Ryan: A Whole lot of Progress

So it has been a long time since I blogged, but lets catch you up to the magnificent progress we have made in the past couple of months. Lets see. We threw a fund raiser to make some money for post production - There were two bands, flying dog beer, Bd's mongolian Grill, Chipotle, Clif bar, Prizes, games, the debut of our newly cut trailer, and so much fun, I can't even begin to explain. I want to express my deepest gratitude for both the people who helped put the event together and the people who came to support this project. The money that came from the fund raiser will help us make the next steps in the completion of this project, and I am super excited for this to happen!

As far as the project goes, we have nearly twenty people working together to help take the next steps toward the feature known as Biking The States: An Exploration of Self and Country. Our editors have completed rough cuts for four scenes which is nearly half way through the first Act of our film. Our transcribers have managed to transcribe several very important interviews that will allow us to create our fluid narrative voice for the film, our composers have put together several jamming songs specific to the bike trip, and our new partnership with Nothing Without a Company is blossoming into something wonderful. Our animator has created some stellar concept art, and the website has never looked better. 

Although the past couple of months have been extremely rewarding, we can't stop pushing. What else do we have in store you ask? Well, we are cutting a short movie, about 25 minutes long that will capture the themes and the story of our film. It will be submitted to film festivals in order to raise awareness of our project, and hopefully assist in raising money to help complete the feature film. In the mean time, we will continue our approach with our wonderful help on the road to constant progress. We are searching out grants and funding, and have begun a marketing push to keep people as excited about this project as we are. 

Spread the word. Spread the love. Ride a bike and keep living the adventure!

Sincerely,

Ryan C. Kolegas

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Scott: The First Bike Ride

So, I went on my first bike ride yesterday. A brisk, windy, twenty-four mile ride in the midst of a cold I'd acquired because of allergies. I got home to hack up a lung and incessantly blow my nose. Twenty-four tissues later (one for each mile) and I was almost back to normal. Was it the perfect bike ride? Yes.

The trip from Saline to Clinton and back was a reminder of how frail I am and why the winter is the bane of my existence. After not setting a foot on a bike for far too long, I have inner thighs that are no longer immune to chafing and a butt that hasn't built up a resistance to bruising quite yet. These are things I had taken for granted when we had three months of straight riding, but now I cannot imagine spending eight hours on a small bicycle seat a day.

One day it's warm. The next, cold. I can't wait for all the trees to have bloomed and 70 degree mornings - a day when I have my sexy legs and biker tan back. However, right now I feel I've become rather doughy. I no longer have the hard "overcooked cookies" body I once had, but I can't wait to get that back. You know, because when you cook that flabby dough for a long time, it becomes rock hard cookie. I'm going to cook my body in the oven of life as soon as the pollen has cleared. It brings tears to my eyes when I take it all in - but that may just be the various trees, grasses, and weeds.

I've started to finish the rundowns to the best of my recollection. Some details have been diluted and I look at some of the things I had written and wonder "What the hell was I talking about?" Other headlines bring back so many great memories. The rundowns at the end of the trip may have to be a collaboration with the other riders to fill in any blanks and get different perspectives through the big cities. (Some of the best "...and that's how Stu died." moments were in the last couple of days, as were some of the best fast food moments.)

Anyway, as far as the music is concerned. It's getting there. I wish I had more time to spend on it. Soon I'll have a cut of some scenes to compose to, and if I ever figure out a way to put samples of songs on this blog, I will. Until then. Enjoy life, and get out riding.

Scott

I'm going to try and write more too. Hopefully this won't be one of my empty promises. I plan on keeping it, but sometimes the inspiration just doesn't come.

All the latest with Matt.

Well, some of the latest. Ryan, one of our producers and of course a rider in the film and good friend of all of us, has been riding me to get on here and write. I noticed a significant gap in blogging, so I figure now's the time.

Life's been pretty sweet since the ride ended and I moved to San Diego. A major influence in getting me to move here was the biking trip making me want to have the ability to ride year round. Finances were tough after taking almost four months off of work, then moving, then needing to find a job, so I actually haven't been able to get a bike of my own until just a week ago. I need to patch the tire, which has a large gouge in it, but it was free, so I'm not complaining. I have begun to regret giving my mountain bike away, along with all my other personal possessions, as I had no idea the economy would crash whilst we were riding that summer. My plan all along was to have a job that would make it fairly easy to obtain much of these things again, but that was not the case. Nonetheless, the weather, the people, the terrain, the city of San Diego is so nice, pretty much all year round, that I feel little other than contentment and happiness every day. But don't tell anyone. I can't have the whole nation moving down here and ruining my paradise. I've done a lot of camping, hiking, swimming, and am starting surfing and kayaking. There's beautiful athletic people all over the beaches and something to do almost any day of the week, from concerts to events to just a bit of beach volleyball. I've done a bit of crouquet and bacci ball type stuff as well, rounding out my older person sports, just in case grandpa wants to put some money down on a shuffle board tournament or what such things.

With all that's going on it's difficult to keep up with my obligation to keeping up with the website, and I'm even having difficulty keeping in shape after having been biking for four months straight all day pretty much every day. I often dream of doing another biking trip. It was stressful at the time, but looking back, it was so nice to have only one commitment; getting up and peddling in a general direction until the sun went down.

I'm still sifting through thousands of photos, so expect to see more and more added to the photo galleries in the coming month. I'm off now, as I have to start work in about half an hour, but expect to hear more from me as I want to get back into the swing of this. And I'll try to add more humor in the coming blogs, this one was a bit too "how do you do?".

