The Pitch
The Thin Line is a documentary telling the stories of Americans in challenging situations, and in a constant struggle to maintain their way of life.
The film’s central narrative will follow Jarral Ryter, a chemistry lecturer and Type 1 diabetic athlete, as he attempts the Tour Divide Bike race. This is an unsupported race from Banff Canada, to the Mexican Border. Jarral has to carry all his own food, water, tent, clothes, and insulin. He will be biking for over 16 hours a day, travelling over 2700 miles total, climbing over 200,000 feet of elevation. This will be the biggest, most strenuous race Jarral will attempt. He will wear a helmet cam along the trip, documenting his day to day experiences.
The parallel story will follow the 2-5 crew members who will shadow Jarral as he races.
When the college students aren’t driving through the mountains in a 20 year old car, they will be riding in Bill and Sue Ryter’s RV. Bill Ryter, Jarral's father, also has Type 1 diabetes. The film will document their worry over Jarral’s journey.
This crew will make several stops along the route, collecting stories that flesh out or parallel Jarral’s story in an interesting way.
Jarral’s wife Anne is also struggling with Jarral's extreme sports ambitions now that he is taking on such a gruelling challenge. We will get her perspective as well as their two young children's on their Jarral's race.
We will interview Jarral’s other extreme sport friends, and diabetic friends, about their own reasons for biking the Tour Divide about what they think the race means for Jarral.
Ellie, one of the crew members will leave the trip half way through, to begin her summer internship on the Navajo Reservation. We will interview community leaders about their struggles to have recognition and settlements for damage done from Uranium mining.
The crew will document Bill and Sue’s home life in Mancos, collecting stories of Jarral’s childhood antics. We will visit the Ryter's small family church and explore the issues of its sustainability as the congregation ages and society changes.
We have more stories we are planning on, but which don't want to announce yet here. In addition to these planned stories, we will search local communities we pass through for stories that parallel Jarral’s journey in ways like these other stories. We will look for local businesses that are fighting to survive in the current economy, or people that are struggling with disability.
Principle Crew
Kyan Krumdieck - The Director of the film is the nephew of Jarral Ryter, the subject of The Thin Line. Kyan's film 'Peep Show' won Best Picture at the University of California Berkeley Campus MovieFest Comepetition. It will be screening at the short film corner at the Cannes Film Festival 2012, and will be competing in the CMF nationals. His most recent film The Santan Cause has begun the Festival circuit receiving Honorable Mention at the Eisner Prizes and screening at the Pacific Film Archive.
Simona Schneider - an award-winning cinematographer, who also worked on 'Peep Show'. She studies film and media at UC Berkeley. Her short film "Bicycle in the Sky" will premier at the Cannes Film Festival this May.
She is also good at charming strangers.
Aayushman Pandey - Cinematographer and Producer - Student at UC Berkeley, originally from Mumbai, India. His short film 'A Day in the Life of India' was shown as part of The Times India's online campaign, and also received Honorable Mention at the Eisner Awards 2012.
Budgeting
This is a really big project, and your contributions are essential to getting this thing done. I've divided the budget into three different ways of looking at the film, so that you can see where your money will go depending on how much money we get.
We are currently paying the essentials as we can, in the hope that we can make it back here.
What your money will go for specifically will depend on where we are in these budget ranges:
Barefoot Budget - $3000
We will have money for gas, some essential crew's flights, and some campsites.
Shoestring Budget - $10,000 - All Gas, Flights, Accommodation and Food
This would be frankly awesome. The whole crew would be working for free, but at least we would not have to borrow money from our parents to survive the journey. This would pay for all our travel expenses and some food!
Dream Budget - $35,000
This would be unbelievable. This would fully finance the movie. All expenses will be paid, including post production, and we would be able to pay the crew a small fraction of the minimum wage for the time we spend filming, editing, producing and making a great documentary.
(This is a brief overview of our full budgets. If you have any further questions about specific breakdowns, don't hesitate to ask us, and we can explain more about where the money will go at different levels)
Scheduling
Roadtripping & Race: June 1st - July 6th 2012
Postproduction - Processing of Perks and Editing: July - January 2012
Locking the film and delivering the Perks to the Generous Investors Jan 2013
