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Desson Thomson of The Washington Post: Thomson also spent a day with Jessie Blaine, one of the truckers in “BIG RIG”, and wrote this feature story about life on the road, called “Open Highways, Empty Checkbooks." Dan Little, President, Owner-Operators United, Inc., said: "A true look inside the life of several truck drivers and what they face daily. A real life movie worth watching. Thumbs up." When "BIG RIG" premiered at SXSW, Moriarity wrote this overview for Ain't It Cool News. Swindle Magazine featured this story written by Doug Pray about the making of "BIG RIG" in this spring's Issue #15. Pictured above are drivers Jessie Blaine, a load of pipes, and Loretta and Jim Anderson who are prominently featured in "BIG RIG"... Below is an in-depth interview with Doug Pray by Tony Beery conducted for IdleAire's "The Guide" FOR "BIG RIG" PRESS INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Erica Gerard at PMK/HBH: phone: 212-582-1111, address: Avenue of the Americas, Suite 10R, New York, NY 10013
Q: What about the trucking industry, truck drivers in particular, that attracted you to make a documentary of the culture? When we hit on the idea of making a film about truck drivers, I was attracted by several things. At first, it was just kind of a romantic notion because I used to listen to a lot of classic truckin' music (Red Sovine, Dave Dudley, etc.) and I have to admit I kind of idolized that 1970's image of trucking culture put forth by all those "Convoy" type movies. Though it was a total stereotype, it seemed like a fun idea to make a documentary about independence and community, and life on the road (needless to say, this changed when we really got out there and began filming!). I also wanted to make a road-movie that would allow me to freely roam the entire country with my camera and portray its roadside beauty. Another reason is that I'd noticed from my interviews over the years that when people are driving, for some reason they seem more open to deeper conversation than when they are just talking to me in a regular interview. So I thought it would be interesting to interview truck drivers about their lives and views, and that maybe the driving nature of their job would yield more penetrating and emotional or entertaining stories. It worked. Q: How much knowledge or understanding of the business, if any, did you have before setting out to make the film? I'm not a truck driver and, in fact, I'd never even climbed up into a big rig until the film began. I had little professional knowledge of the industry, but all my films are like that. I enjoy being an "outsider" to the culture I'm representing because my own journey to find out what's important and interesting about this group of people becomes, in a way, the film itself. In other words, the movie is a way to explore my own curiosity and enthusiasm for what's really going on. Not being an expert allows me to be more objective because I don't owe anything to anyone-- neither the drivers themselves, nor the government, nor the media, nor the trucking industry. It allows the people in my film to be able to openly speak their mind, so their words become the movie, not my own biasses. It's interesting because once they got to know me, a lot of the independent owner-operators related my own "do-it-yourself" independent filmmaking experience. After all, neither of us like to be beholden to any outside company or controlling force. I do want to point out, however, that there's a big difference between being an outsider and being unprepared. My producer, Brad Blondheim, and I were prepared for filming on the road and knew what to expect and how to go about the production. Back in 2003, we even did a three-day test shoot, just to see what we'd find and whether or not we could actually get random interviews and rides from truckstops. It worked well, and we edited that footage together into a promo that we used to raise funds for the full length feature. (It can be seen on the bonus feature segment of our DVD). I also had lots of interview questions ready and had done research on the industry in general, before we began. Q: Do you think your film will shed light on any stereotypes or misconceptions the general public may have of what the trucker lifestyle and industry is like? How? This one film can't do it alone, but yes, absolutely. It humanizes truck drivers. To most four-wheelers, trucks are these steel monsters that threaten them on the highway and they can't even see who's driving up above. Without idolizing or stereotyping them, "BIG RIG" allows you to meet a dozen drivers and get to know them in-depth. They represent a cross-section of America itself: they have families, they have economic and political concerns, they have religious beliefs, they have things they love and things they fear, and so forth. Simply put, they are ordinary people who've been entrusted to perform an extraordinary job. This is a far cry from the dangerous, drugged-out, and menacing stereotypes that usually are portrayed in Hollywood movies or the news. I know this is working because so many people have told me, after watching "BIG RIG" that now they don't see trucks the same way anymore, when they drive by. They think of the actual person who's behind the wheel and wonder: is he a veteran? does he have wife back home? was she forced to wait 5 hours before picking up her load? etc. Who knows, they may even begin to respect truckers and give them a bit more space on the road. (Hey, I can dream, can't I?) But it won't glorify truck drivers either. Some of the characters are more likable and some are less so, some you might agree with and others you'd completely disagree with, but to me, that's a more honest portrayal of life on the road, than if I'd only interviewed happy, funny or talkative types. Bottom line: this is what we found, and that's who's in the movie. In a larger context, I recently had the rare opportunity to show "BIG RIG" to several different audiences in Vilnius, Lithuania (part of a filmmakers cultural exchange program). Since all they get from the U.S. is an image of wealthy celebrities, CNN, and shows like The Simpsons, they were able to view our country in a very different light. One older woman (who'd no doubt lived through the Soviet era in that country) came up to me, and, speaking through an interpreter, told me that this gave her a completely new idea of who Americans were. The fact that the truck drivers were so honest about their feelings about government regulation, and their love of our country, humanized them for her. She also couldn't get over the beauty of our nation, coast-to-coast, and the amount of goods that are carried state-to-state. For someone living in a small northern European country, this was mind-boggling. Q: Due to time constraints of movies