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Just Go - Travel/Documentary

Discussion in 'Movies, Music and TV shows' started by Zennith, Jun 15, 2014.

  1. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    Hey folks,

    So I'm working on a Travel/Documentary Film, and I've wanted to post about it and get feedback, but I didn't want to while we were in full fundraising mode, since I didn't want to seem like I was grubbing for money - we've raised plenty now, so I just want to hear people's thoughts on the idea/aesthetic notions and also perhaps the specific route we're taking (starting in Seattle, going up to the top of Montana, then heading straight south to Utah, heading east through Colorado, and then coming up north through the Appalachians. Here's the gist/our little spiel:


    This is the car we're doing the trip in:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]



    Some of the roads we'll be driving:

    [​IMG]
    Buffalo River Road

    [​IMG]
    Glacier National Park

    [​IMG]
    Going to the Sun Road


    Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/user/justgofilm


    And the website: http://www.justgofilm.com/



    If you feel like taking a look, by all means please do - I'm just curious as to people's thoughts, and any/all feedback.

    Thanks folks!
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2014
  2. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    FANTASTIC looking website. Looks legit professional. Also good for you man, looks like a fantastic idea/trip. And nice job on the fundraising too (over $6k? woot!).

    I don't know much about what you're trying to do in terms of technical advice. I have gone on long road trips before. I have camped out to save money before. So I love your idea.

    The only thing that comes to mind for me... is that your theme of "Just Go" is fantastic, but doesn't address the sorts of people who have kids and/or can't get off work for a few weeks to "just go." Granted those are some of the excuses you talk about always existing, but even so. If you're going to go the full route you want to at least acknowledge that in the end product (maybe -- or acknowledge and say "go anyway" etc.).

    Be sure one of you has a little emergency cash on hand. Doing it for $300 each is great, but if the car develops issues or you get in a wreck or something you want some extra available. Looks like you have it though -- hope you don't have to use it!

    What do you need that I could offer? Other than the above commentary (and a second statement of admiration for your website -- what's the basis for making that? I see it says RedReel at the bottom, hrm).

    Cheers, and let me know if there's anything else I can comment on that might be useful.
     
  3. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    This is exactly the sort of thing I need! It's a good point - one that we are trying to address. I think, for me, the most important thing we mention and keep in mind is that, more than anything, this trip has to be a metaphor, a rather dramatic example. Not everybody needs to just go out and go on a crazy road trip. But everybody has the opportunity for adventure in their life, somewhere, and we believe that adventure is important. As such, we're hoping people watch the film, enjoy it, and then go about finding their own adventure in their own way, whatever that means for them. Although, of course, we recommend road trips :p

    And if you have any suggestions on places we should make sure not to miss on the way, definitely mention them.


    EDIT: I want to thumbs up your post, Ched, but I'm out of thumbs. Accept my virtual thumbs up, for the moment.
     
  4. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    One way you could address it is to make some notes along the way about things you enjoy doing that anyone could do locally in a 2-day weekend. Make a comment about how if you "lived <4 hours away from X, you could leave one Friday night, drive up, camp out, experience the shit out of X on Saturday, then drive home Sunday morning." There is an "X" out there for most people.

    That doesn't address the issue of people with kids, but it should take care of the rest to an extent. And once the kids are bigger/older they can stay with friends that weekend.

    I see that you're doing this without smartphones as well, which I think is wise. Don't forget to remind your audience of that, as that will likely enhance the "adventure" aspect of things. Even if people will still take theirs with them (in most cases) staying away from using it too much can help you get into the experience. If you go somewhere and then spend hours on the internet when you get there, you're blind to where you went (because you're just doing what you do at home in a different and less comfortable locale) and the entire trip can fall flat.

    I remember one weekend I went to the beach in Florida on a whim. I just packed up, drove down there, spent the day being lazy on the beach, napped in the car, and drove home. With just a smidgen more planning it could have really been amazing. It was still fun as it was.

    Add in a few tips from your camping-savvy friend too, so anyone who wants to follow your footsteps in that will have a good starting point. I.e. Write down what all you find you need/want on a daily basis, etc.

    Thanks for the virtual thumbs up!

    Don't miss any State/National Parks you go past, obviously. Even if it's not a big/major one, at least drive through. Exception: If it's not free/cheap to drive through, it's okay to miss it in your case.

    If I come up with anything else specific not to miss I'll let you know. One thing I found out though, driving across country (from North California to Mississippi especially), was that there is some random stuff. During that trip I spent about three hours seeing giant billboards imploring me not to miss "The Thing" on I-10 in Arizona. It was a "Desert Mystery." There were at least a dozen signs for it.

    By the time I got there I was damned curious and I paid to see it. I think the entry was only one or two dollars? It was far from the highlight of my trip, but it was cheap and fun. It's the sort of thing that will never be on anyone's list of stops to make on a vacation, but when I think about that drive it's the first thing that comes to mind. Not because it was awesome (it was merely quite neat), but because it was unique and unexpected.

    If you see something like that stop and check it out.
     
  5. Bill Door

    Bill Door The Chosen One DLP Supporter

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    This looks really cool. Me and a few of my friends have vague plans to do something similar around Europe at some point, without the whole documentary thing though. I don't have any advice or anything, I just wanna say good luck.
     
  6. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    I appreciate it. We can use all the luck we can get. It's a thirty year old car with a carburetor and we're going 5,500 miles (after I've driven it three thousand to get to Seattle in the first place) and we're driving up the highest paved road in the country. The car might not make it!

