photo and caption via Vu Bui Watched mike’s film rough cut For Thousands of Miles. Made notes but wow great stuff!!! Lan and Vu talked me - aka, peer pressured me - into playing the current edit of FToM. Vu had just purchased a brand new Moleskin journal, I guess he had never owned one before, and this page of notes on the film was the first thing he decided to write down. This brings the total number of people who seen a fairly close-to-final edit to: 7. I’ve received some really terrific feedback from these small mostly one-on-one screenings and I’m excited to make a handful of changes to the timeline before opening up screenings to other people. 
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photo and caption via Vu Bui

Watched mike’s film rough cut For Thousands of Miles. Made notes but wow great stuff!!!

Lan and Vu talked me - aka, peer pressured me - into playing the current edit of FToM. Vu had just purchased a brand new Moleskin journal, I guess he had never owned one before, and this page of notes on the film was the first thing he decided to write down. This brings the total number of people who seen a fairly close-to-final edit to: 7. I’ve received some really terrific feedback from these small mostly one-on-one screenings and I’m excited to make a handful of changes to the timeline before opening up screenings to other people. 

A Straight Line

All of this really started in December, Nathan Kane sent me a 25 minute-long video-letter. There was something specific that resulted from Nathan’s very personal and honest letter, and I admit, I’ve been struggling to find a word to best describe that something, but in any case, one word or not, that something is where the following started. 

On November 27th, I posted a production update that finally talked publicly about the roadmap that Amanda, Vu and myself had worked out during a lunch weeks before - yes, Nov 27th is before December which means all of this, whatever this turns out to be, started in November, but no, feelings don’t always play out linearly - it was another sixteen days before Nathan recorded his video-letter, but the conditions had been building. 

In short - and because the video-letter was sent in private - Nathan went into details about how he first came across FToM, how he related to the project and how recent decisions were influenced in part because of the film. 

I’ve struggled for as long as I can remember with this idea of inspiring a total stranger - maybe that’s not something normal and I should talk to someone about it more, maybe everyone at some point finds it hard to imagine another person giving two shits about your creative work, and maybe that wall I’ve put between FToM and other people’s reaction fell apart when watching Nathan speak - all the hard word that Amanda and I had put into our box of miniDV tapes and all the pages I’ve scribbled out and thrown away… that they actually moved another person’s life in a noticeable direction. Nathan is not the first person to say that the project has moved them or played a role in a decision they’ve made, and I keep those emails and comments in mind as often as possible because it pushes me forward and reminds me of everyone who moved me to start FToM when it was just barely an idea. Perhaps Nathan’s letter just said the right things at the right time and it knocked an idea loose that’s been, before now, easier to overlook. 

I felt responsible, for the lack of a better word, because I saw that what motivates me most about FToM moved another person a great deal - and that is something I am so, so grateful for, and it has come with this desperation not to let anyone down who has given me the benefit of the doubt as a first time filmmaker. I just kept thinking: “Don’t fuck this up. Don’t fuck this up. Don’t fuck this up.“ 

But, before I get too deep into that, I want to go back to Nov 27th above, I had been following the plan the three of us laid out, I was writing and re-writing and expanding on our outline, but I wasn’t moving fast enough; not fast enough just for the sake of being faster, but at a pace that dragged on in the way that only wrong-directions drag on, I was waiting for something or someone to confirm that I had taken a wrong turn. I should have noticed something was wrong sooner, but I didn’t. 

Every moment at my typewriter felt awkward, as if someone was leaning over my shoulder waiting for me to key the next letter. Later, I would realize that someone was the film - waiting impatiently for me to pick up where I had left off - I had edited quite a large chunk of the film after moving from LA to Ypsi, where Erica helped support the both of us while I finished the script over the next year, during which I spent less and less time looking at the film’s timeline in Final Cut. I had reached a point in editing where I needed more narrative structure before I could really make a decision to which clip went after the next, one foot before the other, so Amanda and I worked only on the script, but, by the time the script was written, I had grown somewhat terrified of these last steps. 

The Kickstarter launched last September was a product of this - true, raising the full $26,000 would have removed many of the hurdles still left - it would have been an amazing weight off, but to be honest, the film has almost never had that kind of pressure-free environment, and there’s no reason all the risk should go out the window in these last months of the project. It is important I continue to move forward whether I have the means to do so or not. 

Erica and I talked about the project two weeks ago for nearly three hours - she was worried that I was creating more problems than I was solving, those weren’t her exact words, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s what I took away from our conversation - that my worries about sound and grading and narration and etc, were, yes, legitimate concerns, but my being as caught up in them as I’ve been was holding me back unnecessarily. I was looking too far down the road. 