and the necessity to edit out footage, what was not included in the final cut version you wish you could have shared with viewers? Plenty! But that's the hard part of editing any documentary. I had a lot more characters that I wanted to included in the final cut but we just couldn't. And some of them were even more dramatic or more entertaining than some who made it in, but their stories were too similar to others, or the geography or nature of their segment interrupted the overall flow in other ways. These decisions are painful, but It becomes a matter of "all or nothing", and rather than getting to know 30 characters just a little bit, we opted for getting to know a dozen, quite well, and then just include random quotes from some others. But that's what's so great about DVDs! We can now include a lot of those outtakes and dropped characters in the bonus features, and we have done that. (There's almost 100 minutes of extra stories, behind-the-scenes footage, and other features, including a video about IdleAire Technologies, on the "BIG RIG" DVD.) Overall, we filmed about 100 hours of raw footage, which was about 50% in-depth interviews with drivers, 25% shorter interviews or scenes, and the rest was scenic images: road signs, state-lines, cities, clouds, mountain ranges, trucks and truckstops-- you name it-- from around the entire country. Q: What sort of changes, if any, do you hope this film will inspire within the trucking industry? I would hope that, in some small way, "BIG RIG" helps rekindle that sense of community among truck drivers. Like Jessie Blaine, one of the characters in the movie says, "We used to be a family out here. This family has been disrupted." He's referring to how everything seems to be about the money now and how the lack of respect for drivers has torn the independent trucking community apart. In my travels, making this film, I met so many good drivers out there who seemed to be crying out for a return to those days when truckers were the "heros of the highway" and there was a sense of respect among themselves, and from four-wheelers. Maybe "BIG RIG" can let them know that many others share their sentiments. It's not really a political film, and "BIG RIG" doesn't tackle the specific issues of high fuel prices, government regulations, speed limits, or the like-- they are referred to but not analyzed as separate issues-- but I also hope the movie makes people in the industry or in government circles sensitive to the very real pressures being put on independent drivers today. With all the continued talk about trucker strikes and fuel-prices, perhaps BIG RIG can help provide a bit of context for the discussion. The timing of our release and this current crisis is certainly relevant. Q: How did you choose the drivers highlighted in the film? In four, two-week journeys, we essentially hitchhiked around the country from truckstop to truckstop and found random interviews the entire way. All told, we drove about 25,000 miles, through 45 states, and hit at least 115 truckstops. We slept in our small RV in or near truckstop parking lots, and took those $9 showers and ate at the buffets with the drivers, just to get the full experience. To find actual interviews, producer Brad Blondheim and I did what we called "fishing". We'd hang out by the convenience store or near the fuel pumps and if we saw a driver (or a truck we liked with a driver nearby), one of us would approach him or her in a very non-threatening way. In about ten seconds, I'd introduce myself and ask them if they'd be willing to talk to me for a few minutes about my trucking film. Because solicitation at truckstops is forbidden, getting our "pitch" down and learning how to signal to drivers that I wasn't selling anything and meant no harm became critical. For the record, Brad and I got kicked out of dozens of truckstops, just for being there, during the making of "BIG RIG." Anyway, the drivers I approached would either shrug me off with no reply, or look at me and laugh ("you're a filmmaker from California?...are you out of your mind?"), or, realizing I was related to the media, they'd go off into a full on tirade about high diesel prices, the "11-hour" rule, or the corporate take-over of the industry, or they'd warn me that I'd "better not be one of those news shows that's going to make them all look like the scum of the earth." I'd say we ended up interviewing about one in ten of the drivers we approached. We got better as the filming went on, because I was able to honestly tell them I'd interviewed dozens of drivers just like them and the experience was very rewarding. Once they agreed, my one assistant, Jim Dziura and I would instantly climb aboard their rig, put a wireless microphone on their lapel, affix a small light to the dashboard (if necessary), and we'd be rolling within five minutes, with me filming and asking them questions from the passenger seat. The interviews would last anywhere from two to eight hours. Q: Do you see doing any more films regarding this industry in the future? Not necessarily, though I would hope that "BIG RIG" inspires more films by others. There's plenty of room for a wide range of stories about the trucking world. For me personally, these projects take a long time (in this case, Brad and I had the idea in 2001, and here we are releasing in 2008), and I tend to immerse myself into them so completely that when they are finally finished I'm ready to move on into another realm. But this subject of trucking doesn't really leave you. For one thing, we've become friends with some of the drivers in "BIG RIG" and we are staying in touch quite well. Who knows, I may return to trucking someday... maybe I'll even become a driver! (that is, if the fuel prices would ever come down...) Q: How has this film differed from the others you have done in the past? On the face of it, "BIG RIG" seems like it might be very different from my other films: I've made a rock and roll film about the Seattle music scene called "Hype!", I made a hip-hop film about DJs named "Scratch", one about graffiti artists called "Infamy", and a new one coming out into theaters this month about a very unusual family of surfers, named "Surfwise". They are about different American subcultures but they ALL are about fiercely independent people who have made the decision to live life according to their own rules. And they all seem to be struggling against public misperceptions and media-driven stereotypes, which my films try to dispel. I really do think that the truck drivers I met have a lot in common with the musicians, artists, and others that populate my other films, even if they are at opposite ends of the political or religious spectrum. This interview was conducted by Tony Beery, Entertainment Manager, IdleAire Technologies, for "The Guide"
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