Some Random Favorite Moments...

Steve inadvertently drives some cattle.

Interview with Buck by his cabin in the Nevada mountains.

Dogs Across America

Photographing Charlie in Nevada desert...

Interview with Tiny, the Colorado oil-rig trucker.  I am on far left and stand 6'6".

Shooting bottle rockets with Lindsey and Hannah, who were rafting the Mississippi.

A Mom uses our megaphone to call her son from a creek in Colorado, to do an interview with us.

Crossing a fog-shrouded Mississippi river.

Cory directs Dave, a member of Charlie's crew, to go play in the cornfield.

Halloween with VQ Orthocare's Robert Spieler...

A daily event: Where's Rick?  There he is!

Shooting at sunset, almost every day.

Recovery Period

Every event of this sort has a recovery period.  Both Marshall and Charlie finished their journeys and we have all started to return to our respective lives.  The daily texts and phone calls from crew and runners have started to dwindle.  It seems winter is almost here, and we're all wondering where Fall went to, knowing that we were just too preoccupied to notice.

Both my producer, Kate, and I have begun the work of completing the film - budgets to go over, footage to review, and the all-consuming task of assembling a film from the 300+ hours of footage we've shot over the last 53 days.  Thankfully, we have two amazing editors in Julie Snider and Rob Tortoriello of Madhouse Post in New York to help shape the film.  A couple days before the finish, Kate told us of a dream she had where her entire body was a map - her veins were roads pulsing and vibrating, her arms were maps of states, she had clearly internalized the entire experience into her being.  I had a dream that night where I loaned our two cameras to my college basketball team and entrusted them with completing the film.  Wow.  This was actually more like a nightmare...

For now, stay tuned for a final weeks wrap-up and more blog posts as we get into post-production.  And my biggest thanks to the crew and all of their hard work... 

Media Management Superstar, Shooter, Driver, 

Assistant Camera, Impersonation Master:  Cory Gegner

Director of Photography Extra-Ordinaire, Cat Lover, Pancake Aficionado:  Andreas von Scheele

Superlative-Inspiring Sound Man, Spanish to English Translator, 

Funk to English Translator, Proponent of the corn chip:  Steve Clack

Deserving-of-Cult-Status Performance Driver, 

Orienteering Master, Multi-Tasker, 

Soon-To-Run-The-Entire-Film-Industry Production Assistant:

Amira Soliman

Tireless where-is-he-now rock-climbing running-down 

2nd unit director of photography, special-needs food activist, master

of the Pittsburghese: Rick Baraff

Super-duper double super tireless organizer, mapper, 

orientation specialist, information-gatherer, route-explorer, producer:

Kate O'Neil

 Honorary crew member, soon-to-be director, master of

the film "frame":  Dr. Paul Langevin

The Crew

A Running America Halloween

As we get closer to NYC, we are all even more aware and vigilant about how Marshall is doing.  He has come so far, we have all come so far - the crews (both film and runner's) and we can't wait to see him achieve his dream.

He's a real pro - always quick to smile, come up and throw a joke your way, and then keep on going.  We know he appreciates the little things that break up the monotony of the miles so we try our best to provide him with a little diversion along the way.

This includes our cobbled together Halloween costumes.  Rick, our adventure cinematographer went as "Extreme Rick."

Kate and Amira went as witches...

And Cory took second place in the costume contest going as "Guy On His Way to Skynrd Concert."

I chose to go as his sidekick...

And the winner of the costume contest went to Dr. Paul, who dressed up as Amira - our tireless, mapping, driving, phone-calling foundation of much of this production.  Notice the level of detail: pens in the hair, stack of maps, fanny pack and keys around his neck...

Week 4 Wrap Up

Illinois -> Indiana -> Ohio

The states are starting to pass by quickly.  Maybe it's our familiarity with this lifestyle now, or maybe it's that they're getting shorter.  Hmmmm.  The corn just keeps on coming.

Lately, the production crew has been playing the "What character would you be in 'Apocalypse Now'?" game.  I've been voted as Kurtz twice and Willard once.  And Steve, our sound guy, now believes Fritos are vitamins.  Oh Steve!

Marshall and Charlie are still going strong.  "Time to make the donuts," Marshall will say as he heads off into the pre-dawn morning...