A few weeks ago I was asked to do a photo shoot as well as take some footage for a commercial for the book. This was all an experiment by my publisher, Michael Wiese Productions. An experiment in terror, in fear, in…seeing how far and wide this new-fangled Internets thingy could take a trailer/commercial for a book.

And here is the end result. Read on afterward for why I think this is so cool. They say that the story of how it was made is more interesting than the end product, and I tend to agree.

This was cool for a few reasons. For one thing, the footage was shot in two places, using bare-bones crews and commodity equipment. Neither of the crews knew what the other was shooting except in a very general way.

Footage was shot in Tennessee and Michigan. The Tennessee footage (of the truck and myself) was edited together with Premiere CS3 and sent MOS to Seattle, as well as the raw footage from Michigan. It was assembled, mixed, timed, etc., and ready to go within 48 hours using iMovie. It was then sent off to London for final approval.

Now think about it. This was a no-budget deal. We threw it together in short order and had it ready (thanks to the Internet) traveling all over the world in a matter of 2 days. Timezones excepted, it really comes down to 36 hours or less. We never met face-to-face, only communicated using phone and e-mail.

There is something to this, and I do love it. It reminded why I got into making movies in the first place: because I love it.

I’d like to also thank Dustin Masters for coming down and helping with our part of the shoot.