Production Notes
I hope these little glimpses into our production will be entertaining for both media looking for story angles and regular Joes looking for background on the making of DreamRiders. They can be used without permission or attribution.
For interview requests, email interview [at] dreamridersmovie *dot* com. I'll be adding more notes here as time permits, so if you'd like to know more about an element of the production not mentioned here, email me at will [at] dreamridersmovie.
-William S Roulston
Rengade Production
This was truly a renegade production. I had no experience and learned long ago that it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. The most inexpensive way to film the rolling bike shots seemed to be shooting from the back of a pickup truck. Through ingenuity and a fair bit of knee padding, our camera crew learned to shoot us fairly well. I don’t know if any of the states had regulations against riding in the back of a truck and I didn’t ask. I just instructed the drivers to be extremely vigilant for traffic bearing down on us too quickly from behind and to be ready to take evasive action. It worked. The only accidents were in the RV (the crew liked to back into gas pumps and buildings with it.) We also filmed without permits. If we were asked to stop filming somewhere, we did. The only time that was really a problem was in Glacier National Park. Having filmed our ride all the way to the top of Logan Pass, we were told by rangers that we needed to go back down the mountain to get a permit. Three hours later, unable to convince an official to give me an immediate permit, we rode down the other side of the pass, followed by rangers who made sure we weren’t filming. With a bigger crew, budget and more time, we could have found ways to do everything by the book, but thankfully we didn’t let limitations handicap us.
Was Making A Film The Right Decision?
Would I do it again? The bike ride, yes. In a heartbeat Would I choose to film the trip again? My only answer is “I did.” It certainly changed the trip. I needed a professional production manager and director running things, but I didn’t have one. The crew worked hard, but there were always things I had to do. So, instead of going swimming or exploring a town when we were done riding for the day, I was on my computer, updating the website or writing press releases. That was the biggest mistake, trying to build buzz and get people interacting with us as we went. Nico would end up hanging around a lot with the crew while I was busy and that was counterproductive to our relationship. I was so exhausted, not only from riding each day, but also from getting little sleep while working on production issues and having precious energy drained while managing the inevitable crew problems. That meant I lacked the energy I needed for thinking about issues I was having with Nico. On the positive side, having to look at footage to produce the show has brought insights about myself and Nico that I may never have achieved otherwise. Nico got to see that you can make almost any idea a reality if you have enough passion, skill and commitment. Filming this may not have been the best decision, but I think both Nico and I agree we’ve made the best of it.
Rebar Bending
The rebar bending moment did not just happen. Before the trip, I made a list of adventures I hoped to do if we happened upon them because I wanted to have the adventure of a lifetime with Nico, doing anything that would give us a rush and help us to bond. Walking on fire was on the list. So when we had to take a 10-day break with Nico’s knee injury in Montana, I began to research where we could do firewalking. Denver Dobbins’ seminars sounded like real testosterone fuel because they also included stunts like walking into arrows held at your throat and bending rebar without using your hands. Problem was that Denver was in Albuquerque. Since there were no seminars offered on our route, we sponsored Denver to fly to Kankakee, IL to put on a seminar, hoping to get businesses to send their employees and defray the cost. That didn’t happen. The crew worked like crazy, even setting up a morning firewalk stunt on WGN-TV in Chicago to attract attention, but I still had to pay for the seminar out of my dwindling cash supply. It was worth every penny. We only show the rebar bending in the film because it was so symbolic of our relationship, but arrow breaking was also thrilling. By the time we got to the fire pit, we were both pretty emotionally spent, but, yes, we did walk on fire. And it only hurt a little.
Deleted Scenes
We shot around 320 hours of footage, which left us with a lot of decisions about what to cut out of the film. One of our most unusual adventures was when we were rodeo clowns at the North Dakota State Fair in the bull riding competition. Damon Rogers, pro rodeo clown, was both inspiring and hilarious and running for our lives from the bulls was plenty exciting, but we had too many adventures in a row in the film and it didn’t fit the flow of the story. We also had to leave out the most touching moment of the trip, a very personal moment between Nico and me in Binford, North Dakota, partly because it was not well covered, but also because the rhythm of the trip didn’t fit the rhythms of a watchable film. I was surprised by the changing tone of our trip. Just as the terrain changed everyday, with hills and valleys we hadn’t expected, so the way we related changed daily, sometimes up and sometimes down. It’s hard to imagine watching a film where the characters seem thoroughly disappointed with each other at one moment and in the next are best buds. Thus, we had to leave out the most dramatic fight captured on film because it happened after a high point and we knew people would wonder What in the world is wrong with those guys? We’re human, is the answer.
Bike Travel
My mother grew up in Ohio, so cross-country trips were familiar to me. I had taken the train, ridden in a Winnebago, and eventually driven myself. But bicycles offered a romance that I read about in books like A Walk Across America or Miles From Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure. I wanted to travel America slowly, and other than walking, bicycling was the choice. The speed of travel and the openness—no cage of steel and glass closing you off from the road—meant we would be open to serendipities as they presented themselves. In this, the trip did not disappoint. We would have never met the Alexander family having their big Labor Day family reunion if we’d been zooming by in a car or on motorcycles. But when we saw the farm house with the big inflatable slide covered with screaming children from 100 yards away, our brains had time to register this anomaly and decide to check it out. Two guys on bikes are not as threatening to people as other travelers. The fact that we were riding across the US was one of the best conversation starters one could ask for. We met people we never would have met, were invited to do things we never would have done. When people watch the film, I find myself having to repeat, “We didn’t plan that. It just happened. I swear I am not making it up.” That’s the magic of traveling by bicycle.
Soundtrack
When it came to the soundtrack for DreamRiders, great fortune smiled on the production once again. David Boxenbaum, head of Octone Records, agreed to be the music supervisor pro bono thanks to the good karma executive producer Charlie Sadoff created as his college roommate. David put out a call for musicians with a synopsis of the film, saying we wanted a Ryan Adams sort of sound. Dozens of applications flooded in, all of them gushing about the theme, many sharing their own heartfelt stories. This was in spite of a very limited budget for music. It’s hard to imagine most movies getting this kind of response, but it seems our labor of love caused people to return the favor. We had touched a nerve and been rewarded with an outpouring of hearts and incredible music. The only negative: needing to select just one composer. In the end, Ari Hest (arihest.com) was selected because of his range, his authenticity and because we were crazy about his music. His original compositions compose every moment of music in the film with a few exceptions. We couldn’t get Dewey Kincade (myspace.com/deweykincadetheartist) out of our heads and he contributes three songs. We edited one dramatic scene to a beautiful song from Joshua Radin (joshuaradin.com) and found we couldn’t live without it. Our reward for following our hearts has been that nearly everyone comments how much they love the music and wants to know where they can get the soundtrack. We’re working on it!
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