| Car Camper Documentary Project (10/2/04) This incomplete page details the thought and preparation for the production of a documentary film that will highlight the lives of several individuals living a full-time 'boondocker' lifestyle. 'Boondocking' is a term that loosely means free camping, especially in remote, undisturbed places. The film's topic will cover a broader selection of car campers or van dwellers who may also live stealthily within cities. I am uncertain of the exact structure at this point, but my vision is to find an eclectic mix of individuals who have one thing in common either by choice or necessity, the will, the drive, the motivation to live a self contained, mobile, minimalist, and frugal lifestyle. Concerning the intended audience or marketability of the film, I could go in several different directions with the content and style. One possibility would be to target a younger audience who might be interested in seeing peers living this lifestyle. Preferably, I'd like to find people who live in their vehicle by choice for the sake of pursuing some sort of passion. Potential subjects could be something like an ivy league college student who lives in their van, a surf bum who lives in beach parking lots, a countryside hippy who lives in an old school bus and grows their own food, a roaming group of snow skiers who trespass onto the slopes, a wandering rock climber, or an author working on a book. In this style it would be more about the characters than just their mode of living. Another direction for a film would be to focus on the processes and methods used by minimalist boondockers who live in remote places. The interest would be in observing the extreme measures taken to live efficiently such as cooking methods (solar cookers, under the hood engine cooking, thermos cooking), off the grid power sources (solar, generators, pirated), water sources (recycling of gray water, stills, filtration), finding places to live for free, dealing with the law, income sources, etc. update 1/9/2005: I've begun my trip living out of the truck, and am currently in Albuquerque, NM. This is my first day devoted to searching for documentary subjects. So far, I'm in the process of contacting several Yahoo web groups in an effort to find people in the region living this lifestyle. |
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| 'the set up' |