Blogs of note from June 2004.

I'll write about our 3rd day of scouting when I have more than 20 minutes to sit down at the computer. But quickly, I wanted to post a few links for the footage & pictures of the route.

If you click here - you'll be taken to a library of video clips that were generally taken at key points in the ACA maps. Most are not much to look at - but that's half the point, to know which areas can be skipped during the four days of filming the pilot episode.

And if you click here - you'll be taken to a crude looking directory of the 500+ digital pictures. I have not had the time to organize these yet in a geographical way, like I mentioned earlier, but feel free to look around.

Also, the HD footage I took with my actual camcorder is not yet on my computer. I'll try to get to that tonight.

Originally posted at Project Pedal.

It's only 11 o'clock at night - but if I didn't have a clock in front of me, I'd guess it was 3 or 4 in the morning based on how exhausted I felt. I've been in the car - behind the wheel - all day since 4:30 this morning. Amanda is passed out beside me at the moment, we are parked behind a public library in Vallejo, California.

I'm too 'blah' right now to write a real post - but I did want to say a special thanks to my Dad for saving the day... but I'll have to get into why later.

We took a ridiculous amount of pictures and video today. We were stopping about every 5 or 10 miles to take notes and break out the cameras. So far it's been almost all work and no play.

I've created a panoramio account to post the pictures in a way that I think makes the most sense: geographically. And at some point, maybe not before we get back into LA, I'll create a video channel for our route-footage. Until then... my eyes weight a ton each... so, more on our adventures tomorrow.

After getting about 3 hours of sleep tonight - Amanda and I will wake up long before sunrise to get started on our scouting / road-trip. Wish us luck.

And on a completely unrelated note - here's two random links to our donation page for Pedal and Amanda's paypal page... my mentioning this has nothing to do with the fact that gas is suddenly over three dollars a gallon. Goodnight.

When Amanda and I went to sleep - this blue potted plant was sitting above the monitor on the ledge of our bedroom window, when we woke up, well... it wasn't.

I don't know how many of you out there noticed - but under the "movies archives" menu, there is now two new links: the first being the 'vlog channel' and the second being the 'shorts channel'. What are these links and what are channels?

Well, I'm still learning myself - about the channels that is, I know what the links are - a channel is almost exactly what it is on a TV, except it's a bit of an RSS feed, which means anyone can watch it... and you can put anything you want on it. It's 100% yours. Your own mini-TV broadcasting station, so to speak.

I mostly started experimenting with it because a friend of mine, Eric, and I are planning on starting a show together - he managed to land a deal with MTV, but they are turning out to be a real pain in the ass - and he's kind of decided to take his material and broadcast it online instead. That will teach 'em.


Actually... I'm waiting for something in the bedroom to finish rendering & exporting in Quicktime and then I need to go edit a commercial we filmed last week.


But back to the subject at hand: "channels". Click on the links and check them out, I think they're pretty nifty... and eventually they might completely replace the drop menu I have now for the video clips on caliblog. Maybe.

If you want to get the most out of the channels, I recommend clicking here and checking out the Democracy Player.

(PS) This video has been sitting on my desktop the last two weeks, I might as well post it here or I'll just keep putting it off. It's just a test I did with the time elapse.

In no real order of importance: Sorry, Haters, An Inconvenient Truth, Hard Candy, The Da Vinci Code, Tsotsi, Thank You For Smoking, I Am A Sex Addict, Marie Antoinette. Check 'em out.

Oh, I almost forgot about 'Brick'. Amanda and I are going to see that Saturday night.

Yes, yes, I could have come up with a more fitting song for this video - and I feel guilty for stealing from Yann Tiersen's score for 'Amelie'... it just doesn't feel right.

But in my defense, I didn't have much time to pick something before work, and seeing as how it took FCP three hours to render + export this 30 minute HD clip (Don't worry, it's only 90 seconds now), I felt rushed.


Also, on a side note, is a video post considered a "vlog" if there is no talking?

i Took nick to "my playroom" today. we had so much fun!

The embedded video below might look a little off, but it should work normal after you click it... I highly - very, very highly - recommend everyone watch this trailer...

Originally posted at Project Pedal...

One of the biggest undertakings for the pilot is planning out every last detail of the route. Having a number of options for camping sites each day, both for the cast of bicyclists as well as the crew members and their RV... having a long list of locations and landscapes to get on camera... etc.

