I remember when “camcorders” first became widely available to the average consumer in the mid 80s. Remember those honkin’-huge shoulder cams that recorded straight onto VHS tapes? You felt (and looked) like a News Channel 5 cameraman hauling that thing around, peering into the black and white viewfinder.
We’ve come a long way, though. Now you can film in HD with a camera the size of a pack Marlboro 100s.
I knew we’d be capturing a ton of video on this trip and that it would eventually be edited into a documentary (more on that in a bit). At the same time, I’d been messing around with the Flip Ultra HD camcorder, a tiny little guy that produces amazing results in made-for-web video. The fact that it fit in a shirt pocket didn’t hurt either.
So I bought a half dozen of these relatively inexpensive guys before we hit the road. The idea was that everyone on the crew could have a camera with them at all times to capture all aspects of RunTellmanRun. This would lend the final documentary an intimate, do-it-yourself atmosphere that an audience could connect with. That appealed to me.
Having Flip Ultra HD camcorders at our fingertips every waking moment, we recorded a little bit of everything. When Ben shaved his beard in the hotel bathroom somewhere in Pennsylvania, Luke got it all on camera. When we toured the Yuengling Brewery in Pennsylvania, the Flip was along for the ride. And for better or worse, those little cameras captured all of my moods and emotions while running almost 600 barefoot miles.
All that footage was being fed to Sara, our offside editor who absolutely kills it on FinalCut. She organized and compiled it all and she’s in the thick of editing up the documentary. She should have a rough draft ready by early next week (if you were one of the backers of our Kickstarter fund, you’ll get a link to that rough cut).
We also sent a few Flip Ultra HD camcorders to our friends at the Stepping Stone youth shelter in State College, PA. They’ll be using them to document the process as they remodel their outdated kitchens with the $10,000 supplied by your donations.
And that’s the story of our Flips, our documentary, and our quest to help homeless youth in America.
SHABAMBO!
-Tellman
Luke logging some "proprietary" footage on the road with his Flip, somewhere in Ohio. Look how small that camera is.
I flew down to Miami last weekend for a marketing seminar. Sitting through hours and hours of meetings, my mind kept wandering outdoors. I couldn’t wait to fling my shoes off and run a few barefoot miles on South Beach. The warm sand between my toes, the cool water lapping at my ankles, the gentle breeze… I was going to be in heaven.
Being February and all, I assumed I’d be in spare company on the beach. Surely I’d be the only, or maybe one of a few runners out there. I was wrong.
I bumped into a whole throng of runners. But really, it was one runner with an entourage. Who was this man jogging on the beach with a group of loyal followers?
He goes by the name Raven. He has been running 8 miles on the sandy shores of South Beach in Miami for over 35 years. Literally, this man has not missed a single day he started on New Year’s Day in 1975. 8 miles, everyday, no variance. No matter the weather, no matter if it’s Christmas or his birthday… The Raven is out there running.
I ran for quite a while with The Raven and became totally inspired. Apparently I wasn’t the first. He had a group of almost a dozen “followers” gathered around him like 6-year-olds around the ball during a soccer game. Some chatted while they ran and some remained silent. Some looked fit and trim and some looked like newbies to the running world. But they were all there because of The Raven.
To those people, and to me, The Raven represented discipline. No, not discipline, that’s not the right word. More like promise. You could be having a totally crappy day with no end in sight, but you can be sure The Raven is out on that beach, and you can run alongside him. In today’s topsy turvy economic outlook, it seems like nothing is guaranteed: jobs, house, retirement plans, college plans. But The Raven… he’s a guy you can always count on. The rock. The anchor. The guy you can always run a few miles with.
8 miles everyday since 1975. Simply amazing.
If only everyday life was as reliable as The Raven. Unfortunately for the millions of homeless kids living in America, the only daily guarantee is more hardship. In honor of The Raven and his solidarity, I ask that you head over to http://www.runtellmanrun.com/donate and give $10. Please do it now, before you get distracted by something and forget. $10 may not seem like a lot, but it’ll pay for food for one day for a homeless kid. And if just one kid can have the guarantee that he’ll have food in his belly every day, no matter what, life will be a little less complicated. Thanks.
That"s TOTALLY INCREDIBLE 100,000 Miles Talk about dedication!!!! He"s up there with you Tellman in total committment
You guys are nothing short of AWESOME. I"m really sorry Tellman I would sooo much like to donate some more,I just can"t. I"ve had to borrow money from Dad last 3 months for rent and food. You"re a great guy Tellman. Who else better to help than kids??
I do see the bigger picture in this.Though 'The Raven' is the runner,he is subjective in his senses here...In my own running memories, I can only recall questioning why I was doing it...It hurts to run, and my wife (at the time) would leave me 'in the dust'...Running was not to be my forum for expression. Every one of us is given a special quality; a facet of ourselves,which shines at it's own unique, light angle, in time. We can learn something from each person we witness... Even if in the color of their eyes,and how they saw within us;how they saw objectively...
Among the greatest inventions of all time, it would be unfair not to mention the printing press, the cotton gin, penicillin, the light bulb, Nintendo, nachos and democracy. But I need to add one more iconic, important item to the list: duct tape.
Seriously, is there anything duct tape can’t do? When we were on the road, we went through a dozen rolls of the stuff in a few months. The rolls we kept in the back of the RunTellmanRun van were used the most heavily, for sure. Dean and Chuck used the “Gray Miracle” daily.
Here are the top 5 ways RunTellmanRun uses duct tape on the road:
Foot repair. Before we discovered the wound-closing powers of Gorilla Glue, Dean would throw a patch of duct tape on the sole of my foot if I was bleeding after a run. A tape that sticks to cinder blocks just as well as human skin is amazing.
Door repair. When the door to the family RV wasn’t latching properly, it was duct tape to the rescue. Ditto for the shower door.
Dean repair. When Dean broke his leg just before Christmas, we thought about putting him in a duct cast. He went for the real deal, though, at the hospital. Wuss.
Bicycle accessory attachment. Water bottles, medical supplies, flashlights, food… Dean carried a lot of stuff with him on his bicycle. When the saddlebags overflowed, duct tape took care of buisness.
Battery containment. We had a lot of small, battery operated gizmos on the road. With daily abuse, the battery compartment cover was usually the first thing to break. Nothing a 5-inch piece of Duck couldn’t handle.
Dear Tellman, Your Familie, Friends, Stuff and everybody, i am greeting yours from my home. You are great, really great and strong man. What you have don is more then great. But i am thinking democracy is great but world whithout payed work has any future. Thats mean I, Iveta Steffekova. Everybody has to have payed work, and this whit fantasie, enogh money tu built some business, this could have more than other. It is o.k. But ever man on the world which were sendet from the heavens has right to honesty life. And for this think we have to fight, thats my meaning...sorry, but i am now in so not well temper. I am greeting You and whish only the Best......................Iveta
Dear Tellman,
This wandering, wondering and inquiring mind of mine compels me to seek some information...
Did you replace the tread on your treadmill with some 20 grit sandpaper and train your feet into the necessary callouses, and then go about keeping the miles up while you're off the run on the same surface to keep the condition of those characters down below your ankles ready to go?
I don't think I could do it, but I wonder how someone makes those dogs ready to sing for so many miles.
Great days to you, yours, and the whole crew, too!
DJ
www.enlightenedgreengroup.com
(Jesus, BLESS the world. Please.)
