We will continue to find and rate music videos as we have done for years. But, we are adding a service — of sorts. We will begin producing films. So many of those we have been communicating with over the years want to break out and away for the daily grind that has become music video production. We get it. Most people got into do music video as an avenue to doing other media related productions.
Our first project will be working with Jason Popow from Waste of Time Productions. Together we will be producing a documentary based on his life as a long-haul professional truck driver. The plan is to go on the road with him as he criss-crosses the United States. Jason has been doing this for 27 years and has a unique view of what makes up this country. Our goal is to see the US through his Canadian eyes. This will be our fundamental mission traveling with him, meeting the people he meets along the way, and rediscovering America.
Details will be posted here regularly as well as crowdfunding opportunities.
In the meantime, here are the details:
Directed by: Jesse Locke
Produced by: Mark Dixon for TikiKiti Productions
Contact Information: mkdee4330@gmail.com, 541-517-9447
Log-line: This is a documentary about a journey of discovery. A journey on many levels. A journey to discover the country — the beauty of the landscape and the people. But it is also a journey of self-discovery. The entire team will be finding out about each other. Each day you will be pushing your personal boundaries — expect to break through them, and not knowing what you fill find when you do.
The team consists of six men driving across the United States with the commercial Peterbilt truck that Jason drives for JD Transport Company out of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The director will ride with Jason in the truck. The rest of the crew will follow in a motor coach in support of the team.
Film Summary: Highway Man is a character-driven documentary and personal approach to what tends to be an exploration of modern life — where the open road is a metaphor life. It’s a story of loneliness versus connecting with people, told through the eyes of Jason Popow (pronounced pōˈ-pō). Jason is from Alberta and works out of Chilliwack, British Columbia. This film will be a journey, or road trip, with Jason and the director (sitting the truck cab with Jason), and crew, as they travel across the US to find the soul of the country.
The film is a journey of discovery. A journey on many levels. A journey to discover the country — the beauty of the landscape and the people. But it is also a journey of self-discovery. The entire team will be finding out about each other. Each day you will be pushing personal boundaries — expecting to break through them, and not knowing what you fill find when you do.
Jason, is the focal point of this journey. It will start with his philosophy of life and what he thinks about the United States. This will be a catalyst to draw the audience into the film. Life on the American highway can be very dangerous with lots of surprises. Jason has detailed many accidents and lost some good friends. It will be imperative that the team takes this trip seriously and safely.
The primary focus will be a journey of discovery: discovering the USA and a more private search about who we are as a people and as individuals. During this early part of the film we will get to know Jason. As such, the film will concentrate on how he started driving and where he has been. Jason has always discussed about how to deal with fear on many levels. His professional driving is about these fears, dealing with his personal demons, and facing death on the open road every day. Also, Jason and the crew will show how the modern American man fits into current culture.
Primary Contact: Mark Dixon, Producer for TikiKiti Productions
When we first started to watch Jason’s videos on his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@Wasteoftimeproductions), The classic song by Simon & Garfunkel song “America” came to mind. In his videos he shows the cars lined up in a traffic jam or riding through the rural countryside, this lyric from this song has been persistent, “Watching the cars on the New Jersey turnpike — They’ve all gone to look for America."
Put simply, this is not a story of one man driving his big rig. The road is a metaphor for our modern American life and Jason is the driver while we explore our country. But, it is also a search for what is makes America the country it is today. We will show how this is an adventure and how most people can't even recognize the importance of adventure in their lives today — let alone being able to recognize the country. Throughout the film we will cutaway to short interviews with transport industry professionals who will bring up some of the several topics currently plaguing the industry. Also, how this critical industry, so important to the country’s infrastructure, is in a shambles.
Jason is a man watching his lifestyle disappear.
Many of Jason’s videos deal with concepts of fear and death and how this concept is plays out today. It is this recognition why his videos stood out to us when we first saw his work. There are plenty of truckers with their own YouTube channels. But Jason's videos are different in that he makes music videos that chronicle of his life. He takes the myth of the trucker and gives it a modern meaning. He is a modern day adventurer, an explorer, even a trailblazer. He shows us a part of the country many have forgotten even exists. The only thing he hopes to do with his videos is to show his audience the universe is wider than our views of it. He shows what his life is like on the road and how they can broaden their ideas about modern life, and specifically, the role of a men in our culture.
When we first started to watch Jason’s videos on his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@Wasteoftimeproductions), The classic song by Simon & Garfunkel song “America” came to mind. In his videos he shows the cars lined up in a traffic jam or riding through the rural countryside, this lyric from this song has been persistent, “Watching the cars on the New Jersey turnpike — They’ve all gone to look for America."
Put simply, this is not a story of one man driving his big rig. The road is a metaphor for our modern American life and Jason is the driver while we explore our country. But, it is also a search for what is makes America the country it is today. We will show how this is an adventure and how most people can't even recognize the importance of adventure in their lives today — let alone being able to recognize the country. Throughout the film we will cutaway to short interviews with transport industry professionals who will bring up some of the several topics currently plaguing the industry. Also, how this critical industry, so important to the country’s infrastructure, is in a shambles.
Jason is a man watching his lifestyle disappear.
Many of Jason’s videos deal with concepts of fear and death and how this concept is plays out today. It is this recognition why his videos stood out to us when we first saw his work. There are plenty of truckers with their own YouTube channels. But Jason's videos are different in that he makes music videos that chronicle of his life. He takes the myth of the trucker and gives it a modern meaning. He is a modern day adventurer, an explorer, even a trailblazer. He shows us a part of the country many have forgotten even exists. The only thing he hopes to do with his videos is to show his audience the universe is wider than our views of it. He shows what his life is like on the road and how they can broaden their ideas about modern life, and specifically, the role of a men in our culture.