Last Friday I dropped by Blip HQs to catch up with Steve Woolf and Rick Rey - I was very, very curious about a project Steve had briefly mentioned several episodes ago on New Mediacracy, but ended up spending a great deal of time being pressed by Rick and Steve on the film: where was it at, where was it going, what was holding me back, what needed to happen still to move on? In the end, Steve’s main thread of advice was, “Mike, get out of your own way” - and Rick’s main advice was, “what is the straightest line for you finishing this film?”. This is not to say that 64 Days always was and will be a distraction, or a way for me to hide from the film, writing and releasing the first 4 of 8 parts, when Amanda and I did, was a vitally important part of this whole process - it allowed me to experiment with story structures that were later written into the FToM script, more importantly, it gave us confidence when we needed it most. 

And so, there was the video-letter from Nathan, the conversation about worry with Erica, and the talk with Steve and Rick about straight lines - all these things on their own could have lead to me this place eventually, but the three of them occurring so close together knocked apart any chance of procrastinating another day. At this moment, I need to be working towards a finished rough cut. That’s it. 

No more distractions, no more not moving forward until everything is perfectly in it’s place. Enough of it. I have a script in front of me that I am proud of, I have a timeline in front of me that is terribly in neglect. The rough edit of FToM is priority - it is my straight line. It is important I continue to move forward whether I have the means to do so or not. 

Recently, I mentioned that Vu, Amanda and I had a meeting to plan out the project’s immediate next steps - we have yet to discus those steps openly, and I wanted to change that tonight. The basic outline of our plan is as follows:  Complete and hold the last 4 parts of our behind-the-scenes series, 64 Days.  Reschedule our remaining post-production areas: editing, narration, grading, sound - budget a funding campaign within Kickstarter.  Launch part 5 of 64 Days, launch Kickstarter campaign. Also release parts 6 and 7 during two-month campaign. We would like to do something special for the last part of 64 Days, we have yet to fully decide what that will be.  I have pages of notes and breakdowns that branch off of this basic approach, but in short, we believe that 64 Days is our most valuable tool for outreach, and we hope to have a real chance at reaching new people through the series, as well as inspiring those of you who have been with us for the long-haul, and using that momentum to finish the feature-film.  If you have any questions or ideas, we would love to hear them. I will be slowly opening up our project’s public roadmap soon, if you are interested in early access to the mindmap, please let me know and I can send you an invite. 
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Recently, I mentioned that Vu, Amanda and I had a meeting to plan out the project’s immediate next steps - we have yet to discus those steps openly, and I wanted to change that tonight. The basic outline of our plan is as follows: 

  • Complete and hold the last 4 parts of our behind-the-scenes series, 64 Days. 
  • Reschedule our remaining post-production areas: editing, narration, grading, sound - budget a funding campaign within Kickstarter. 
  • Launch part 5 of 64 Days, launch Kickstarter campaign. Also release parts 6 and 7 during two-month campaign. We would like to do something special for the last part of 64 Days, we have yet to fully decide what that will be. 

I have pages of notes and breakdowns that branch off of this basic approach, but in short, we believe that 64 Days is our most valuable tool for outreach, and we hope to have a real chance at reaching new people through the series, as well as inspiring those of you who have been with us for the long-haul, and using that momentum to finish the feature-film. 

If you have any questions or ideas, we would love to hear them. I will be slowly opening up our project’s public roadmap soon, if you are interested in early access to the mindmap, please let me know and I can send you an invite. 

the 1st official FToM meeting since arriving back in LA

Last Saturday Amanda and I met with Vu to eat Wurstkuche sausages and, more important, discuss FToM. The last two months have been a mess for me, at least on a personal level, I’ve moved 3 times between the states of Michigan, Kentucky and California… I watched Erica have to say goodbye to her Grandmother… and some other things that *are* personal, so perhaps they belong in another post on another blog. But!, our meeting felt really great to have - it was exciting to have someone that has a different perspective on the project, someone who has been looking at it from the outside for as long as the film has existed. 

Some of you might remember that a late-night phone-call with Vu, back in July, prompted this video-update and also inspired the planing of a new Kickstarter campaign. In mid-September I spent 10 days here in LA living out of a suitcase and working for Blip.tv - during that time Vu and I were supposed to sit down and talk about FToM, but I unexpectedly rushed back to Kentucky for a funeral before that meeting happened. It took another two weeks in which my Dad was re-married, and Erica and I unloaded and then re-reloaded all our belonging into a uHaul trailer for a 2,000 drive west. If anything, this meeting was long, long overdue. 

