Category: The Film
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Lessons Learnt From Releasing A Stupidly Personal Adventure-Romance Documentary
Regular readers will have noticed that the blog has been rather quiet recently — specifically, since last Monday: the day before I launched Janapar. Continue reading →
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Why I’m Looking Forward To Tomorrow (And Why I’m Scared Shitless)
Tomorrow morning at 9am, I’ll press a button and launch Janapar to the world. I do not expect a historical upheaval of society to take place when I do. Nevertheless, the moment will have enormous personal significance: Continue reading →
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Calling All Adventure-Loving Clubs & Societies From Gibraltar To The Urals
With six days left to go, the Kickstarter campaign is going from strength to strength. After the stressful two-year process of creating the book and the film, flying by the seat of our pants throughout, James and I are now in the slightly more comfortable position of being able stop and to look a little further ahead. Continue reading →
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Janapar’s Release Date (And How To Jump The Queue)
Yesterday morning I sat down in front of my laptop and went on an adventure. I went first to Turkey via the whole of Europe, across which I hitch-hiked in a couple of seconds. Just as well, really, that I could barely recall the terrifying ride with an Azeri in a BMW into Istanbul. But I did remember the friendly sight of barbed-wire and sentry-towers that welcomed me into Syria. By coffee-time, I had dredged up the weeks I spent cycling feverishly through a wet Levantine winter, compressed them into a couple of paragraphs, and transcribed myself moaning into a video… Continue reading →
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Film Blog: Report From The World Premiere of ‘Janapar’
Firstly, apologies for the radio silence this last week or two. I’ve been on a very different kind of bike tour — in Taiwan, of all places. There’ll be more on that soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few notes from Janapar’s first festival outing, which took place at the 20th Raindance Film Festival in London. Continue reading →
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How To Wild Camp Anywhere & Not Get Busted [Video]
Wild camping, or stealth camping, is the default modus operandi for the cycle traveller, for two obvious reasons: It’s free. Therefore you can strike accommodation costs entirely. Which means you’ll have more money to travel for much longer. You can do it anywhere. Therefore your destination is less important. Which means you can better experience the journey itself. Simple, really: Wild-camping equals a longer, cheaper, better journey. In this short video, we’ve taken a very tongue-in-cheek look at this crucial bastion of long-distance adventure cycling. Please help us get the word out about Janapar by sharing this video with the… Continue reading →
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How To Shoot A Feature Film With A Cast & Crew Of One
I want to share some detailed behind-the-scenes thoughts on the making process behind Janapar. Those of you who’ve been reading since 2007 will take a trip of nostalgia reading this Q&A. For others, it’ll be a new insight into what kicked off this whole project, and how things have changed along the way. (This article was originally posted on the news page at janapar.com.) Is it possible to be taken seriously as a first-time filmmaker if your director, DOP, camera operator, sound recordist, driver, fixer, logistics manager, stills photographer, voiceover artist and lead talent are all the same person? James Newton… Continue reading →
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The Double Edged Sword Of Independent Film
I’m incredibly fortunate to be working with James on making Janapar. Not only is he a very talented producer-director, but he is one of the few with enough ambition (or recklessness) to turn down numerous well-paid TV gigs in favour of his own independent film. It’s an inherently risky business we’re in here. The majority of independent documentaries are passion projects. Most will never see a penny of profit. A startling proportion will bankrupt their makers. Why? Continue reading →
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Meetups: Plan Your Journey, And A One-Off Opportunity
In the spirit of sharing knowledge and stories and meeting up with like-minded people, I’ll be taking part in plenty of events over the next few months (hence the new calendar you’ll see in the sidebar of the site). Here are details of two during September: Continue reading →
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Film Blog: Janapar Will Premiere At Raindance Film Festival
I hung up the phone, and a primal scream filled the empty house. The signal had been choppy, but I had made out one clear fact: Janapar had been selected for the 20th Raindance Film Festival! Continue reading →