The freedom of biking, the dream of a film

People speak of a sense of freedom riding a bike…  I usually feel something like that at the end of a ride when I am several blocks from home, heading downhill, knowing full well that food and drink is close by.   And perhaps I feel it when I just need to escape from a day of stress and suddenly, pedaling in the open air, everything seems calm again… to pound away at grief or laughing with friends, toiling up mountain roads, flying along a strait away, being on the bike does something to the soul…. and maybe it just deprives my brain of enough blood to create a sense of euphoria.

This statue was a father’s day gift to me and it beautifully captures the essence of freedom on a bike.  It just seems to say something more magical than my  describing the joy of reaching the end of a ride and being close to a chocolate milk.

I am beginning to think we might have something magical happening on the film.  Today I sat with Matt and Stacey, our post-production and music coordinator, listening to sample tracks she was considering for the film.  WOW.  That’s all I can say… Matt said it better, something about the palette of amazing music we were just presented with will allow us to take the film to an even greater place, something like that.  The point was that we have incredible music for the film.   The team that has assembled has done so because they believe in the project, not for any big pay (does not exist)… doubtfully for the food on set, but I think because they believe in the project and what we are trying to say.  And I think maybe a small bit because we are making this a wholly collaborative process, the film, music, art, editing, writing, casting, everyone is involved in discovering and deciding how to best create this film.

The main filming starts one month from today and I have been exploring what advice I can find from the great filmmakers.   Interestingly here are some statements from them:

SYDNEY POLLACK: “….there are basically two kinds of filmmakers..  Those who know and understand a truth they want to communicate to the world and those who are not quite sure what the answer to something is and who make the film as a way to try and find out.  That’s what I do.”

WIM WENDERS: “There are two ways of making a film, or, if you prefer, two reasons… the second consists of making the film to discover what you are attempting to say… and I have tried them both.”

PEDRO ALMODOVAR: “And I never know what the film is really about.  Often I understand it only when the film is completed.  And sometime’s I don’t understand it until I hear people’s comments.”

Could you imagine me going to potential investors for our film and telling them that I wanted to explore an idea by making a film I felt needed to made, although I was not sure I understood it yet.  I actually can imagine it.  I can also imagine the chance of me commandeering eight reindeer to circumnavigate the globe one night being a more likely event than those investors wanting to invest in a film I was making.

After so many years of rewriting this script and preparing to actually film, I can also imagine you would think we were ready to go with a specific list of how and what we are filming.   But really, that is the exploration taking place right now.  Even at this date, one month away from filming, I am still asking questions of the script that lead to “lightbulb” above head moments where I suddenly see the meaning in a scene, or recognize a better way to work a character.  In a recent discussion with our director of photography, Geno, we were able to omit an entire bike race from the movie.  But it was only through exploring all the themes in discussions that we arrived at these decisions.

Perhaps even more importantly, the great directors send a message to not only know what you are saying, what your theme is about, but to make it personal, intimate.   That might sound obvious, but it is not.  A director or film team could be handed a script and with brief preparation shoot it with standard shots, master, medium, close up and the reverse angles.   And at the end of the day the script will be off of the paper and on the screen.  It’s a film.  But to make it personal, the way that we can recognize certain filmmakers signatures on their body of works, well that takes work and thought and I think a willingness to say that which really means something to you.

Do you remember this scene:[after record producer Sam Phillips stops Cash's band a couple of verses into their audition]
Sam Phillips: You know exactly what I’m telling you. We’ve already heard that song a hundred times. Just like that. Just… like… how… you… sing it.
Johnny Cash: Well you didn’t let us bring it home.
Sam Phillips: Bring… bring it home? All right, let’s bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you’re dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin’ me that’s the song you’d sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it’s real, and how you’re gonna shout it? Or… would you sing somethin’ different. Somethin’ real. Somethin’ *you* felt. Cause I’m telling you right now, that’s the kind of song people want to hear. That’s the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain’t got nothin to do with believin’ in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin’ in yourself.
Johnny Cash: [after a pause] I got a couple of songs I wrote in the Air Force. You got anything against the Air Force?
Sam Phillips: No.
Johnny Cash: I do.

An awesome scene from WALK THE LINE that I just love reading.  That monologue says what I think every artist believes is in their heart, a song about how you felt about your time here on Earth.   And every artist, writer, actor, athlete, etc, knows the importance of believin’ in yourself.

Or perhaps recall Walt Whitman being quoted in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY:

John Keating: Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

What will your verse be? Gulp.  Wow.  Well this film is my verse and what does it say about my time here on earth?   I think that’s the part that is explored as we make the film.  The personal story you might have read in previous blogs (see THE GENESIS OF PELOTON) and how a group of people responded when they were devastated with the loss of a friend.  I think my verse might be human resilience, that we are all knocked down in so many ways, but we still dream, we still hope, we live with courage and compassion… not always, in fact, perhaps less than usually, but at the end of the day, living in whatever times we do, our trend is redemption.  Our goal is to help each other.  We fear and desire love.  And none of it is black and white… but the moments we feel alive and happy, fleeting as they may be, are beautiful and we seek them out amidst loss, suffering, pain, emptiness, frustration, the grand balance that is life.  To steal from Maya Angelou, Still we rise.

