On the road with Discoveries...America
Travel with the video crew of InDemand’s new High-Definition television and DVD series.

Please allow me to introduce myself and this new series of articles. My wife and business partner, Kelly, and I are the producers of a unique and interesting series of one-hour, High-Definition (HD) television and DVD programs about the United States.

Each program is a one-hour collection of video essays about a particular state and is available on Comcast cable channels INHD and INHD2, and also for sale on DVD. See the INHD schedules.

New Assignment - Stateside
When we began production of “Discoveries…America” we had just finished up with a seven episode series, “Discoveries…Spain” and a three episode series, “Discoveries…Ireland” and figured we would produce the “Discoveries…America” shows in much the same style…driving around the country in our GMC Yukon, staying in various hotels and motels and eating out at local establishments.

It didn’t take us long to figure out a couple of differences in working here - in the United States - as opposed to Europe or South America where we have filmed extensively. Food in small town America is not all that great, nor are most of the motels and hotels.

Self-Containment
By the third week on the road filming the new series, we knew that a camper, motorhome or truck trailer combination was the key to our comfort and for that matter, sanity, and it would definitely have a positive effect on the bottom line - the show’s budget. We both like to cook, so there was no doubt food would improve dramatically, too.

But now we faced the dilemma of making a decision on what sort of rig to buy.

Rigging for the Road
Our first obligation is, of course, to produce a good television program, so we had to find some sort of rig that was comfortable, yet agile enough to pull over if we saw a shot we wanted.

We considered a motor home behind which we could tow our Yukon, but decided against that for a couple of reasons. When you put together the motor home and towed vehicle, the combined length dramatically reduces where you can pull over. Same goes for a trailer behind a truck, so we finally decided on a truck camper.

Camper: Fold or Full-Dress?
Our first thought was to find a 4-wheel-drive crew cab pickup and go for one of the campers that go up and down, which would decrease wind resistance, yet still give you some room inside. We looked at several models on the Internet and at dealers, but once we started thinking about the time it would take to raise and lower the unit and the fact that we would be shooting in winter locations some of the time, our choices became much more focused.

Frequently we spend only one night at a location and this started leaning us toward a standard cab over camper unit.

Rolling Stock
We purchased a 3/4 ton, long bed, Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab with a Duramax diesel engine and then started looking around for the right full-sized camper. We were only a couple of weeks away from our departure date, so we had to look quickly.

We finally found a unit that we fell in love with, a Snow River 810D/S model made in Penticton, B.C. Canada. It’s barely longer than our truck bed (10 inches over) and has a 24-inch slide-out in the dining area that dramatically increases the feel of spaciousness inside. It also provides a full-sized queen bed with enough headroom to sit up in bed, a shower, toilet, stove with oven, heater and water heater with a 36-gallon fresh water tank.

The camper is also equipped with a set of electric “Happy Jacks” so it’s a breeze to move off and on the truck, which we do frequently.

Weather Ready
The camper is rated to 10 below zero and is as perfect as we anticipated it would be. The only extra we added was a two-battery golf cart battery system which provides us with at least three days of independence from hookups and probably more - we just seem to keep it to three days, which is right about the time the holding tanks start getting full.

Comfortable Independence
At the outset we honestly thought we would spend at least a night or two a week in a hotel. The reality, however, on our first trip - almost four months - we only stayed in a hotel three nights and that was at the insistence of the Philadelphia tourist bureau, otherwise we would have been quite happy to have never stayed in a hotel. We only ate in restaurants perhaps five or six times, and that was mostly entertaining others. Camper life and the comfort you have in your own space is awesome!

Working Conditions
Even though we’re a little over 12 feet tall, the truck handles the height beautifully and the Duramax Diesel allows us to travel at the speed limit while delivering a decent 12.5 miles per gallon.

We have set up a 17-inch flat screen HD monitor/television on the wall behind one of the dining seats so we can screen and write the shows when we finish filming in a state.

We’re using our cell phones as modems to check email. Kelly has hers set up with Verizon and on the first trip I had a GSM phone from AT&T, but didn’t have coverage about 90% of the time so I decided to switch to Sprint to see if coverage improved. So far with the two different systems we have had coverage on one or the other - or both - almost all the time.

We use Mac Titanium laptops running OS X 10.2.2, and the phones are great as modems. They may be a little slow for surfing the web, but with patience, it’s possible. We’d really like to find a high-speed PCMCIA card that would work with the Macs, but so far haven’t been able to find one that works to our satisfaction. I know it’s possible, we just haven’t had any success with ours. If anyone has any solutions we’re all ears.

Of course, a satellite system is the way to go and you can have satellite television and fast Internet connection with one antenna.

16,000-Mile Shakedown
On our first trip in the camper, which was about 16,000 miles, we started near Seattle, in Issaquah, WA, and then filmed Colorado, followed by Pennsylvania, then New Hampshire in early October to capture the fall colors. We then stopped in New York for some meetings with InDemand, which pays for the shows, then went south to South Carolina. This was followed by Kentucky, after which we hot-footed it back home for Thanksgiving.

We spend about two weeks filming in each state, then park for three days or so to screen the video, write the shows, and do a narration track. This is also a great time to do laundry or even bake a pie. We then ship everything off to our editor Sterling Noren, who puts it all together in a television presentation. He then will author the DVD and send us artwork, so Kelly can then design the covers and send the computer files back to the office where the DVD covers are generated.

Storage and Stash
The way we have everything set up works perfectly for our style of filming. We removed the back seats in the pickup and built a shelf that covers the entire area. On the bottom level, what we call our poor man’s basement, we have long items like tripods, light stands, dolly and jib.

On the top shelf are lights, video equipment and computers, most secure in Pelican cases so we can lock them up to cables attached to the truck frame. This gives us some peace of mind if we go off filming somewhere and also a secure place to store shot tape which is our most valuable commodity, particularly as the shoot winds toward completion.

That funny contraption in the front picture (basically a teeter totter) with the camera on it is a jib, incidentally.

More to Come...
We have filmed nine states so far in the series, with 41 more to go. We’ve met some incredibly nice and interesting people and as these articles continue we hope to share with you some of our rich experiences on the road.

Next: Filming Utah in the Winter.