Want to be part of a documentary?

I am a cycle enthusiast and a filmmaker looking to make a documentary about the daily life of London's cycle couriers.

It's early days in development but for now I am just looking to chat over a coffee to get a feel for your day to day lives!

If I can get enough interest from couriers I can make a taster tape for the production company I currently work for who will then pitch to BBC and Channel 4, this isn't a solo project with a gopro!!

thanks

good luck with the film, but quit spamming.

You might also want to talk to @Enyke about the campaign that their new IWGB union couriers and logistics branch has got going on?

https://www.lfgss.com/events/788/#comment12319677

Couriers work long hours for shit pay so won't have time to waste...

Maybe worth just going to the increasingly regular pickets about awful(and at times illegal) pay for dangerous work.

Hi sorry for the spam!! I will quit it soon, new to the site and just need some leads.

thanks, i had seen this campaign actually and looking to get in touch with IWGB too.

Thanks for the heads up, we would never get in the way and after doing research can see the pay is truly dreadful. it is an observational documentary and would be pre planned to not interfere with any jobs the couriers receive!

it is that high octaine, no time to waste feel we want from the film.

Octane. But I do not think that word means what you think it means.

you got my drift though and i think it does ;) thanks for the spell check though Hefty.

High Octane - adj vigorously energetic or forceful

I know it's in common misuse as a phrase, but that does not mean you should misuse it. Octane is the burny bit in petrol so is not very applicable to cycle couriers riding fast and doing sweet skids.

If you join me in agreeing to stop using the phrase, others will too and together we can change the world.

You could make a film about it. At least it would be original.

'full banana'

Multi-espresso

Just remember to buy all the coffee and make regular donations to the couriers fund as you do.

consider me educated and now a full time memebr of the octane misuse society!

will do Clockwise! i know non of you guys seem to trust me but this isn't a rehash of Line of Sight (which i like btw) but a more in depth look at the lives of couriers and why they do what they do.

throw me a bone here

Bro, do u even Premium Rush? That's basically a documentary.

Someone just beat you to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFlZ6pVtnv0

Do people really still look at working as a courier as some rad to the max job or something? It IS a job. I can easily say it was one of the most stressful periods of my life at times.
Document something more constructive. Their fight against shit pay and crappy work security.

Frankly, and correct me anyone if I'm wrong, but the moment it hits the edit booths at any big media corp, it feels like it'll just get spun into another 'high octane' anarchist couriers vs the world shite with barely a highlight regarding what's really important in their lives.
Saying 4 posts down that you've just realised the pay is inadequate doesn't inspire much to be honest.
Why are you doing this? What are your aims? What do you intend to showcase with this and to what end?
Your opener of 'to make a documentary about the daily life of London's cycle couriers' just makes it sound like a 1st year uni student project.

p.s I'm not having a go at you. Just be a little more specific.

Have a look at this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBeuK0ovASM

Johnny redbeard
As someone who works as an editor in development quite a bit, I'm struggling to see what the pitch is: Couriers are dangerous high octane sniffing mad fucks, and here's some gopro footage to prove it - or, wow who knew, these guys n girls are actually sweet lovely people, and they deserve to be treated and paid better, and the practices of most of their employers are illegal, immoral, and downright insulting that they treat couriers so badly, just so they can use them as a loss-leader to catch the lucrative minicab accounts with the stupid firms that actually ferry their people about at their expense.

Here's me guessing it's the first.

Enlighten me. With erudition. And no more fucking exclamation marks, what are you, sixteen or something?

I have just started this project literally today and so trying to work out where the programme will actually lie in its execution.

If it were up to me I'd like a mix of the two. I'm afraid I can't be more erudite than that. I have only skimmed the surface of the courier world but already after todays stint on the computer reading blogs and articles, whilst trying to find keen couriers via forums such as this, I have discovered that couriers aren't happy with theit pay mainly due to CitySprint A being the trend setter and B setting their wages at a ludicrously low price. I have also discovered that couriers are at die breed due to the advent of cloud based sharing.

However we are talking about television here that needs to entertain as well as inform and so would require the mad fuck you speak of too.

Apologies if I seem a little wet behind the ears. I am and only turned to this forum whilst amassing phone numbers as I figured an online community of fellow cyclists might stand me in good stead to find help and assistance.

I believe I was proved otherwise.

I have been thrown into this development today and so still finding my feet and just trying to work out where it would fit.

Thanks for the YouTube link I will check it out soon.

I am more interested in making a balanced film than an adrenaline fuelled one. I just need to do more research and talk to some couriers hence looking to speak to some.

Are you calling it "Rampage 3"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT1J65KHX8E

There aren't many couriers on here. I think Moving Target is moribund since Buffalo Bill walked away from it. And BB was the world's leading expert on the subject even some 10 years after he last delivered a package. The Fred Truman of couriering in many ways.
I think you will find couriers are like bike polo players - their reaction will mostly be 'not another fucking media person wanting to stick their nose in. What's in it for us?'.
You should track down the Radio 4 documentary City Messengers and it's follow up City Messengers - Still Pedalling? It features BB, a woman called Nhatt and some miserable twat called, I forget.
And then, to be blunt, you should give up on the idea and try to do something more original. Couriering isn't all that interesting, couriers aren't that interesting and it's been done to death. The City Sprint protest is worth making a film about but I doubt that's what you are looking for or what has any chance of being commissioned.

Thank you whole heartedly for your advice and input WillMelling I was beginning to get a little disheartened by this forum. Which would have been a shame as I'd like to be part of it away from the doco as just another cyclist too. So I am happy you responded. I am very keen to look into the CitySprint side of things and have already got in touch with IWGB courier division to see if I can talk to someone there.

Thanks again