Vultural said:
Wayne, I hate to kick rocks at this stage, but
will this be mostly car interiors?
Will there be conversations under the overpass?
Getting food at Stuckey's? (God, are there even Stuckey's any more? - If so, do you think they would pay you to film in one?)
I'm just seeing some interior fatigue.
Also - very cynical of me - record labels might shell out a bit if your car stereo plays Taylor Swift instead of "Copperhead Road"
Then again, Steve Earle would be fucking awesome for this.
Interior fatigue, in more or less words, has been brought up by several people. It's a major problem for longevity of program and needs to be addressed creatively.
Conversations under the overpass is incredibly difficult, or any sort of conversation on the side of the road for that matter. A few other reviewers have suggested this idea also.
The problem is the noise. I tried recording a great deal of bits for the intro on the side of a highway and it just didn't work out - too many audio problems. Too much noise, too many cars whizzing by, to much thunderous roar from semi trailers, to many loud SUVs, motorcycles... The wind proves to be incredibly difficult to work with too. It's impossible in post-production to eliminate all of that noise - I've tried. While a great idea, I can't do it with my current setup. I'd need the head-set microphones, they'd need to be dynamic, and cranked way up - with noise removed in post and then brought back down to proper levels. Even then though - this is not a football game announcer, it's a show and those mics are unsightly..... I'd like to get feedback on using those.... Just the visual aspects of them.
Getting food has also been suggested by several others also - and is another great idea.
The problem with this is getting a brand name to consent. Highways and the side of the road are public property, and the interior of the car is my private property; so far no permission has been needed other than from the hitchhikers themselves... and my crew. It might be easy, might be hard... What chain wants to affiliate themselves with a show about hitchhikers? I don't know. Maybe I could use my completed pilot to persuade them. I couldn't pay them. In fact - they should pay me. They should allow my crew and current hitchhiker to eat X number of times per week during production - for free. This will be something I'll look into.
You're the first to suggest radio music. Another great idea, but getting it done may be difficult. They might want me to pay them for rights usage, and I'll never go for it. Also - with it playing on the actual car radio, it'll get sliced - n - diced in post production by the editors, hardcore. To be honest, the more silent the interior of the car is, the better the mic pickups. Music could always be added in post production, and be made to seem like it's playing on the radio. Add some dirt, grit, and ever so slight echo and it'll be believable. For every hard transition, where the audience knows the video was cut, the song can change. There aren't many of those, due to [MENTION=9578]Neglify[/MENTION] being awesome and all - he sliced it up pretty heavily but the flow is damn near seamless, perhaps even better than the original recordings.
I'm beginning to seriously consider adding more content to the pilot - enough to bring it up to the 41 minute mark. 4 more hitchhikers should do it. I'll try damn hard to get some chain restaurant to consent to filming & free food for the crew & hitcher in exchange for free advertising on a network. For starters, I'll ask for 4 meals - for pilot purposes, and rights to the video & audio. But I just don't see how it's possible to shoot on the side of the road........ As great of an idea as it is, and as much as I WANT to do it, I just don't see how from a technical perspective.