This "to-do" is made much easier thanks to a few things: first off, the 'Adventure Cycling' maps that have been donated give us a detailed, bike-friendly, scenic route that is heavily travelled by other riders. But knowing exactly what roads we'll be using is only half the problem, I've never been on any of these roads, and granted, I will be personally driving the route before we begin filming in June. But thanks to Google Earth, I'll have a very good idea of what to expect before hand.



I've scanned each map section of the Western Express route and created image overlays to help me see exactly where the maps take us. Doing this allows to me to plan out shots from home that I can double-check later while doing the actual drive. For example:



Above is a fairly close-up shot of Cabrillo Hwy south of San Francisco, looking at this shot from a birds-eye angle I can tell this spot would make a great wideshot - having the bicyclists ride north-west on Cabrillo, while the crew, using a wide-lens and possibly a small crane, drives parallel with us from the parking lot at the bottom of the above picture. This would give us a great shot of the field directly behind us, the lines of crop stretching out into the high mountains in the background.


As I plan out the route in greater detail and also make more notes for possible shots, I'll create a network link that will allow readers of this site to eventually track our progress live during filming.

Originally posted at Project Pedal...

I was talking to Amanda the other day about the strange sort-of sub-emotion in knowing the pilot for 'Pedal' is 100%... short of some disaster.

There is the obvious excitement, anticipation, nervousness, etc - but there is another reality that reminds me much of the last days before my first bike trip, which is: I have the money I think I need, I have the equipment I think I need, I know the route I'm taking, there are no more obstacles for me to work around... it's finally time for me to "walk the walk", for the lack of a better analogy.


And I think there is an inherent fear in that kind of situation - it's always easier for a person to be "that close" to their goals, but some unforeseeable [or even easily foreseeable] obstacle kept them from getting their chance. It's when there is nothing standing in your way... and you don't reach your goal - that there is nowhere to shift the blame, and that's a hard failure to face.


Having said that: I told myself I would try to focus on the "to-do" list today, I'm sure things will be added as the project gets closer to June, and I'll do my best to keep you posted. Also, I won't go into details on each point - that would make for a very long and very boring post, I'll simply write down the rough-list and then dedicate individual post to each "to-do".

The route & crew "pit-stops" / camping sites
The equipment [which is actually not entirely up to me]
The exact dates
The loose story [yes 'Pedal' is a documentary, but for purposes of the pilot, we are staging a few details]
The cast
The music ["bike trip wish mix"]

Lower-ranking "to-do's":
The PR
Some website re-arangments / preparations

Stay tuned.

so last week i went to miami to visit my sister. my two cousins, natalie and hilarie, went too. we had a really great time. it was so nice to spend that much time with them. we haven't hung out like that since we were kids. they are sisters close in age like emily and i. we used to spend the night at their house everytime we went up north, which seemed like every weekend when i was little. anyway, we've all grown up and moved out and they both are married with kids now... it's just crazy. last christmas natalie and i were talking and i was saying how it had been 2 years since i'd seen any of my relatives on my dad's side (this was the first time i was seeing them since i'd moved to LA). i missed them. so she and i decided we should try to get together once a year, or so, on our own. this was the first of (hopefully) many such trips.

i was gone for about a week. unfortunately emily had school or work, for at least a couple hours, every day that we were there. but we still had fun. the weather was great! sunny and around 80 everyday. we went shopping, hung out at the beach, went out for dinner, and dessert. we went to a cool bar and stopped by a club for a minute. saturday was natalie's 30th birthday so we all get dressed up and went out. it was really fun. nat, hil and i went to key largo and got a hotel (emily couldn't go because of work) then we got up early to go snorkeling. it was awesome. it was my first time. i was so scared. it actually took me about 30 out of the 60 minutes i was in the water just to get used to breathing through the tube and keeping my eyes open under water... but when i finally did... it was really cool. i'm so glad i did it. :) yay me! after that we drove down to key west. hung out at the beach, shopped, had some margaritas, and watched the sunset. the whole way back to emily's in miami we just giggled and laughed like we were kids again. oh... so fun!

the only bad thing about the trip was that i missed tim's visit. i think he's really cool but I've only spent a very little bit of time with him. And since he's mike's best friend I've been waiting for he chance to get to know him better. Oh... At least he and mike had great time. I know mike was sad to see him go.

well... I took a few pics with my camera phone, they are all on flickr for your viewing pleasure. hilarie should be sending me a CD soon full of all of the pics she took with her digital camera, so when I get those i'll be sure to post them.

so long everyone.