We talked about the three areas of the project where I feel most focused: the film, outreach, and funding - I mentioned these three areas in a recent post where I opted for opening up the film’s roadmap publicly; which would allow anyone to not only review and discuss our goals and focus, but actually make edits to the roadmap - which for those of you who showed interest in that, we will be opening that up for everyone to see very shortly. 

In the meantime, I wanted to go over what we decided during our meeting - the approach we are taking is to finish writing the following 3 (out of 4) remaining parts to our behind-the-scenes series, 64 Days, by the end of this year. None of these 3 parts will be released though until near March, sometime just before SXSW. We are doing this to release the parts alongside a re-thought-out and re-launched Kickstarter campaign. This approach is going to be a real challenge for us - for myself especially, this month I am currently working three different editing jobs to make ends meet, moving across the country has a tendency to put a hurt on savings-accounts - and following that will be December, which is going to require a lot of bah!-humbug on my part. This is a large shift in the film’s approach from last Sept - I’ve been so anxious and determined and stubborn about continuing to make progress on FToM, that the project as a whole hasn’t been able to move forward. That’s going to change. 

The last few weeks have been full of late nights and looking-back on the last six years of this project. I have a handful of papers on my desk that are covered with timelines and budgets and breakdowns. During Amanda and I’s last Skype meeting, we went over in detail, page-by-page, the film’s script, breaking down each scene or thought into a schedule. One that will bring FToM to a finished edit by December of this year (the edit will be considered rough still - and from that point it will immediately move through select one-on-one screenings for feedback). In total there are 47 days of editing ahead, followed by revisions - that schedule and it’s attainability by December rely on a few major events in the next two months, which I will get to in a moment. But first:  On top of focusing heavily on FToM’s schedule, we have also been putting a great deal of thought into what we are building, and what we want the project as a whole to look like come it’s hopeful release shortly after the new year. From scribbled notes on scrap pages, to finer step-by-step hurdles, to a flexible plan that lays out clearly how to push all connecting pieces of the film forward at the same time.  We have separated the project into three main branches: The Film, Outreach, Funding. The roadmap that brings FToM to a finished first-edit by December is an ambitious one… one that will require, between the months of October and December, a full-time 60 hours a week commitment. It is one that will include a release of 64 Days part 5 in September, and then the remaining parts 6, 7 and 8 during the months of January and February. It is also one that will make use of request from people interested in seeing FToM - whether in a theater, at a local event, or in the privacy of their living rooms.  When I spoke on the phone with Vu several weeks ago, I was, as I’ve mentioned here on the blog, feeling disposable… uninspired… lost. And I hope he understands what an important push he gave me that night. His encouragement to set a goal that would put tremendous pressure on the film was very much needed - and his persuasion in my securing public support for such a goal is, above anything else, what I was most scared of approaching.  At stages of this film in the last few months, I suppose I’ve expected the remaining needed funds to come from finishing grants or larger investor. Despite my being adamant to *everyone* I speak with about outreach - and the importance of a site like Kickstarter for filtering out people who are truly serious and behind your work - I was terrified in reaching out publicly.  The last week I’ve been trying to understand why I was so scared… perhaps it’s because at every stage up until this point, people were helping to support another small step forward, and this campaign would be much more than that. It would be a commitment to complete the film. We have inched our ways forward for long enough, this would be the last half-mile of a 5k race… nothing left to do now but dig down deep and push as hard as we can towards the finish.  I’ve thought about this moment for years - I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be 6 months away from release… in the room next to where I’m sitting now is a milk crate full of hard-drives, those hard-drives contain years of work and footage… and above that milk crate on my work-desk is a script that Amanda and I have poured everything into. I have never, at any other point during this film, been so terrified and anxious and happy and confident. We are excited to share the story we’ve scripted - and I’m excited to finish bringing that story from the page to the screen.  More details to come soon - we are aiming to launch of the KSR campaign in early August. More than ever we need your comments and feedback and questions - we want to be sure we make the most of the next several months and we can not do that alone!  Note * One of the most important things we’ll be stressing in this campaign is we are reaching out to all new people. We’re designing much of the rewards to encourage this and want to be clear in saying: so many of you have helped support FToM in the past - you have brought us to where we are today - and this campaign is as much about building interest for the release as it is about funding the expediting of that release. Our highest hope is that every individual name listed under KSR backers will be one we’ve never seen before. 
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The last few weeks have been full of late nights and looking-back on the last six years of this project. I have a handful of papers on my desk that are covered with timelines and budgets and breakdowns.