Jesse Locke, director, is an award winning filmmaker from Bend, Oregon. He has made six short films and two feature length documentaries. Each of these films have been officially selected by a number of different film festivals throughout the world. Three of these films have won awards including ‘best in show’ for his documentary “Radiance of Resistance” at the Human Rights Film Festival in Belfast, Ireland. He has been providing high quality video production for local businesses in Oregon since 2012.
“We are all in this together and the more you know about other cultures the less frightened you become. At the end of the day, we are all humans trying to provide for the people we love.”
Mark Dixon, story of how his career has evolved as been a producer in film and video for nearly 40 years. He met his business partner, John Perrine in 1986 when they worked on a short film together. During this time Mark realized that being a producer meant managing everything from the budget to people.
Because of these production jobs, Mark was able to recognize all aspects of what makes talented people.
He and John began brainstorming ideas that for later become TikiKiti. We built this company on both or our experience working with talented people and how to honor them. It was here that Mark found Jason Popow. Immediately he told John that Jason is the biggest human interest story he ever came across, and that they should consider making a film with him and about his life.
The goal of this film is to show the American people how much they have in common with their neighbors. With our social media campaign, we hope to find individuals who will meet the team along the way and express their point of view. We expect people who will disagree with the results of this trip. We will give them a place for them to express their thoughts. However, they will be signing a model release with the provision that there is no guarantee their image and comments will be will ne used in the final film.
Driving on the US highway system has many built in hazards. In the 27 years Jason has been driving he has never had an accident. As the producers, TikiKiti will be will be assuming all risks associated with driving. Also, TikiKiti will provide security when applicable.
Since all the social media visuals will be centered part of YouTube, we will rely on YouTube for these options. Once the film is released we will follow the guidelines in when applicable further guidance, reference the FWD-Doc Toolkit and the FWD-Doc Engagement Pack.
The audience we would like reach is not is around the age of our film crew, from 18 year-old to 50 year-old. The audience is all across the political spectrum because we do not plan on any political opinions. Information we have says that most Americans are tired of the current political discourse in the country. This is one reason why we wanted to work with Jason Popow. He is Canadian and with his history of driving in the United States, he shows parts of the country that are not associated with politics or any other divisive subjects.
Our vision for this influence of this film is we want people to realize the continued path of discourse will not lead to anything productive. We want the people who see this film to realize how much everyone has in common with others in this country. Because of all the negative news people are exposed to these days, finding someone to carry this message, who is not a politician is important. Jason Popow, being Canadian, and saying how much he loves this country will go a long way to help get this message out.
Jason Popow is a producer as well as the person with the idea of showing his lifestyle with this videos. He also sees the industry he works for is in trouble and doesn’t know if there’s anything he can do to fix it. He has always been interested in filmmaking and has created a short documentary about is good friend, Brandon Johnson, who worked with him. Tragically, Brandon was killed in a truck accident associated with his job. It is this kind of environment Jason works in every day. As mentioned earlier; Jason is a man watching his lifestyle disappear.
Mark Dixon, producer, and was the first to recognize the significance of Jason Popow and his story. He realized that Jason has a unique vision of how he see the United States. Combined with his sense of humor, his trucking experience, and his philosophy of not letting fear control his life, makes him the perfect messenger for this story.
Jesse Locke, director, has been working with TikiKiti for several years now. He was one of the first artists who received our Barclay Award. Since then he has been very busy making documentaries and music videos through his company UnLocked Films. In his own words, “…film cannot only unlock minds but it can entertain, educate, and hopefully inspire. With every client I promise to bring an unmatched work ethic and creativity. I will work hard to produce the highest quality product for your business. I will never stop pursuing my dream of a fully interactive film experience. I will also never stop telling stories that break down stereotypes.”
TikiKiti Productions, LLC, will retain legal ownership of this film project and maintains a great deal of the overall direction of the production. However, Jesse Locke has been given control of the look and feel of the film as well as the method to achieve our goals.
Project Stage and Timeline
This film is a journey of discovery across the country. As such, there will not be much in the category of rentals and actors.
Financial Information
Funding Source Amount
Mark Dixon $35,000
Greg Fremstad $3,000
Fundraising will be multi-faceted. We will use one-on-one meetings using this pitch deck and a variety of visual samples. We will also use an Indiegogo campaign along with a comprehensive social media campaign.
The social media campaign will be centered around the actual trip. As the production crew create video to be used in the final film, they will also create shorts comprising of behind-the-scenes footage. These shorts, maybe 2-4 minutes long will be loaded regularly. The goal is to start with two video per week, increasing them as long as we have material to use.
The goal of this social media campaign is to get people to feel as if they are a part of something. Ultimately, we want them to feel they are a part of something important.
All grant money will be spent on accomplishing the primary goal. The this, getting the team to Florida and then back to Vancouver, British Columbia. Although initially, money will go to the production team to meet the first installment of their pay, it will also be used to pay for the rental of the Peterbilt from JD Transport and the RV used to follow Jason in his truck.
For all budget information please contact the producer, Mark Dixon, at the email listed below.
Production Company & Primary Contact:
Name: TikiKiti Productions/Mark Dixon
Role: Producer
Email: tikikitivideos@gmail.com
Additional information is by request and approval.