I don't have much time to write tonight, I need to be up early for work tomorrow, and I'd still like to write a post on 'Pedal' before I go to sleep. But I wanted to at least leave a few links on some interesting news stories I stumbled across earlier today:

First off - the huge discovery of fossil animals found in Arctic Canada that provide a snapshot of the "missing link" for fish evolving into land animals.

Then there was a short story about Bill Nye, the science guy, upsetting a group while speaking at McLennan Community College. Nye first quoted Genesis 1:16, which reads: "God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars." Nye then went on to say, "the 'greater light,' is but one of countless stars and that the 'lesser light' is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light."

Apparently one woman got up saying, "We believe in a God!" as she left the room with three young children. I just thought that was extremely funny... and a little sad, but mostly funny.

Speaking of religion, there was a very important find in Egypt recently by National Geographic - the 'Gospel of Judas' surfaced after 1,700 years. Which goes into detail on how Jesus asked Judas to betray him... put's a new spin on things, doesn't it?


And the last story I'll save for later, if I get around to it tomorrow after my run, I might do another video-post and put in my 2 cents. Goodnight.

So - as I'm typing this - the walls, windows, desks, closet, door, bookshelves, ceiling fan, hanging plants, etc are all covered, top to bottom, with photocopied pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal. Yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

Amanda was out of town for a week, in Miami, visiting her sister. Justin and Mollye planned a little surprise for her... here is her reaction:
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go cry myself to sleep because I can't compete with Amanda's Jake Gyllenhaal fantasy.

While digging through the archives late last night, I found a few movies that somehow didn't make the "movies archives" menu. After adding them to the menu, I thought I'd make it extra-obvious by posting the clips.

The first one I found was our "Hollywood Hike" video from this time two years ago. The second movie was Amanda and I's "Three Years" trip to 'the rocks' for our anniversary.


I also noticed I had a few short clips on my computer that I never put on caliblog - there's the new 'Rolling Chair Productions' logo, and a "just for fun" cut of footage from our most recent bike trip along the Pacific coast. Enjoy.

Originally posted at Project Pedal.

It's 1 in the morning and I've been listening to 'Today I spoke to a Girl' by KingFisherG on repeat for the last 15 minutes... I seem hellbent on playing this song out.

This morning, well, technically yesterday morning (the 2nd) I drove Tim to LAX around 5:30 and said "goodbye". It was a lot of fun seeing him, and I wish he could have stayed longer, the weekend seemed to fly by. We spent the entire saturday hiking the Santa Monica Mountains and then climbing the face of a massive cliff alongside a 150+ foot waterfall... needless to say, a few muscles on my body are on the tight side.


Friday afternoon we met with Matt, the producer, in Pasadena for a late-lunch - looks like the pilot-episode for 'Pedal' is going to be shot as soon as I get a date & cast set up. Basically my to-do list for the next two months consist of: the new route, finding a time when all four of the cast & the crew can leave for 4 or 5 days, rounding up equipment, scouting locations, etc. After I get the first 80% of the planning under control, I take it to Matt and together we prepare the last 20%. I'm very excited.


The project has come along way in the past two years, and it still has a long road ahead of it... I think I was going somewhere with that sentence, but I'm too tired to finish a thought.

Originally posted at MOCKWORTHY

Get your fix: Special guests, Tim and Mollye, join Justin and Mike to mock "He-Man" [30.2 MBs, 01:45'39, mp3 format] or play in iTunes.

After thoughts: Yes, yes - I know, we didn't announce 'Masters of the Universe' before mocking it. This commentary was a bit last-minute though, you'll have to forgive us. Tim had flown out from Hawaii for a few days, and we originally planned on spending friday at the Getty Center.

The thing I loved most about this film is He-Man, played by Dolph Lundgren, has, at the max, about five lines in the movie. Lines including: "Good journey", "Enough talk", and "victory".

There really isn't much to say after-the-fact, the only thing this movie was good for was a laugh at it's expense.

Details on 'said' film: Tagline: A Battle Fought In The Stars. Now... Comes To Earth. Directed by: Gary Goddard Writing credits: David Odell, Stephen Tolkin Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Comedy Plot summary: A life-action feature film based on the popular cartoon kids show about a prince turned warrior named He-Man. (more) Cast overview: Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, Frank Langella as Skeletor, Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn, Billy Barty as Gwildor, Courteney Cox as Julie Winston Awards: 1988 , Nominated, Razzie Award, Worst Supporting Actor Billy Barty. 1988 , Won, Silver Scroll, Outstanding Achievement Gary Goddard.