During Amanda and I’s last Skype meeting, we went over in detail, page-by-page, the film’s script, breaking down each scene or thought into a schedule. One that will bring FToM to a finished edit by December of this year (the edit will be considered rough still - and from that point it will immediately move through select one-on-one screenings for feedback).

In total there are 47 days of editing ahead, followed by revisions - that schedule and it’s attainability by December rely on a few major events in the next two months, which I will get to in a moment. But first: 

On top of focusing heavily on FToM’s schedule, we have also been putting a great deal of thought into what we are building, and what we want the project as a whole to look like come it’s hopeful release shortly after the new year. From scribbled notes on scrap pages, to finer step-by-step hurdles, to a flexible plan that lays out clearly how to push all connecting pieces of the film forward at the same time. 

We have separated the project into three main branches: The Film, Outreach, Funding. The roadmap that brings FToM to a finished first-edit by December is an ambitious one… one that will require, between the months of October and December, a full-time 60 hours a week commitment. It is one that will include a release of 64 Days part 5 in September, and then the remaining parts 6, 7 and 8 during the months of January and February. It is also one that will make use of request from people interested in seeing FToM - whether in a theater, at a local event, or in the privacy of their living rooms. 

When I spoke on the phone with Vu several weeks ago, I was, as I’ve mentioned here on the blog, feeling disposable… uninspired… lost. And I hope he understands what an important push he gave me that night. His encouragement to set a goal that would put tremendous pressure on the film was very much needed - and his persuasion in my securing public support for such a goal is, above anything else, what I was most scared of approaching. 

At stages of this film in the last few months, I suppose I’ve expected the remaining needed funds to come from finishing grants or larger investor. Despite my being adamant to *everyone* I speak with about outreach - and the importance of a site like Kickstarter for filtering out people who are truly serious and behind your work - I was terrified in reaching out publicly. 

The last week I’ve been trying to understand why I was so scared… perhaps it’s because at every stage up until this point, people were helping to support another small step forward, and this campaign would be much more than that. It would be a commitment to complete the film. We have inched our ways forward for long enough, this would be the last half-mile of a 5k race… nothing left to do now but dig down deep and push as hard as we can towards the finish. 

I’ve thought about this moment for years - I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be 6 months away from release… in the room next to where I’m sitting now is a milk crate full of hard-drives, those hard-drives contain years of work and footage… and above that milk crate on my work-desk is a script that Amanda and I have poured everything into. I have never, at any other point during this film, been so terrified and anxious and happy and confident. We are excited to share the story we’ve scripted - and I’m excited to finish bringing that story from the page to the screen. 

More details to come soon - we are aiming to launch of the KSR campaign in early August. More than ever we need your comments and feedback and questions - we want to be sure we make the most of the next several months and we can not do that alone! 

Note * One of the most important things we’ll be stressing in this campaign is we are reaching out to all new people. We’re designing much of the rewards to encourage this and want to be clear in saying: so many of you have helped support FToM in the past - you have brought us to where we are today - and this campaign is as much about building interest for the release as it is about funding the expediting of that release. Our highest hope is that every individual name listed under KSR backers will be one we’ve never seen before. 

Several nights ago, I grabbed my camera and felt inspired to drive to Ann Arbor, park behind the State, and climb up on the roofs to record a video update for FToM. 

I suppose the reason I wanted to do so was because it’s been about 5 years since I’ve been up there, and I used to climb up there to think and get away and be alone. While up there at 2 or 4 in the morning, I would spend a lot of time thinking about storytelling and how I wanted to go about achieving that interest. 

The other night felt like a good time to revisit that spot - I think, or I hope, I’ve come a long ways since then, and it *did* feel nice to be up there after so long. I had plans to record a very personal video talking about these things, and how my friend, Vu, helped motivate me when I was feeling very stuck and disposable. 

So, this video is the 1st few clips I filmed on my way up above the buildings overlooking State St., and then it cuts off because, the video I took is so dark it is completely black. Zero information there what-so-ever. Just blackness. Every once in a while in the 16 minutes of video I recorded you are able to see the streetlights blur past frame and make out my silhouette. But it’s really just frustrating more than anything to watch. I feel fairly lame about that. 

The point of the video I recorded was to a) talk about the importance to me of those rooftops, and to b) explain some of the very ambitious plans I have been working hard on since my conversation with Vu.

A plan that, for the time being, I’m referring to as the “6 months plan”. It’s too early to go into the details yet, and no, I didn’t go into details in the video, so you’re not missing anything now that would have been, but I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming and I’m anxious to share it all as soon as I’m confident it’s a realistic and attainable plan.