Perhaps the most important verse I can leave is for my son, and I think that would be to relentlessly strive and fight for your dream.  Our time here is brief, so live it well.  My dream:  To make films.

As a friend has told me:  Onward and Upward!

Bike films and why I’d rather wrestle wombats

The photograph above, of professional riders racing along a curvy mountain road, is not a scene from my movie.   One of the many challenges we are facing is how to present the exciting and dangerous sport of cycling on the big screen.  The only way we can do so on our low budget is to double local riders as the actors on the bike and even edit in some real bike races.  Geno, our Director of Photography, and I met last Wednesday to start discussing our plan of action for filming the movie’s cycling sequences.  It seems bike sequences are  inherently expected in a biking film.  Our lives however, would be much simpler if they were not.  The day’s discussions served as a good reason to threaten the writer (that’s me) with walking papers as well as providing a good reminder as to why I did not write scenes such as:

The bomb blast explodes with apocalyptic fury.  Flames envelope anything in their path, turning the 20 foot tall statue of Zorg into a pool of molten lava.  The flames and lava charge towards ThorFinn.  His eye is swollen shut, his left shoulder dislocated, his hamstring, hamstrung.  He hoists the unconscious queen onto his shoulders, despite the 800 pounds of iron ore enveloping her feet.  He leaps onto the wombat that has wandered in from the traveling Christmas creche.  The wombat gallops towards the bullet proof window, shattering the glass with an antler mounted bazooka.  They leap through the window and plummet towards the ground… BUT……

That’s right!  Wombats don’t fly, nor do they have antlers.   Where to start on why I could not film that ridiculous scene even if I had written it?  First of all, that scene alone, unless performed by puppets, exceeds my entire budget.  In fact, I think a wombat with antler mounted bazooka alone exceeds my budget.  Secondly, it’s nonsense, last time I was confronted by a christmas creche there were no wombats.   A camel perhaps, but wombats?   Next thing you know I’ll have animal wranglers looking for stunt yaks to dress as genetically altered wombats with antlers.  And we could do it.  We could cover the absurdity with some line like:

ThorFinn: “Careful!  That’s the radioactive gamma ray Dr. Smugly turned on those poor river creatures.”  The camera pans into a cage of healthy rats, and then to the neighboring cage with a three foot tall rat with antlers playing cribbage.

What pray tell does this, or any other blog of mine for that matter, have to do with a bike movie?Because I am enlightening you about the moronic idea I had that cycling scenes would be strait forward to film.  No burning buildings, no stunt yaks, no shattering windows.  Just people riding bicycles.   What could be simpler?  I even had a fellow cyclist innocently tell me, “Well, the cycling scenes will be the easy part.”

Yes, of course they will be easy.  Instead of creating yet one more  ”Hero jumping out of burning building through shattering glass on verge of collapse with unconscious heroine on grotty southern-hemisphere beast” scene, which would have been expensive, complicated and we’ve seen it done no less than 1000 times?  No, instead I had to go and write something asinine.  I had to go and write scenes that involve actors going 40 mph on bicycles.   Yes, actors talking and riding bikes.  As if talking and walking wasn’t hard enough for these bard quoting divas, I actually expect actors to talk and ride a bike and do so in a motivated and choreographed sequence on city streets with cars!

How would we poor actors ever train for such a role? (Yes, sadly, I am the aforementioned diva)  Do they take Phil Ligget’s “Talking While Riding a Bike on Camera advanced scene work?”   No!  Because there is no such thing!!  Which is probably why there has not been a major cycling film over the last 20 years!

Filming a bike ride…. do you know how much of a headache that simple idea caused?    By noon last Wednesday we were still on the first paragraph of the script.  That paragraph happens to involve no dialogue and it was taking us hours to talk through the concept and theme and camera movements to show an audience our story.

That was the morning.  By 4:30 in the afternoon I hated the script and wished I’d never see a bicycle again as long as I live.  In fact I am changing the entire movie and calling it:  MY BREAKFAST WITH SCOTT TALKING ABOUT PELOTON.  It’s a much simpler film.  We film at one location, a diner, there is no cycling, no stunts, none of those difficult actor types demanding bottled evian, falling off bicycles and wondering about their motivation.  Just two actors discussing the entire movie as though it really happened, the pain and excitement, the challenges and triumphs.. we don’t skimp on the really emotional scenes, just dive right in and talk about the entire movie over french toast.  The audience leaves having heard the exact story we were going to film, it’s under-budget, on-time and simple to edit.  It’s perfect!

But what about the maxim, “Show, don’t tell,” you wisely inquire.  Damn you.  You’re right, it’s a slippery slope of telling the film’s story on camera, to putting it on radio, to just leaving it on the page in some interpretive poetry college printing press or just reading it out loud in acting class.    Right then, guess we’re back to putting this cycling nightmare on its feet, (or tires I suppose).   “Every wall is a door.” At least that’s what the paperweight on my desk tells me.  And I suppose if you run your head into a wall enough times, you might just find a door.  Ralph Waldo Emerson might amend his quotation to read:  ”Every wall is a door.  Wear a helmet.” Perhaps GIRO (helmet manufacturer) wants that one… it’s theirs for a fee and six free helmets for the movie!

