sweet people ever, said, on her blog, "I am loving this vidblog series on Vimeo.com called Project Pedal", then she left a link to Pedal's channel on Vimeo. It's official - I'm going to be on cloud 9 for the rest of year.


After I pulled myself together, I wrote Scott an email, asking if he happened to have anything to do with her knowing. I assumed he was filming some back-stage piece for NBC with Angela, and they got to talking, and somehow it came up. But he wrote back the next morning and said, as much as he would have liked to, he had nothing to do with it. It was just a crazy coincidence.

Which makes my head spin even more for some reason. I keep sitting around imaging Angela Kinsey, on set between shooting for the Office, watching an episode of Pedal and *actually* enjoying it (enough to flippin' blog about it). I wonder if she's ever shown Pam... or Dwight!? It's all too much!