Mike Ambs reports – The six months it took me to import and tag the more than a 100 hours of footage – the main bulk of the film – was fairly easy for me to keep a pace with. It was “easy” because there was a solid goal: x number of tapes. It was “easy” because my progress was obvious: I would log the number of tapes imported by date, I would mark when that entire tape was properly tagged, I would keep track of which drive it was kept on. The process of importing was done in baby-steps, and as long as nothing stood in my way – ie, hard drives filling up – then I kept moving along.

But now, the footage is imported, it’s scattered in chunks across a timeline that can be overwhelming to make sense of some nights. There is no x number of blank for me to track… there’s 100 of hours of footage, and millions of ways to structure it.

There’s pieces of the edit that I cut, and then re-cut a week later. There’s pages of storyboards and scripts and hand-scribbled notes that get pinned to walls and scanned into Evernote. And they are built upon, over and over again.

So, after a few months, near the end of last year, of unsatisfactory progress – I decided to try and trick myself into a more reliable and steady “schedule”. I maybe not know how many pages total I’ll have to write before I’m done with the film, and I may not know how many storyboards and notes I’ll have taped up on my wall before I’m finished… But if I have tiny goals set-up for myself, and I meet those goals, then it feels more trackable. Here’s what I’ve been trying:

Set the bar low… very low: Each Wednesday my iCal reminds me that I need to write one page of script for the film. I realistically know that I need to write more than that each week to make any real progress, but I also know that a constant reminder to write five / seven / ten pages is intimidating.

Writing one page is easy, it usually starts off as notes, just thinking on paper… and then that sheet gets set aside and I write another scene down, and I grab a pen and scribble two more pages of notes. Writing is usually contagious – especially when I’m on my typewriter, that “ding” is very therapeutic – and by having a goal of one page, which is met very quickly, I feel good that I met my goal, and the next few pages that come out do so much smoother.

Share all of it… even the bad stuff: It does me little good to have a growing pile of storyboards and half-finished script pages pushed off to the side of my desk. Even if I think it’s good enough to tape to the wall, it eventually becomes overlooked.

Every day that I type more of the script or detailed notes I scan those pages into Evernote, same with sketches for shot ideas we still need to get of Larry in his “present day routine”.

Our Evernote account is shared by Amanda, Angela and myself – seconds after I add a new note or image, it’s viewable by either of them. They can make notes, add their own revisions or tell me if something isn’t working yet.

Distract yourself… but not for too long: This is the one that I have the hardest time sticking to – I have a tendency to work and work and work on Pedal. It’s not a habit (good or bad) that was easy to form. This being our fifth year of working on the project, it took many years for me to be so… addicted, I guess is an okay word, to Pedal. I wake up in the morning and I start working on Pedal, I get home from work and I sit down and look over the film’s timeline, I spend my weekends updating the blog or tweeking the site to work better.

But what I have to remind myself of, is that I get much, much more done on the film – mainly writing and storyboarding – when I take a break: to watch an old film that a friend recommended (or just a favorite, I can easily watch Days of Heaven several times a month), go for a long walk with a notepad and pen, lay down on the floor and listen to music for a half an hour. Something… just step back, let your head rest and clear, when you get back to work you’ll be much more focused.

Do any of you have tricks to make yourself stay on schedule and be more productive?

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Mike Ambs moved to Los Angeles in February 2004, from the small town in south eastern Michigan where he grew up. He is a certified graphic designer and a naturally talented editor, with a truly unique ability to capture life through a camera lens. In 2007 Mike won 1st place in the Network 2 “how to watch internet TV” video contest and in 2008 was a finalist in the Cannes Babelgum online film festival. Mike has worked as an editor and camera operator for NBC.com and is currently working as editor for the amazing internet show Epic-FU.