I have been re-writing the script all weekend, which as a real screenwriter (he wrote RoboCop and heard it from another screenwriter) once told me, is a lot of thinking and a little writing.  It’s true.  It’s easy to fill script pages.  A 120 page script could be typed by lunch.  Not saying it would be any good, but 120 pages would be filled with action and banter.    I received one script comment from a real actor (no, he was not in Robocop) that said, essentially, make some of it funnier. Love that comment.  I agree with it.  And no matter how long I stare at a scene, wishing it some humor, it does not spontaneously erupt with comedy.  Add a joke?  Make the character slip on a banana peel?  A bit with a dog?  Kidding.

What makes a truly great scene… best one I’ve seen read something like this:

EXT.  BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI — DAY

It explodes.

THAT”S IT!!!  THAT’S THE SCENE !!!! WHAT A BLOODY BRILLIANT STROKE OF WRITING!  If I had written that scene I would have quit for the day and gone for a pint at the pub having penned the greatest scene in written history.  (What do those two words, “It explodes.” and stunt Yaks have in common?  That’s right, they are both more expensive than my entire budget!  Sorry, its an ongoing joke from the first paragraphs, catch up)

The trendy script book STORY, by McGee, has some fantastic breakdowns of famous scenes from CASABLANCA, ORDINARY PEOPLE, CHINATOWN and this beauty from KRAMER VS KRAMER… another brilliant piece of writing.   Although a script is not made for reading pleasure, it is merely a blueprint, you should still read this scene after seeing the clip… the tension comes off the page as a dad tries to make french toast for his son.  The underlying levels of subtext and the complexities of a father trying to appear calm, trying to assure his son that they will survive without mom there, a basic level of survival, and the son wanting to believe his dad, and it all crashes down so painfully:

Now check out the scene on the page (scene 27) and you realize of course this will film well, you can see it as you read it.  Lots of show, not telling (i.e. exposition):

http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/kramer.shtml

Oh to write scenes like that.  At no point did Dustin Hoffman go off on a three page monologue of exposition, sitting in a room telling his son that he is scared he cannot provide the love and essential comforts (like eating) that his mother provided, that he is mad at his wife for leaving, that he does not know how to do this parenting thing and that he is scared… instead the dad is shown out of his element in a kitchen, he is telling his son the opposite, smiling that everything is great as he ruins the breakfast (the writer shows him doing everything wrong, and then, scaldingly  ”God damn it….God damn her!”  God damn that’s a good scene!

Of course Dustin wasn’t riding a bicycle either because bike scenes are tough!  At the end of the day, if it was easy, why would we be doing it?  None of this has been easy.  I had breakfast with my friend Scott today, the same one in the potentially upcoming hit film, MY BREAKFAST WITH SCOTT TALKING ABOUT PELOTON….., and we discussed how we do often receive what we ask for in life.  It just does not always arrive packaged the way we wanted it to.  I have an amazing team of friends that supports me and the film.  They have been crazy enough to invest in the film and to work hard to make the film happen despite the fears, frustrations and obstacles.  Therein lies the joy and why we will keep searching for that door in the wall, wrestling with the scenes.   The weekend is almost over and despite the movie still using bicycles in the bike scenes, I am really excited with where the script is heading!

And because there are only days left until the start of the world cup:

Football Fever, Catch it!!

A day in the life of cycling, the world cup is 20 days away and Darth Vader cheated

What a day in the cycling world.

A thrilling break away victory in the Giro overshadowed by Floyd Landis suddenly deciding it was time to admit he did use performance enhancing drugs all while maintaining that he was innocent in the 2006 Tour de France.  Oh, and by the way everyone else cheated too.

Floyd Landis has his reasons, whatever they might be,  for accusing the best US cyclists of using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).  And who knows the truth.  I don’t.  Not sure how much credibility can be given to a man who lied strait to our faces for the last four years.   But then again, that does not mean everything he says is false either.  The old saying, even a broken clock is right once a day.

A common quotation in the world of athlete doping scandals is by Brecht:  ”Competitive sport begins where healthy sport ends.”  I read that in an old New Yorker article, quite outdated now as the drugs and methods for evading detection have grown.  Not too many years ago the only stupid thing about using PEDs was getting caught.

During the last decades everyone knew the cyclists were chemically enhanced, blood doping, etc.. I think the New Yorker article was Drugstore Athletes (?).  The funding to find better drugs and stay ahead of the science for detection far outweighed the funding to stopping it.  Accusations have been leveled that the US athletes were dominating sporting events for decades because they had the most complete and well funded PED programs and everyone knew it.

I cannot pretend to know the variety of enormous pressure that athletes are faced with knowing fractions of seconds determine contracts, endorsements, worship, fame, paycheck.  Is a desire to recover faster from injury to help your team a bad thing?

And some people recover faster naturally, train harder without injury, have naturally higher red blood cell levels.   Do PEDs (steroid, growth hormone, blood doing) just level a playing field?   How different is using EPO to raise your blood levels from using an altitude tent to sleep in for the identical purpose?  One is illegal, one not.  That is a fine line about what constitutes the acceptable level of doing whatever it takes to win…supreme court justice Potter Stewart in regard to hard core pornography said “…I know it when I see it.” and maybe that fits here… sex and drugs!

