Locked and Loaded

Time: December 18th, 3 a.m.
Status: Picture locked

Hooray! . . . and, bloody hell.

It’s grueling, delightful, and ridiculously gratifying work to birth a feature-length film. After 18-hour days, endless bags of chips, and countless creative dilemmas, we connected all the dots between the opening sequence, and the rolling credits.

Many of our darlings are dead. But the remaining moments of the film are magic. No doubt we’ve looked at more naked bodies in the last two years than, . . .well, than just about anybody—ever. No kidding. Screening six hundred plus nude-and-painted riders viewed day after day truly changes your perception of the human form—in the best way. As the Brits lovingly say, “There’s nowt so queer as folk.”

We finessed 3 terabytes of footage into a 90 minute, fun-filled ride with Emily, Marty, Jeff and Molly. Thanks to four fantastic riders—we love you guys!—and to all of the people we met along the way who offered their time, and their open hearts.

We learned many lessons in the making of this film. Perhaps most important: If you’re going to go through the labor pains, make sure you love the subject matter. We love the Naked Bike Riders, and the joys of what Molly calls “silly misbehavior.”

It’s amazing to us that no matter how many times we watch a scene, it never fails to make us laugh, grimace, and even get weepy. We’ll let viewers assign adjectives to the film, but for now we will make the claim—It is highly watchable.

A huge THANK YOU to all our supporters along the way: our Kickstarter contributors, the Fremont Arts Council, the Solcyclists, and especially to our parade-day film crew. We’re indebted to the 43 volunteers who worked so hard to capture the excitement, beauty and humor of that crazy day.

What’s next? We’re submitting to local film festivals. Now that the gestation period is over, we promise to send out frequent updates on upcoming screenings—public and private. For the moment, however, we need to open another bag of chips, and get down to the business of audio engineering and color correcting. We’re also licensing music and working with local musicians to creative original scores. Very exciting stuff.

The work’s not over, but the picture is locked.

More soon…

Lisa and Dan