Category: The Film
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About That Time I Went On Iranian TV
Those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while will know that my mission for 2013 was to learn Farsi (Persian) in a year. This was put to the test on my recent journey to Iran, in which I spent six weeks attempting to follow the country’s longest river from source to sea. (Photo essays here.) It was also put to the test last week, when Tenny and I were interviewed about Janapar on the Iranian TV channel Manoto, broadcast from London and now one of the most watched channels in Iran. If you’re remotely interested in watching some of… Continue reading →
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The Definitive Janapar FAQ
Over the last 18 months I’ve held Q&A sessions at something like 50 screenings of Janapar: Love on a Bike around the UK, as well as a handful abroad. With a lot more people coming to the story in recent weeks due to a global release on iTunes and Google Play Movies (as well as on Amazon Instant Video in the USA), I thought it’d be a good time to attempt to answer as many of the questions I’m asked most frequently about the film. (Warning: this Q&A will potentially contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen Janapar, this will all make… Continue reading →
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Highly Embarrassing Outtakes/Bloopers From Janapar
If you’ve enjoyed the Janapar deleted scenes series I’ve been running over the last couple of weeks (here’s the first one, in which I faceplant into some concrete), I’ve got a little bonus for you — a comedy “outtakes reel” of the most embarassing footage I wish I’d never given to the editor in the first place. (Oh, the humiliation!) Now! Next week is going to be rather exciting, as I’ll be publishing the first in a series of articles I’ve been working on for almost a full year. If I’m right, it’s going to cause a bit of a stir, and so… Continue reading →
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From The Cutting Room Floor #4: Cycling from Aswan, Egypt, to Wadi Halfa, Sudan
This scene recounts all the chaos of a classic experience which all who head down Africa’s east route will negotiate: the weekly ferry crossing of Lake Nasser, from Aswan (of Dam fame) in the south of Egypt to the tiny port of Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan. Deep within the historic region of Nubia, this is the only overland route between the two nations, who are still unable to agree on who actually owns the inhospitable tract of empty desert in between. The ferry sails just once a week, and tickets can only be procured by visiting the agency in… Continue reading →
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From The Cutting Room Floor #3: Life On The Road (in 01:52) [VIDEO]
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/57023486[/vimeo] The funny thing about this, the third in the series of deleted scenes (#1 and #2), is that it encapsulates better than anything else the day-to-day camaraderie that occurs between bicycle travellers and the people with whom they come into contact. Demonstrating this today is the inimitable Andy and a group of Georgian fishermen selling their wares on the roadside. Continue reading →
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From The Cutting Room Floor #2: Quite Interesting Sleeping Arrangements
The second in this series of Janapar bonus video clips will raise a smile with many cycle-tourists. For some of the best two-wheeled travel tales derive from overnighting under the most unlikely of circumstances. On this particular evening, Andy and I found ourselves kindly gifted the use of a small-town football field changing room somewhere in rural Turkey, in which I had the chance to demonstrate my highly sophisticated sleeping system to the camera. This scene didn’t make the final cut for a similar reason to the first clip: there was a limited opportunity to encapsulate the six months for… Continue reading →
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From The Cutting Room Floor #1: The One Where Tom Puts A Hole In His Face
One of the tragedies of art is how much perfectly decent stuff is chucked away. The 300 hours of footage I shot for Janapar is a case in point. The finished film is 79 minutes long, so for every minute of footage I shot, another four hours were binned. (Admittedly, plenty of it was shite, but a lot of it wasn’t.) Beginning today, then, I’ll be bringing the best of this extra material back to life. For those who’ve seen Janapar, these clips will explain a few things glossed over in the main feature. For those who haven’t seen it, they’ll… Continue reading →
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How To Make An Award-Winning Adventure Documentary [VIDEO]
A lot’s happened since Janapar’s premiere at Raindance last year, but one of the nicest moments was winning one of the top awards at Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, one of the UK’s main fixtures in the adventure & outdoor festival calendar. It was particularly rewarding given the ridiculous amount of work that had gone into putting it together — four years of shooting, two years of production and 6 months of distribution so far, unpaid, and the ongoing storytelling project still occupies a large chunk of my time. I learned a huge amount during the production process — as did James,… Continue reading →
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Lessons learned from a DIY film & book tour
So I’m back in Yerevan, my Iranian visa application is filed, and I’ve a week to kill: a good opportunity to look back before the madness of travel descends. It’s been an eventful few weeks with much food for thought. I’ve toured all over the UK and Ireland, attending 12 dates between the book launch in London a month ago and the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival last week. I’ve travelled 2,627 miles by train (yes, I was bored enough to figure this out), taken 3 ferries, cycled a few hundred miles, and only encountered a single rail-replacement bus service. I’ve stood on… Continue reading →
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Touring the UK with Janapar: dates & cities
Life in the Lake District continues as usual: rainy, rural and stunning. But things are about to get rather busy as I hit the road with Janapar this month. Continue reading →