The maximum allowable hematocrit levels have been determined for the athlete’s safety.  As the blood gets thicker with more red blood cells, the risk of a stroke tops out.  Top out over 50 and you’re out of the pro cycling tour.   Normal male HCT might be mid 40s living at 4,000 feet.  Years ago some racers were riding with crits of 65.  And some did die.

People have asked me about PEDs in our film, PELOTON.  My reply over the years has been that doping, et al has been such a huge problem, that if I made either hero or villain a doper, then the audience would be focused only on that element, as though doping alone could forge a hero.  But I do mention it and hopefully in a way that does not bludgeon the audience nor allows it to take over the story.

I discovered several years ago, the easiest way for me to make a medical decision when seeing pediatric patients was to apply what became my “Luca” scale.  Deciding to place sutures in a toddler’s face versus using steri-strips or deciding to start strong antibiotics for an uncertain lung infection, all I had to do was think of Luca, my own little monkey and I would know instantly what I would do for him and apply that to the patient at hand.

So, what would I want Luca to do one day if faced with those pressures to level a playing field in order to placate an owner or secure a contract…. No question.  I want him to compete clean.  We want our heroes to be clean.  Just like we don’t want them to lie to us.

I think Lance handled his response today with class.  I want to believe him.  No test proves otherwise.  We can wonder why all the riders that came close to keeping up with him in all his winning tours have been suspended for violations.  Is he that much better?  Does he just train smarter?  Maybe he rides with more heart than we can imagine given his life, childhood and survival?   He’s a good man that Lance.  How many athletes have taken time, initiative and heart to proactively create a foundation like the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  I want revenue from our film, (should either ever exist!!!), to be contributed to the LAF.

The sport will survive.  It’s too beautiful.  We love it for many reasons.  I just had a beautiful ride out west of Salt Lake City this evening… tapping along for miles, saving four baby skunks in the road…. and racing home to see Luca before he went to bed.  Missed him.  But he saw me leave and he knows “Dada” was on his “Bah,”  and he knows we will go ride together soon.  Cycling is good and the world remains a good place.  Doping and PEDs won’t change that.

Found the New Yorker article for you.  Best part of it, Ben Johnson was busted for the one drug he was not using!  Ha!

http://www.gladwell.com/2001/2001_08_10_a_drug.htm

But a cycling film blog needs film too:  Films that come to mind with drugstore athletes or the corrupt side of sports:

ROCKY IV — Wait, Drago is big and mean and those evil looking scientists are, Oh, that’s his wife!  ”Whatever he hits, he destroys.” In evil russian accent … and oh my god!  They’re injecting chemicals with the mother of all HUGE needles, to make him stronger, faster, meaner, evilerer… how will Rocky ever beat drugs and the evil empire?

VICTORY — I think the German Nazi referee is cheating!!!  Hey!  That’s not right!!

NORTH DALLAS FORTY — He gets the knee injected and plays high?  That’s not right!  He’s playing with pain killers, that does not seem right.

VARSITY BLUES — The evil coach is willing to send the fat guy out there with a head injury, win at all costs in high school? That’s wrong!!

GLADIATOR -(Gladiating looks like a sport) Hey!  He stabbed him before the fight!  That’s not fair!  He’s evil!!

THE NATURAL — Hey!  He’s throwing the game!  That’s not fair!  They threatened him!  That’s evil!

STAR WARS — Hey, the chemically enhanced guy in the black suit with altered voice likely due to doping just strangled the guy in an argument!  That’s cheating, that’s evil! (I think debate qualifies as a sport)

As you can see, there appears to be a direct correlation between cheating, win at all costs and being evil… at least in the world of film!

And in case you needed a sporting lift, WORLD CUP ONLY TWENTY DAYS AWAY!!  Check out this awesome commercial from NIKE:

Still one of my favorites thanks to Mastercard, capturing the excitement of what is about to happen in less than three weeks:

And if you don’t get the beautiful game, here’s the fever:

The score’s the thing!!

First off, the coolest thing in the world is this, Luca’s first day riding.  Would probably work better if his feet reached the ground, but he loved it and threw a mild tantrum when we finally put the bike away for the night.  That was last night.  This is me today:As you can see, Luca is much cooler than his snot faced dad who does not apparently know how to clean himself up too well after a great ride on the round valley trails in Park City.  I was a bit frozen after the hail and rain storm that kicked in, got back to the car and tossed the mud spattered bike into the car, stripping off all wet clothes in the middle of a parking lot not caring who was checking out my pale white ass.  Like I said, Luca is way cooler.  Back to the film!

The team met a few nights ago in what was supposed to be a fun night to have some beers (Saison Brett my pick for beer of the night) and not talk business…. and what do you do when you get film producers, actors, editors, music coordinators and a beer drinking director, to sit and talk?  You end up talking film, it just happens.  At one point in the evening I commented to our editor about the adage that a film is made three times:  When it’s written, when it’s shot and when it’s edited.  He replied, or quipped, back to our music coordinator, “Actually it’s four times, when the music is added.”  And he’s right.