    So yeah, I'll take good luck any day.
     
  7. Ash'Ura

    Ash'Ura Totally Sirius

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    This looks awesome. I was actually thinking of doing something like this with a couple of close friends after we graduate. I don't have much to say in the form of advice except this: make sure to add whatever you can to the seats to make them as comfortable as possible. I recently drove ~1900 miles from TX to CO with said friends and the worst part of the drive was the soreness. We took a break from driving every 2hrs, but even then pretty much everyone in the car was sore. Good luck.
     
  8. Lord Ravenclaw

    Lord Ravenclaw DLP Overlord Admin DLP Supporter

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    When you guys pass through Denver, let me know and I'll buy you all a round...if I'm in town at that time.

    I did notice that your map only shows your route up to Denver.
     
  9. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    This is fantastic advice, thanks.

    And thanks Raven, I'll definitely let you know when we're there. And thanks for that catch on the map - we just had to update it because we had too many points plotted and one map couldn't hold it, so we made West and East maps - I need to go add the East map to the website. Again, thanks for the catch!
     
  10. Lindsey

    Lindsey Chief Warlock DLP Supporter

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    The only thing I can see that is problematic is 100 dollars a week, including gas money...

    I drove from Kentucky to Seattle (a very similar route you are taking) and gas alone cost us almost 1,000 dollars (our trip was only 10 days). This was only a month ago and gas prices were a lot cheaper than they will be in August. We didn't take as many scenic routes as you guys are as well.

    To fill up a 13 gallon tank will cost you almost 50 dollars in Seattle. This will only get you to the other end of the state. You will have spent 100 dollars in gas on the first day alone.

    300 x 4 = 1,200. This will not be enough just for gas unless your car gets amazing gas mileage.

    Oh... and every national park will cost you 20 or more for the vehicle (and most camp sites in the parks are not free).
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2014
  11. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    Fortunately, we're not camping in national parks - we're camping in National Forests! National Forests are free to camp in, and you can camp anywhere in them. We've actually used roadtrippers.com which calculates your route and gas prices to give you an estimate on how much it will cost for gas - the trip for us, the car we're using gets around thirty mpg (pretty awesome for an older car) and we're doing virtually no city driving, entirely highway - the estimate is that it'll cost us about 760 dollars for gas. That'd be about 200 gallons of gas at nearly four dollars a gallon, and at nearly thirty mpg, that would cover some 5700 miles!

    All of that leaves us with 500 as a team to feed four people for three weeks. We're camping and cooking for ourselves the whole time, so we're hopeful on that front.

    Good points to think about, though.
     
  12. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    That reminds me of something else -- this is only working at $300 each because you're pooling your funds (so you have $1200 total or so, out of which comes $760 for gas). If someone tried to do this solo, they'd have to bite the entire gas bill.

    I know you know this, but it's something else to keep in mind when writing things up. Shared costs (car, gas, etc.) are going to be cheaper per person when the car is full (4-5) than when it's not (1-2).

    This sounds really damn fun though. Are you going to split the driving almost equally?
     
  13. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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    Yup - you're totally right, and it absolutely bears mentioning - we actually had a write up on a travel website asking about ways to save money on adventures, and going as a group is absolutely one of them - undoubtedly. Solo it would be incredibly more cost-prohibitive.


    And yeah, splitting as evenly as possible. I'll actually be handling some of the hardest off-road driving to begin with, since I'll have had the most experience with the car at the start of the trip (I'm actually driving it out to Seattle from New York solo before we start filming - a trip I'm almost as excited about, to be honest) - but the goal will be to share the driving as much as possible, to keep us all fresh.
     
  14. Lyndon Eye

    Lyndon Eye Minister of Magic DLP Supporter

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    This looks amazing. Wish I could come with. Only word of advice is to bring plenty of reading material. You have a lot more free time when traveling than you might expect.

    I'll echo Raven from above -- hit me up when you swing through DC and I'll buy you guys a round. :D
     
  15. LittleChicago

    LittleChicago Headmaster DLP Supporter

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    I've done 2100 miles - Calgary to Toronto - in 4 days before. Twice. It sucked hard because we were rushing (both times it was for work) and didn't really have time to stop and just enjoy it. On the other hand, it's the trip where I started reading the Dresden Files, so, silver lining.

    Take lots of books, multiple cameras (video and still) and for god's sake, get out and stretch, very often...

    This looks awesome, even though I don't really 'do' camping. Still, if I wasn't a responsible adult with a fucking mortgage, I'd be begging to come with.
     
  16. Riley

    Riley Alchemist DLP Supporter

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    Well, you're actually hitting my little old state of DE. Let me know when you roll around and if I'm in town I'll hang out for a bit. I can introduce you to some weird folks that might make for good documentary stuff. Larpers and RPG players and just other weird stuff.
     
  17. Zennith

    Zennith Pebble Wrestler ~ Prestige ~

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  18. Aekiel

    Aekiel Angle of Mispeling ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Looks like you had a lot of fun and shenanigans that will keep me entertained. I'm looking forward to when you release the full vid.
     
  19. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Yeah that was extremely watchable. Very fun. Good job dude, better than I had expected to be honest. Rock on.
     
  20. Ash

    Ash Moves Like Jagger DLP Supporter

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    Pretty sure that's a trailer, not a teaser, as it is 3+ minutes long. A teaser is typically much shorter, and they tend to have less film footage and are generally meant to 'tease' the audience with the very little amount of footage and the use of quotes/dialogue displayed graphically.
     
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