Teaser 009

Teaser 009 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

There's something about this clip that is heavily nostalgic for me. I can remember so clearly nights from my past bicycle trips, laying in my sleeping bag on the grass... hearing the bugs... watching the sun sink behind the horizon as I tried to finish writing in my journal about that day when I'm watching this.

teaser 008 - and 2,000 views later

Teaser 008 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I wish I had more shots like this... sadly the crane was snapped in half during the trip. But that's another story for another time. One that I'm sure will find it's way into an upcoming part of 64 Days.

I wanted to a) post our new teaser clip, since it's been two weeks (in case any of you are wondering when to expect new teasers, we post one every two weeks on sat or sun), and b) thank everyone for the help in using up the HD embeds we purchased (that I mentioned a few post ago here).

The thumbnail above was snapped on the 6th, so as I'm writing this we've actually pushed that number to 7,221 HD embed views left. Which means, since posting about helping us "burn through another 500 plays", we've actually used up 2,278 views! Again, that number is just counting HD embeds on blogs or sites *outside* of Vimeo. I can't say it enough; thanks so much to everyone who took a moment to write a post and embed our 64 Days shorts, it means a lot to us.

I thought since we still have several thousands HD embeds left - we might as well put them to good use. I really like the newest teaser, I wish I could just keep floating up, and up as Larry steadily climbs over the rolling hills. There's a lot of things about this shot that bring me back to the road in a very powerful, nostalgic way.

<object width="499" height="211"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2512858&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2512858&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="499" height="211"></embed></object>I updated the widget box above with the cut & paste code for teaser 008. So, if you like it too, feel free to pass it along.

teaser 007

Teaser 007 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

This was still in Washington... probably only 3 or 4 days into the trip. It was a very beautiful area... big skies... endless evergreens... slow climbing hills.

I remember when logging and tagging this footage - just how much we captured here... I have tons and tons of wide open shots, tons of close ups of everything from Larry... to evergreens... to chipmunks :)

teaser 006

Teaser 006 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

This was one of the rare days that the wind didn't blow directly into Larry's face... he could really fly when he wasn't the only object in the way of the wind ripping across miles of field...

I love this part of the country - the big sky, the endless green. It's all so flat and boring and unchanging... but something about it really eats away at you after a trip.

Teaser 005

Teaser 005 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

This day was a really long, slow climb for Larry - the hills just kept winding their way through the evergreens and after every turn, was another upward slope.

We pulled off the road after a while and walked around on a hill-side. Where we took this shot, and tons of other ones. We used all of our equipment on that hill: our Fx1 (with the 35kit), the Z1u, and Olivier's 16mm.

It was a beautiful spot - and I hope to go back and sit there one day... just take in the view.

teaser 004

Teaser 004 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I know this teaser has no bikes, and no Larry. But I wanted to use a shot that was more from Larry's POV. This was taken in Glacier Park, Montana by Olivier - Larry was coming down from Logan's pass and we & the crew pulled off the road just before Lake McDonald to lay in the sun.

Logan's pass was actually closed when we were here, if I remember right, snow had washed out the road and it would be another month before it was open to the public. But Larry, being the machine that he is, knowingly rode out of his way and up the west-half of the mountain range, just to turn back around at the top, and then back-track through Glacier. Took him the whole day. I miss this spot, I hope I get to go back soon.

I Miss Everything About This Shot

Teaser 002 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I believe Olivier shot this with the SGPro 35 Kit and the crew's FX1... we had Amanda's 300 zoom lens mounted (which was a lot of fun to film with).

We waited at the highest switch-back in Cascades National Park for Larry to pass and ride down into the valley. We took a lot of footage from this ledge, it was a very beautiful spot to spend an hour.

Amanda was hoping our 2nd teaser would be a clip from an interview we just transcribed, but I had this as a backup, and she hadn't gotten a chance to come over and tell me which section she wanted.

On a side note, the title for this post: I miss everything about this shot - is just referring to all the little things I remember about standing on that cliff, the temperature, the smell that comes off snow-capped mountains and the mist from the waterfalls. I miss watching Larry pass by... I miss the crew. Just everything.

I know this post is short... perhaps a little *too* short. But I'm hoping to get some writing done tonight.

such a tease

Teaser 001 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

I recorded a weekly-update vlog two nights ago, but I literally don't have any USB ports left open right now, and all the drives are busy backing up at the moment, so I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow to post it. Not that anyone is holding their breath I'm sure, but still.

I have the next five days off and I plan on shacking up in my room for most of it writing more of Episode 9, which Amanda and I are embarrassingly aware has taken way, way too long to release. I guess we lost the balance we had going for 6, 7 and 8 and shifted our energy onto the film. We *have* been meeting a lot to discus where all the remaining episodes are heading, as well as the film.

I mostly wanted to write this quick post to share our first official "teaser" of 'For Thousands of Miles', I have several timelines in Final Cut for the film, most of them are simply for SmoothCam preparation, others are for other things like clips that need to be trimmed up and re-exported for what-ever reason... I have a lot of random clips scattered around my extra timelines and we thought it would be fun to share them.

So we're hoping every two weeks to post another clip - it's Amanda's turn to pick the next clip, and she's leaning towards something funny, so we'll see. The clip above is very short, I wanted it longer, but Amanda talked me down on the time. So... it's very much a teaser. Let us know what you're interested in seeing and we'll post those clips first.