Matt went on to comment how, during a film studies class, as the TA, he had presented the class with a famous scene from JAWS, only replacing the classic “Jaws” refrain with another more friendly, peaceful tune…TOTALLY DIFFERENT MOVIE!!!

So I am quickly thinking of films with music that made the scene… and I don’t know what rules to follow here… seems wrong to use musicals at all, and franchise scores, like the theme from Bond films do not sound fit either…although that tune evokes an emotional response regardless, like the theme from ROCKY.  I’m talking the music helped make the scene (and again, acknowledging that this is a quick opinion list, I’m sure I’m forgetting 3,000 better matches:

JAWS we already talked about.  A classic, the theme and imagery has played through the heads of almost anyone playing in the surf.  So some new choices:

BREAKING AWAY — “Mama!  Mama!  The Italians are coming!” as Mendelssohn’s Italien symphony builds into the most famous scene in a bike movie… What a scene, almost perfect, until you clue into the gears he is actually using at 55 mph!  For those looking forward to PELOTON, pay attention for our homage to this scene!

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY — Vangelis (He and Zimmer seem to know what they are doing)…Signourney Weaver has never looked so sexy, don’t care how many Aliens she blasts in other films, watching her walk through the rain, contemplating her love for a man, the consequence of a message deciphered…steamy, steamy, steamy … sultry your name is Signourney and Vangelis turned up the heat for you. (And if you watch the whole fantastic movie, enjoying Linda Hunt’s award winning performance, you get to hear the tune again in an equally sexy scene driving through the night)

THE NATURAL – when Roy Hobbs hits it out of the park and the fanfare starts, well, it’s not just the music, the editing is amazing, all the reaction shots, his bleeding gut, the broken bat after the thunder, priceless.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION — In an altogether fantastic film, Andy playing Le Nozze di Figaro is stunning.  One of the great visuals of The Power of Music, the two voices interpreted by Red (Morgan Freeman) as we see on the prisoner’s faces, for a minute, their temporary escape into something beautiful.  (and it’s Morgan Freeman’s voice, who cares what he says, it’s beautiful)

TRUE ROMANCE — OK, this is an odd choice as people are shouting, what about the Doors The End in APOCALYPSE NOW (Yes, awesome), SAY ANYTHING, In Your Eyes with Lloyd Dobbler holding the Boombox, Yes, but disqualified on some principle, the entire soundtrack to THE GRADUATE?  Yes, Simon and Garfunkel are truly brilliant.   But TRUE ROMANCE, on my favorite just enjoyable movies, is a fairytale, maybe even a Dicken’s fairytale:  Listen to Hans Zimmers absolutely beautiful and haunting theme to the film (I want something like that for PELOTON please!!), a fairytale like quality contrasted to the harsh images of Detroit in the winter and Arquette’s narrative…. just enjoy the hilarious ride thanks to Tony Scott and written by Tarantino) and accept it’s a tale:

OK — I’ll even include this great scene (apologize for the subtitles) but I’ve always theorized this is the cornerstone for the film, that if you believe them in this scene, the rest of the movie makes sense — and I don’t think it works without the music!

Now I am giving you some of the goofy love scene stuff in the film, but True Romance has gunfights, sicilian interviews, brutal fight scenes upon which others are modeled, the best cocaine in your face car scene moment ever and a scene stealing Brad Pitt huffing on a honey bear bong…. what’s not to love?

And I don’t want to repeat movies from previous posts, but can you imagine some sports movies without the music?  I can hear the music as Rocky runs up the stairs, that great crescendo; running on the beach in CHARIOTS OF FIRE with Vangelis (again!), the theme from HOOSIERS.  Would the power of a burned Sam Shepherd walking across the desert dragging his parachute work as well without the chuck yeager theme building up?  No.  Lots of great examples.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE — Will the Ninth symphony ever be the same… oh yes, because it’s what finally explains a woman’s love in IMMORTAL BELOVED!!

PHILADELPHIA — the bosses Streets of Philadelphia.  I won’t even comment.  It’s too good.

And because I saw them recently, THE THIN RED LINE, Hans Zimmer again, but its the Melanesian choir that is unforgettable.

Anyway, there are lots more, I know.

Right now I’m back to working the script, wanting it to be the best possible.  Still looking for another 100K… anyone know where to look??!!

Auditions were great fun to see people’s choices and interpretations, loved it and looking forward to call backs.  I want to rewrite the film and have a leading part for everyone.  Apparently that’s not in the budget however.

Will keep you updated and in the meantime the Giro dItalia is on, but check out today’s Amgen Tour of California!  Local boy, a man who wore the yellow jersey, a man who wants to protect your junk, professionally (www.dz-nuts.com), Dave Zabriskie, Congratulations!!!

The casting couch and arousing Hitchcock

Today I sat as the director on the infamous casting couch, admiring the various talent trying out for a role in our film!  Did it tinge me with arrogance?  Quite the opposite, I sat rooting for each person that walked through the door to be the stunning answer to one of our roles.  And even if I had strutted off that couch with a haughty swagger, reality set in quite rapidly as I quickly became the guy standing in the rain, fretting at my inabilty to open a plastic bag to pick up dog pooh while two labs strain their leashes in opposite directions.  Ironically I am missing tonight’s acting class audition training because we were auditioning people for PELOTON.

