WORLDS BEST DAD

Well all it’s been awhile since we’ve posted…Worlds Best Dad is nearing the completion of production. Just today we have secured a motel location for our final shoot, which will feature the legendary Clifton James! So stay tuned we will have more information in the near future as we secure a rough cut and prep a new trailer!

Update 2

Dear Friends of Worlds Best Dad!

Well, we’re back in NYC.  It’s hard to believe that the long year of planning sped by so quickly.  We drove from New York through Jersey and Pennsylvania, into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and back.  Everywhere we went from Eastern suburbia out into cornfed Middle America and debauched Nevada, everyone welcomed the star spangled van with enthusiastic curiosity. 

We, a band of first timers, dreamers and adventurers had our arguments, our make-ups and our breakdowns, much like Miles and Matt.  Sometimes the documentary approach found life imitating art.  But considering we’re six crazy people crammed into one crowded van for a few hot, tiring weeks, we all got along remarkably well and we’d all do it again.  Fate seemed to be on our side during the trip.  We tracked down a series of phenomenal locations and a bunch of great people along the way, some of whom may turn up on the big screen!  

Some new sneak peaks into our cross-country escapades are up on the website: a few snapshots of our adventures, with a behind-the-scenes video and a new teaser coming soon.    

The last installment of our blogged adventures left off in Broken Bow, Nebraska. We grabbed some coffee for the road and the backroad path led us to the mythical circle of Carhenge before we motored through surprisingly beautiful Nebraska and on into the wilds of Wyoming.  A double rainbow welcomed us into Cheyenne where ‘Miles’ dropped ‘Matt’ off at the Union Pacific railroad station.  We then ate at Sonic burger and discussed who was and was not man enough to get a rocket tattoo.  Answer: Matt and Dean are not man enough.  Afterwards, all scores were settled with a roman-candle battle.  ‘Miles’ is ruthless and boy can ‘Matt’ jump.  Awakening the next morning at a KOA in Rawlins, Wyoming we collected our U-Haul truck and hit the open road for driving shots.  From Rawlins we drove into Salt Lake City and met Rob’s dad for lunch.  Then we drove out of Salt Lake, past the Great Salt Lake and out into the bright white landscape of the Salt Flats.  Made friends with a wild dog just before crossing over into Nevada and immediately into gaudy, neon casino-land.  ‘Miles’ hit the jackpot and the boys lived it up in the hot tub, poppin’ bubbly.  Then we drove to Winnemucca, where we discovered that the Walmart where we were going to gear up for the playa had already been ransacked by Burners.  How would we ever survive?  Luckily, the next supermarket we tried had plenty of water, now we were just faced with the challenge of fitting 50 gallons of water and weeks rations in the already film cramped van.  A couple hours into a failed attempt to install a trailer hitch in a pitch-black parking lot, we decided to roll the dice and test the limits of our lucky van.  After a ‘cat nap’ in dingy motel in Fernley, we drove out to Pyramid Lake to film ‘Miles’ skinny-dipping in the otherworldly desert oasis.  By now, Dean was well on his way to solving the diabolical Rubiks Cube but his progress had been held up by lack of Internet access and hence his inability to crack the code.  A quick stop off in Empire for some grub and last minute supplies and we were on the final stretch to Black Rock City and into the heart of the harsh Nevada desert.  We drove past a line of signs declaring American and political quotes and aphorisms and approached the gates to the city, greeted by a troop of nudists.  After initiation ceremonies we picked a spot and pitched camp. 

To be continued..

The Road Pt. 1

Hey Friends of Worlds Best Dad!

Sorry this’ll have to be short, we’re about to hit the sack before we’re back on the road early tomorrow.  Please excuse any grammatical mistakes, we’re running on Red Bull and various other energy drinks.

DAY 1

Wantagh, NY to Mercer, PA

We got off to a great start on our first day on the road.  Sailing thru NJ and all across the Delware Water Gap to shoot a quick scene before journeying further into PA Dutch Country where we secured our first real location - shooting a scene at the Dutch Pantry Family Restaurant.  From there we headed on to our final stop of the night, a KOA in Mercer, PA where we thought the largest horror of the evening would be finding out we were in a dry county, but we had not yet shot the horrifying story of the Tailey-poe.

DAY 2

Mercer, PA to Michigan City Indiana

Umm..  We zipped up the road from our KOA to our first location, a long shot we hoped to be able to sneak into - the abandoned Belmont motel…  things looked good and we found it quickly and even made friends with the local sheriff who said he had no problem letting us sneak in.  We got in a couple of shots before getting busted by contractors and were kicked out (stay tuned, we’ll be returning here for more on the way back home).  We continued on to our destination of Michigan City, Indiana, an idyllic lakeside town under the looming shadow of a Simpsons Style Nuclear reactor (of course thisll be in the film).  We finished up the day shooting late into the night at Al and Sallys Motel, a ‘classy’ retro roadside joint, and made friends with Ben the self-proclaimed flat-foot-bare-foot hillbilly.

DAY 3

Michigan City to Des Moines, Iowa

First thing in the morning we unleashed our shiny rocket for a jaunt around town, before getting back on I80 and happening upon the Worlds Largest Fireworks store, whose owners were nice enough to lets us shoot a scene straight out of Supermarket Sweep.  We then headed on to the depressed but friendly city of Gary, Indiana where we infiltrated our favorite location yet - an abandoned burned out church (see pics on website).  More stuff was shot that day.. but I’m too tired to remember… I’ll get back to this later..  Oh yeah, we all hated the motel in Des Moines that night and Josh even slept in the van to make sure the drunks who like hanging out at motel parking lots didnt mess with our precious cargo.

DAY 4

Des Moines to  Broken Bow NE

WOW.  As soon as we got out of Des Moines things looked right up.  As we stopped to get gas we lucked upon a Jerrys Kids donation drive run by the fire department and enlisted their help for our most flat out, adorable and funny scene yet.  I’m not giving away any jokes..sorry.  Some driving shots and 300 miles later we ended up in a cornfield filming Matt, Charlie and Dean taking a shower in those giant sprinklers they use to water those acres…  

Ok, so Day 5 tomorrow… We’ll try to update this as often as possible.  

Best,

The Crew

www.worldsbestdadmovie.com

365 days later….

THE STORY OF WORLDS BEST DAD

Nearly one year ago to this day Josh and I were sitting in a bar somewhere in the no-mans land that surrounds the Lincoln Tunnel.

We’re drinking a pair of cold Blue Moons looking for any excuse to not venture back out into the heat while working a dead end job as roving video cameramen.

We’re bitching about our jobs, and talking about wanting to make a feature length film…We had one image for one… A van driving on a road with a giant rocket mounted on the roof.

We’re talking about this and not even paying attention to whatever botox infested celebrity was shilling their wares on the TV playing over the bar when suddenly a commercial flashes on, with a big SUV carting a giant lollypop on the roof.

This was a sign from the gods! Between rounds we vowed that this movie would be made!

One year later we’ve got a great script written by Josh’s brother Matt, the opening 20 or so minutes of the film in the can, a slew of credit card bills to pay, a giant rocket, and a leviathan of an American flag van.

The only thing in our way now is 3000 miles of highway….

-Rob