And here we go! Let’s see if we can’t hit 50 diggs in the first hour! fingers crossed http://digg.com/d318Fjp @FToM #diggathon

Several days ago, I posted a quick question about setting a date to Digg our current For Thousands of Miles (FToM) Kickstarter campaign – all the feedback we received was positive.

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So with only 34 days remaining, we’re going ahead with what we’re calling a: Digg*athon. Here’s everything you need to know to be involved.

We’ll be Digging the film’s campaign at 11 am EST on Monday, October 26th. The first 2 hours following will be the most critical in pushing Pedal towards the front page of Digg, but the Digg*athon will last the entire day, as all diggs will be very helpful.

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Once the story is submitted, I’ll post an update with a current shortened URL here on the production blog, as well as all of our social sites: Facebook, Twitter, IndieGoGo, Virb, Tumblr, etc.

It’s important to clarify “why are we doing this?”. Digg can be a very powerful site, and it can help reach out to hundreds-of-thousands of new people in a matter of hours.

The last time we submitted something Kickstarter-related to Digg, we spent only about an hour pushing the story on Twitter and Facebook, and had just shy of 40 people help Digg it. What was most amazing though; was at the start of that morning, our campaign was lagging at around the 20% mark for total funds raised, by the end of the night, we had jumped to over 60% – raising more than $4,200 in pledges.

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But Kickstarter is an all or nothing campaign – if FToM is even $1 short of it’s goal (of $8,300), the film will received none of the pledges these people have made during the last 60 days.

We know that Digg was just one part of the equation that afternoon, but we’re excited to see what kind of effect the site could have if FToM’s campaign received, say, 100+ diggs, or even 300+ diggs? How many new people would that put the film in front of? How many of those new people would find the film worth pushing forward?

We are hoping that by taking the weekend to help spread the word about Monday morning’s Digg*athon – we will be able to pull in at least 70 diggs within the 1st hour.

A few things to keep in mind: if you’ll be away from your computer during the first 2 hours – you can very easily help Digg with almost any cell phone (ie: iPhone, Blackberry, or any cellphone with internet access) via mobile Digg.

Con’t: http://tr.im/CQPF

I’ve spent most of the last week going over and over the same three pages of script. I’m not at the stage yet where I feel mostly frustrated, I just have yet to find how they fit together and overlap.

The three pages all deal with the moment Larry arrives at the Atlantic Ocean, in Bar Harbor, and for the first time in 4,200 miles, has reached the end of the road.

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The first of the three pages was written well over a year ago, and the 2nd two are variations on the same moment from different approaches. One version focuses more on the “chain of events” perspective; that Larry’s own experience will go on to influence other people’s experiences, and how that relationship feeds itself at a level that often goes unnoticed.

Another page deals with the rush of emotions that come at the very end of any long adventure… all the memories associated with your trip, all the struggles and little memories seem to snap together at once and it’s an overwhelming rush that comes and goes all too fast.

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Some of the script tries to touch on how these memories are all filed away in your brain, how the human body works in an environment that’s always changing and always challenging. There’s also a layer of the anti-climatic, when you come to end of something grand and ambitious and no one around you seems to have any idea or any or interest.

I guess I just thought that writing about this might help me find what I’m looking for, and also it’s been 9 days since my last post and I wanted to let people know what I’ve been working on piecing together. All this talk of Bar Harbor and arriving at the Atlantic has reminded me of this video Amanda and I recorded, knowing that we had finally made it to the end of production: http://vimeo.com/7117714

There are days, weeks even, where this project can feel stuck in the mud. That no matter how hard I try; I just spin in place – and it goes without much saying that it’s a difficult feeling to put up with. Whether it’s accurate or not.

And I’m not writing this post to whine or sulk – I’m writing to say that I feel quite the opposite right now. A month ago I was still running over and over the same 4 pages of script and barely making any real progress… I was also starting to worry that I wasn’t able to reach out to enough new people for our current Kickstarter campaign.

I felt like I was dragging my feet on both fronts. I know a lot of people find themselves in these situations, that no matter what it is you’re working on or busy with, that there are times when you just want to crawl under a rock and sleep.

And, I admit, that I did that for several days… not literally, but I would sit at my typewriter and blank out… I would walk around in circles with the script in hand, reading the same 4 pages out-loud on repeat. I would see that we had a slow day on Kickstarter and instead of pushing harder to get the word out, I wouldn’t mention it anywhere.

But last week, something finally shifted and I began to make leaps and bounds with the script. Long lost pages and narration began to fit together and tell a story that felt smooth and progressive. Which, I believe, lead to the burst of confidence and momentum I needed to re-record and re-edit a new intro’ video for our Kickstarter campaign.

Con’t reading http://tr.im/AP3q