One of the best lessons for any actor is probably to sit on the casting side of the camera.  We actors tend to get very nervous before auditions:  Am I even right for the part?  Did I forget to zip my fly?   Do they want someone taller?  With darker eyes?  Or walking out upset that I stressed the words to be instead of not to be, dammit!  Eventually you get rejected enough times that you finally learn it is just a process and it requires training and should not be taken personally.  It’s truly an existential disaster in the making: actors acting a part, but they don’t know what the director/producers want and are being judged, measured and compared by an audition room that is creating a cast around characters that do not yet exist and have not been cast yet either.  The truth is that from the casting side, everyone, from the casting agent whose job it is to get the actors, to the producers, directors, everyone wants the right person to walk in the door and fill a role, solve what is otherwise a problem, i.e. we need a cast, please, please, please!  My needing to be walked at midnight labradors for a cast!

The actual process involves this preliminary week when talent agencies send in who they think is right for the roles we have sent them.  Then we watch each actor come in… and usually as they walk in the door, you can tell who is trained well, who is nervous, etc… and then someone surprises you, or you like a look, but for a different part.  After the preliminary rounds, all the actors who we want to see for specific parts are given a “call back.”  This time they come in and more of the production team is present to watch the characters, compare actors next to each other and hopefully find an answer to our casting woes.  If not, we keep looking for actors.

Being the writer in the audition room is a mildly schizophrenic place to be:  I want to enjoy the performances but when the lines don’t work or the scene is flat I want to strangle the writer (oops, that’s me).  Did have lots of good ideas on revisions today.  It’s really exciting and I am looking forward to round two tomorrow.  We saw a few really great people today and I can already tell the difficult part will eventually be deciding between several people all of whom will bring a different look, feel and performance to the film.   (And kudos to the actors from my acting class, they all kicked ass).

On a not so exciting note, I am flailing on the revision of PELOTON.  The damn opening sequence is not yet what I want it to be… compelling, exciting, something that makes any viewer turn off their phone and settle deeper into their chair for the rest of the ride.  The type of opening where  lovers push each other’s hands away because the film grabs them more delightedly, more…no, never mind….  just believe me, it’s not happening.

So I started thinking of my favorite opening scenes, scenes that made me lose track of anything else and glue my attention firmly to the screen experience at hand.  Now, every single film list is merely an opinion, and these are some of mine.  Other great one’s exist and I am sure I am forgetting certain ones.  But for now, today, at this moment, these are some film openings that grab your lapels with kung-fu like grips and say WATCH THIS! (this list does not correlate with my favorite films)

TOUCH OF EVIL — OK, even though the list is not in a numerical order, this mind blowing scene, which must have given Hitchcock a hard-on (or perhaps a whiff of jealousy?), ranks in top 1, 2 or 3.   Hitchcock went on to say that if a cafe scene is boring, put a bomb under the table (or something like that)… and how can you not be on the edge of your seat for this famous three minute tracking shot:

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER — HOLY CRAP!  And add Bono’s voice…. how can you turn away from the rest of this incredible film based around true events (one of the great tear jerking endings as well)

APOCALYPSE NOW — Just watch that ceiling fan dissolve.  One of the best any day:

ROCKY — It’s on the list tonight, maybe not next week, but tonight, just the opening title as ROCKY scrolls across with the most inspiring, soul stoking, trumpet fanfares ever into the compassionate portrait of Jesus in a smoke filled, late night, skid row boxing arena where Rocky battles a head butting thug in front of the word “Resurrection.” SOOO GOOOOOD.  ”You’re a bum!”  right after he bums a half smoked cigarette.  Gorgeous.

CHARIOTS OF FIRE — there’s no explosion, but those last words in the ceremony nostalgically transporting us onto a beach so many decades before gets me every time:

THE RIGHT STUFF — The whole movie, just watch the whole goddamn movie.  It’s that good. (or at least through Yeager hitting Mach 1)

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME — you never forget your first time… yes, this was my first Bond film in a theater and this scene was my “You had me at parachuting off the cliff with the union jack,” moment, the music, etc.  (Sean Connery still rules as Bond)

HURT LOCKER — like I said, this was a list of opening scenes that just grabbed you… at this point I stopped eating my take out food as the sound, lighting, edits all demanded my attention.  Fantastic.

GALLIPOLI — Well, can’t find it on youtube, so here’s the ending, which if you see the opening, breaks your heart all the more so…. stunning film. (yes, that’s mel gibson running, circa 1980)

HENRY V — Give Shakespeare credit, his words, words, words are incredible from both sides of the stage, but give Branagh credit for this gripping prologue that Sir Derek Jacoby uses to show off his Shakespeare training:

And also making the list tonight, but you can watch the whole movie because I’m tired of searching youtube:

Cinema Paradiso – if only because it is so perfect when you come to the end of the movie and make sense of it all… aaahh.

Inglorious Basterds — Tarantino proves he can take simple table dialogue between two men and build a tension you can cut with playdough.

BRAVEHEART — The whole childhood scene that pays off when he displays the thistle years later…. too good.