A brief introduction

Just wanted to say hi to the interwebs and briefly introduce myself. My name is Shaun and I have been doing some editing for the BTS team. I am getting pretty close to finishing out the scene in beautiful Eugene, Oregon and I can't wait to start work on my home state of Montana!

A bit about myself...

I am a producer at Flashpoint Academy in downtown Chicago where I focus on shooting and editing projects for the school. It is a great place to work and a fantastic school.

I am also a founding member of The Adventurous Gentlepersons Consortium and creator of Adventurous Gentlepersons Premium Moustache Wax.

Cheers!

Shaun

Mark, Cinematographer: spring is here and new beginnings abound

So today I woke up before dawn, stretched, and pulled my bike out from its winter hibernation. I made my way the two blocks to the lake front and started on my way to work, the sunrise this morning was incredible! The pink and purple hues reflected in the water made the 35 degree weather almost seem like 40. I am completely out of shape from last years bike riding and so while the ride to work didn't kick my ass the one home did, especially with the head wind, ugh! After I got home and had a shower and some food I went over to Iron Cycles and got a new chain and bike lock, the people who work there are great, very helpful and friendly.

But enough about me biking, I have been working on getting out a new teaser and trailer for the film and am getting closer to finishing the teaser soon. I am also very excited about the upcoming fundraiser, even if it is 2 months out, and about all the great people that we have on board helping us now. At the end of the trip it was Just Me, Ryan, and Adam working on the film, although we did have Matt working on updating the website also and he has put in a lot of great work on that front. We are so glad to have Jill back helping us with event coordinating again, and also to be in association with the Non for profit theater company NWaC (Nothing Without a Company). Also we have some fantastic editors working with us now; Paul Yu, Shaun Hildner, and Bobby Senones; as well as our interns; Mike Matthews and Dave Tiritilli; transcribers; Ed Cooper, Nick Resendiz, and Ali Orielly; Animator Ralph Browne; and Scott and Stu composing Music. Thank you to all of you as well as everyone else who has been helping us and supporting us in our push to make this film.

Mark Barry

WEED"S MAY 15th EVENT ANNOUNCED

It is offical, Weed's on Weed St. has agreed to host us for the May 15th event 2-5pm. We have some great events in store for you, most of last year's sponsors are back, as well as live entertainment, biking games, quiz, raffle, and a bike ride from a local shop to Weeds! Some things to check out...

http://www.iron-cycles.com/

http://www.thechainlink.org/

http://www.nothingwithoutacompany.com/

Paul: just one of the editors

So, Ryan told everybody to write on this blog like forever ago, and now I just got the motivation to do it.

I got involved with this project thanks to Mark Barry, who's one of the filmmakers, who also goes to LaSalle Street Church with me. I had the first official meeting with Ryan and Mark the first of February, 2010 (I put the year because we all know this project has been going on for a while now). They went over the outline with me and gave me the footage for scene 1: Astoria. I've been editing the scene since then.

I basically know the riders now, even though I've only met Ryan personally. It'll be weird to see them in the future and be like, I know pretty much everything about you and you know nothing about me. Its weird. I have this special bond with each rider and they don't even know it. Sad.

Other than that, I think this is an exciting project because I've talked about the similar idea with college friends, making a documentary of us biking the states, but I guess the idea has already been done. I enjoy editing this video very much because of the shots they have. I think they are beautiful. I've been doing video editing on FCP for about 5 years now, since high school. It is also kinda my major, so... what else? I'm pretty much done working on scene 1 and ready to move on to a new scene.

And yes, I have a mustache.

From: Jill Event Coordinator

Hello BTS fans!

I have some great news, we are gearing up for another exciting season of fun, fund-raisers, and BIKING!!! So here is the plan, Weed's Bar in near North Chicago has generously agreed to host us again this year so we are planning some super fun actives. We are also hoping to have our friends from Flying Dog Ales join us again this year. We will feed you, give you prizes and hopefully we will raise the money we need for the editing processes of this exciting project! We are planning mid-May, so keep checking for more details later this month.

Even more exciting news: Nothing Without a Company, Inc. a non-profit theater company has taken on BTS as a working project for 2010. This means so much to me because I can now say I have bridged the gap for my two loves Theater and Film. After our frustration with the theater world some of us friends got together and started NWaC to bring theater back to the people. As a sight specific theater co. we focus on the community and bring those issues to the people on the street for free with original works, song & dance, fight choreography, and film elements. BTS had a need for a non-profit umbrella, and I had a need to bring the film world into this theater company that myself and two other lovely ladies began and serve on the broad of directors. I am so happy to work together with these two groups for your entertainment!

I have known these BTS boys for five years now and I have dedicated my time for the second year because I love this project and these guys! They are awesome creative people that I hope will remember Jill when they make it! Take care fans, and don't forget to join us for the next BTS event in mid-May. KEEP CHECKING FOR DETAILS.

Sincerely,
Jill
BTS Events Coordinator

Ryan, Producer: THE BLOG IS UP!

These past couple of months have proven to be extremely productive. We have developed an incredible group of people who all have the goal of making this film great. I am grateful for our entire team, and I can't wait to throw our next fund raiser!

Biking The States for me has been a journey both on the bike and behind the camera. I still have not stopped learning from this trip and I am so impressed by the response we have gotten thus far. The fact that we have nearly twenty people contributing to this project simply because they believe in it is a guarantee that we will complete it.

I can't delve too much further than that right now, but I plan on blogging frequently throughout this post-production process.

Sincerely,

Ryan C. Kolegas