The Movie You Made.

There is a movie the world is playing. The movie is being caught by the camera's in lots of people's heads, but it's not being shared. I want to film the movie this summer. The movie the world has made.

Okay Okay, maybe thats a pretty big leap. How about I start with just the east coast of the continental US.

Here's the plan. Amtrak has a deal going where you can travel on the trains up and down the east coast for up to 45 days as much as want for one price: $280. Cool. But what about lodgings in each city? My first thought was nancies.org, the Dave Matthews Band fan site. And so far it looks very doable. But then someone named beccakfl pointed out couchsurfing and suddenly the trip looks inevitable.

I would film the trains, life on the road, the local landmarks, the downtown skylines, and the people people people. I would also arrange for an interview with one person in each city.
Now I don’t want to interview philosophy professors, or scientists, or anyone that’s part of established thinking. I want to interview regular people, living typical lives, but who happen to feel as though they are on the cutting edge of modern thinking. I want to interview the mind-trendsetters. The bohemians at heart who play it straight, the baseball dad who can’t imagine life without his kids, the accountant who wonders what the hell she is doing all come to mind. But I want to see the other side too. The not yet married couple, reading books, watching movies, studying hard and working 4 jobs between them….and very happy. Or the student studying journalism even though what she really wants is to write creatively and so in her spare time she does, and she excels. I’m looking for the basement artists, the tinkerers, the dreamers, the readers, and the musicians who are happy doing what they love, living the simple the life.

And that would be the movie. 90 minutes of what people who think, think. I imagine taking about 30-35 hours of footage, or about 2 hours for each city.

Thoughts are very welcome, I need all the input I can get.