And on that note, WALK THE LINE, the thumping sound of prisoner’s boots tapping out the rhythm of the song, and Cash/Phoenix, touching the saw tooth, the edge that takes him back to childhood and all the way back to that moment… again, word of the night, brilliant.

OK, that ends my diatribe.  I’m inspired myself and heading back into the world of revisions,

Ever yours, ever mine (what film and how did it open?????)

Giovanni

Unemployed and pissed upon: Living the dream!!!

“Ma!  Ma!  I quit my job with ol’ man McGovern!  I’m gonna make movies instead!” At which point our young teen protagonist is boxed about the ears by his mother, smacked on the knuckles with a ruler, told to get back to work, grounded for a year and sent to bed with no pie.   Fortunately I am several time zones away from the physical boxing I might deserve for quitting my job and planning to make a movie.  I do however admit that quitting work so I could cash in my retirement savings to make a movie might not seem like the most rational plan I’ve ever concocted; not much of a plan at all actually, especially when reality sinks in that without a paycheck I am not yet sure how one  pays the mortgage, health insurance and those pesky medical school loans… hmmm, ribald tales and large rocks?  I won’t re-read that last sentence.  Thinking rationally evokes a nervous, queasy sensation… and then I remember that I am making a movie, fulfilling a life long dream.  This whole production is one fantastic journey where sinking reality and rational accountability have no place!  (OK, accountability has a place in our accounting department)  Let’s get back to the events of last Friday at 3PM when I was officially without a job.

What comes from achieving that pinnacle of professional success, i.e. joining the ranks of the unemployed?   This photo illustrates just how smoothly things are going so far.  That is indeed my bike and yes, that is also my bike rack.  Sharp inquiring minds might ponder, where is the car that goes with the rack?  Is it invisible?  No.

Neither is that a new system designed to make it easier to mount bike racks on your car.  Rumors of my testing detachable velcro roof rack prototypes are also false.

The large sign warning that the bright yellow bar is only seven feet and two inches off the ground is however true.  Upon close inspection I noted that the girl in the back seat of the car is laughing.   And so it begins.

The bike swinging in the wind day was our first day of camera testing.  Modern camera magic has made it possible to shoot amazing video footage on inexpensive cameras.  Feature films and TV shows are using the video mode on still cameras  (your handheld Canon) to film their shows.  These cameras do however have limitations in how they record fast motion and movement.  I’ll skip the tech-talk about jello cams, but suffice it to say, cycling tends to involve fast movement (unless you are me and specialize in falling off your bike, not speeding past objects) and we needed to test the camera limits as it would show up on the big screen.  It looks like we will use a RED camera for our narrative story and then a combination of smaller cameras to capture the cycling.   Our intrepid Director of Photography (DP), Geno, was in LA over the weekend at a conference specifially discussing the pros and cons of the cameras we are considering and how to overcome the limitations.

The last weeks leading up to my loss of a job have certainly been interesting as well.   First of all, and perhaps I should have led the blog with this one:  The State of Utah granted Peloton Productions a film incentive rebate worth $30K.  THIS IS HUGE FOR US!!!   The funds will be used towards our post-production budget.  It was also a great recognition that we are a real film.  The commission does their due diligence with our application and we were one of two films chosen for this film incentive.  Word of mouth was that they loved the script and everyone involved with the film.  Also to note, the other incentive rebate went to a television show being produced by Brent Geisler, another producer on PELOTON!!

Secondly, I was booked (acting talk for getting a job) for a small part in a Danny Boyle film.  This is the same guy that made the movie about poor kids on game shows in India, won some award, that guy.  Nicest man in the world, or at least in the running.  I was treated like a real actor, had a trailer with a fireplace, cars to drive me to the set on Main Street in Moab and my own hotel room.  And Danny Boyle must have really loved my work as he increased my lines from two to three!!

After finishing on set I was faced with an option of riding my bike in the beautiful desert afternoon or rushing the four hour drive home to possibly catch Luca before he went to bed.  I must be getting older as I chose to set a hot pace North, made Salt Lake in 3 1/2 hours and ran up the stairs to where Luca was standing up in the bath.  He broke into a mad grin exclaiming “DADA!!”  Danny Boyle and a fireplace in my trailer got nothing on Luca.

The next week was a little crazy as it was my last week in the clinic and the gods seemed upset enough to throw all sorts of reminders out there about how much I loved working a job that involves looking in people’s noses, hearing them complain about diarrhea and the thrill of draining abscesses.  Enough of that!  I had my last day and as you would expect I walked out into the setting sun, headed west and dove into the fabulous feature film experience that will be PELOTON.

Actually no, much in line with everything else with this film, there was no smooth path.  Instead I walked out into a snow and sleet storm and drove North to watch footage from our camera testing on the big screen.  Here’s a look up my nose on a huge screen.  Yes, that’s quite exciting.  And from that moment on we have been working diligently on the film….  NOPE!  Wrong again.

I returned home from watching myself cycling on the big screen to Luca waiting for me, but this time it was to be our first entire weekend alone together to party!  I will spare you the details, but know that Luca did not spare me free time to work on the film.  I finally had a little talk with him as we sat in the bubble bath together conversing about such things that dad’s discuss with their 20 month year old boys:  how to squirt water with your hands, farting in the tub etiquette,  why throwing bath toys out of the tub at the dogs is not encouraged, and why it was important for me to quit my job so that I could make a movie that one day he would hopefully enjoy watching and be proud of his dad for pursuing his dreams; he will know who his dad was and the ideas he pursued.

Now before you have any ideas about me trying to tell you a cute father-son bubble bath story, let me tell you how my 20 month old, bubble covered boy responded to my story.  On cue he pissed all over it.  Yes, it was the father-son bubble and urine bath.

So with pissed on plans I am now fully embarked on filming.  The script is getting messy and ugly as I work it through towards brilliance.  Casting starts this week.  We are working to get legal clearance for all the bike, clothing, gear labels that appear in bike stores and races (We should change it to a swimming movie, less logos)  We are planning a great fundraiser at THE METROPOLITAN restaurant, http://www.themetropolitan.com/ thanks to Francis Fecteau, my friend, fellow cyclist and wine broker extraordinaire (check out his wine blog at www.elibation.com) who is donating wine to host the party, Karen Olson, the incredible owner of the Metropolitan (new menu is fantastic), Stacey Richards our stunning music coordinator and dear friend Lauren Brady.  Paradoxically the more I do, the longer the list of things to do becomes.  Feeling overwhelmed, and not sure how, but I know it will all come together.  To steal from Tom Stoppard’s dialogue in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

“I don’t know.  It’s a mystery,” is apparently today’s inspirational fight song to carry us forward.

ever yours,  John

The wheels on the bike go round and round

“Well, I evaded the Syrian Ballet Company as they attempted to export me to their Arabic Kingdom to star in performances of GOAT LAKE.”

“At any rate, I am having time (I’ll leave you to attach valence to my time) learning very little (longest word in English language: approximately – floccynoccynihilipilification) and generally making a drunken ass of myself.”

“I live with an Italian family, and we speak only Italian in the homestead which has produced conversations like, “How was your day, John?”  ”Oh fine.  I went to find a large elephant, but ended up getting massaged with a chunk of steak.”

(Excerpts from John’s letters to me years ago — which were a continual reminder of my own limited vocabulary)

Justice is the only worship.  Love is the only Priest.  Ignorance is the only slavery.  Happiness is the only good.  The time to be happy is now.  The place to be happy is here.  The way to be happy is to make others so.  –Ingersoll

If you read my very first blog, The Genesis of PELOTON, you read about John (pictured above), my cycling/writing/witty friend with the gregarious and sharp sense of humor and how he died far too early in life.  An inherent part of life is facing the loss of those we love.  It happens and it hurts and no cliched response takes that pain away, it just flares less painfully over time and we search to attach meaning to it all.   There is an essential or archetypal circle of life that intertwines life and death.  When I heard the fateful words about John, I was on my very first day of the obstetrics rotation in my third year of med school.  On my first day on the labor and delivery deck as an intern, my very first case was a young woman who I had to tell in Spanish that she was having abdominal pain because the term baby in her belly had died.. and then she almost bled to death as we rushed her for an emergency c–section.  Years later, as the chief resident, I had an evening phone call that my grandfather had just passed away and was then called to deliver my friend’s baby just minutes later… the circle of life for you Lion King fans.  I hope the film does justice to how we honor those people by living our life more fully.

Note the photos of John above and below, on the day he won a race that promoted him to a Cat 1 rider (an elite racer)…. full of life as we always remember him with that unforgettable smile.  And if anyone is laughing at my efforts on this film project, my sweating over the whole thing, it’s John.  I can see him starting to break into a grin with some hilariously wicked barb to throw out at me that will break all of us into belly-aching laughter.  He would have poked fun at me relentlessly for obsessing about filming a movie that involves guys with shaved legs in tight shorts.  He would have been the first in line to be filmed up close, making sure his film credit read: Best looking Cyclist.  He would have invented better dialogue for the script and would have pushed me to keep rewriting better scenes.  He also would have supported me late into the night when I was broken with frustration, buoying my spirits with humor, but also just present to talk in the deep, simple, honest ways that only close friends can manage.  He brought many of us together in that way, close friends from the various aspects of his life who had heard about each other from someone who who was so genuinely close with each of us and knew us so well.

So the genesis of peloton might have come from an accident that took John’s life, but the inspiration was how John lived.  The Ingersoll quotation above is the same one that I wrote below the same framed photo because he made so many people happy with his words and wit.  I have been blessed with a host of friends who inspire me on a regular basis in how they choose to live (I’ll get to them later) and producing this film now, this is me living the life I want.

And finally there is Luca (see below), my own little boy, a year and half old, he shares John’s middle name and loves bikes. Before he was born, while he was floating in utero in his spacesuit, I was struck by the absolute knowledge that I needed to change my life, make the films I had always wanted to make, because the only way to teach him to live fully, would be to live the life I wanted, to set that example, not to tell him to do one thing and not be living up to the same standard and expectations in my life, however frightening those steps might be… so the film is being made to make John laugh at me (as if he needed fodder), to inspire and teach Luca, to hopefully make them both proud and after the months of filming and editing and not sleeping, to have a movie that makes people happy.