Planes, Trains and Au
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Automobiles‌ and a
te Bus A Week in the Life of Marc Travers by Marc Travers
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles… and a
White Bus have been a part of the Nationals since 1998, so most people who have been reading this magazine or watching the series on TV know that I did not start my MX career in motocross, but in TV production. This gives me a very unique take on our sport and how it is delivered to the masses. Lucky for me I also had five years of magazine production under my belt before I went racing, so realistically I was coming into my new position with lots of hands on experience, but not a lot of pertinent knowledge. Move quickly 15 years ahead (that’s right folks, 15 years), we now have a summer routine that is made up of cross country plane flights, hour upon hour of time in the edit suite, two full days at the track for each race, and a whole list of details in between, making up one of the busiest three month schedules in the business. Here is a quick glimpse into the seven-day stretch.
I
Monday 6:10 a.m.: I just landed in Toronto. The Red-Eye. One of the most taxing journeys a body can take, but also one of the most functional. I am always glad when I actually step foot inside my house at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, but to be honest, on Sunday night, I would rather relax after the National race day. Having a nice dinner, hitting the pouch, then flying in a civilized manner on Monday sounds like a dream, but as the schedule dictates, Monday is a full production day, so “Welcome to Air Canada’s nonstop flight from Vancouver to Toronto”. By 9:00 a.m. I have arrived home, freshened up and have begun to transfer all of the ENG Camera (E.N.G. – Electronic News Gathering – the footage shot by the hand held camera we run around with all weekend) and POV camera footage (Drift Action Helmet Cams and Lock-offs) from the portable drive to two working drives; one master, one back up - two plus hours. While the footage is being transferred, I take a quick trip up to Hill’s Production Services, home of the post production for the TV series since 2001, to drop off the tapes from the pervious weekend. I also drop off the HD tape deck, which travels to and from the track each weekend; a very heavy carry-on. Back home for a quick bite to eat, then to my office to recap the weekend’s events, and confirm all of the items needed for my edit on Tuesday are where they should be. The post production of the National series works on a three week turnaround. This schedule is based solely on the actual time it takes me to review all of the footage from one race weekend, while actually editing my condensed list from the previous week’s race, while voicing and fonting the race from two weeks back, all in the same week. Yes I know, it’s already a busy week. The balance of Monday is taken up by beginning to sort through what we shot on the previous weekend, writing a column or a story for MXP (as you can see this is an added detail which is throwing a wrench in
Marc Travers follows the nationals each weekend from inside the production bus.
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles… and a
White Bus A team of cameramen and technical experts work with Travers to deliver the raved television production.
my editing schedule), naps; possibly 1-2 30 minuters just to keep me from nodding off at the computer. I also run my own business, so Monday is paperwork day, invoicing, paying bills, bookkeeping – all the good stuff. By now it is about 4:00 pm. My son comes home and we are off to drum lessons, a quick bite after, then to the ball diamond for a 6:15 baseball game. I’m one of the coaches, so I have to be there or else I would drop the little punk off.
member, we have to get that 30-minute moto down to about 10 minutes on our first pass. This usually takes 2 hours per moto. There is a couch in the edit suite. I nod off occasionally.
8:45 p.m., back home, maybe an hour more of watching the past week’s footage for choice selections. Getting tired - time for bed.
Wednesday 5:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off, feels like Ground Hog Day. I do my best “Phil Connors” and head for the hot tub.
Tuesday morning 5:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I’m in a hazy state. Did I mention I work better in the morning? I roll out of the pouch and hobble my way to the coffee maker. Coffee’s brewing, and out to the hot tub for a 20-minute wake-up soak. Sun is just coming up. Out of the tub and feeling fine, coffee’s poured and I’m at my desk. Timing is everything in this business. I have to be at Hill’s for 10:00 am to be ready for my Voice Over for the round from two weeks ago, so I have about three hours of true working time to: do a font pass for the race we are going to voice (all of the on-screen text you see on the show has to come from somewhere!), plus make all of my notes for the actual Voice Over. If there is any more time available, I will continue to review or “offline” my previous weekend footage.
From 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 I am starting to break down each moto from last weekend. This is when I choose the best race footage from the four sources we record during each race; looks like we have lots of options. This is where a lot of the creativity starts to come into play.
10:00 a.m.: Arrive at Hill’s. There are three things going on at this point. Andy Walker is working on the font pass I just sent him, Colin Van Hattem is ready for Brian and I to do our VO and John Luff is finishing his digitizing of the previous week’s footage and is starting to assemble the show into an uncut format for us to work on once the VO is done. The VO takes about two-three hours depending on flow and how bad I am. Brian is always “Fabulous”, he’s a “wordsmith”; I’m the weak link in the chain. Once the VO is done Colin has another eight hours of mixing to do on the show, adding in all of the music and getting the race sound right where he wants it. A little lunch and it’s into the edit suite with John. 1:00 pm: John and I now dive into the fresh timeline. At this point I am usually quite tired from the VO, it’s a workout for sure. We normally start on the first MX2 moto and start to condense the timeline. Re-
5:00 p.m.: Done at Hill’s for the day. Starting to feel weary. Quick supper then off to band practice. Home around 11:00. Have to get to sleep.
Back to Hill’s for 9:00 a.m.: John and I edit all day, taking the previous week’s races down to the 10 minute mark. Colin is finishing his mix, and Andy is finishing his font pass, which means Andy and I proof the font pass before it goes to tape. We occasionally screw things up, but our track record is pretty good. By the end of Wednesday, the previous week’s show is ready for packaging and delivery, and the current race we are working on is very close to the format, although at this point it will be about eight minutes long. John spends an hour or so working through the “Naked Truth” section and we are getting close. 5:00 p.m.: Wednesday night is usually a good night to relax and hang with my wife Monique, all work and no play make Marc a dull boy. Oops, just got a call from my other business partner, there is a problem at the Steel Trading office I also work at (yes, I do a lot of different types of work in my business, one of the new adventures is selling steel). Monique and Marc’s time will have to wait. I get to bed as early as possible. Thursday 5:00 am: Did I mention Bill Murray? Oh yes, “Phil…? Phil Conners!?” – off to the hot tub we go. Coffee is a very important part of my life at this point. Thursday morning is a mirror image of Tuesday and Wednesday morning as I begin to wrap up the “Offline” edit of the previous week’s race. I need to have it done by end of day Thursday, which means
format and shot selections to be delivered to John by the end of the day. It is 9:00 am, time to move. Quick stop off at Perficon (Steel Trading) office to clear up a few problem emails, then off to Hill’s to finalize the current edit. John and I usually have the show to time by about noon, which means it is now trimmed to 46 minutes of actual content. This one is proving to be particularly hard, so it is now 2:00 pm. Damn, I could have used those two hours. John now has three-four hours of work still to do on the show; colour correction, Monster M interstitial and logo additions. Once he is finished he has to put the show to tape so Andy and Colin can access it for next week. This is another two hours, as it goes to tape twice, plus a copy needs to be created so Brian and I can have a dub to view before we go to the VO booth next week. I have arrived home in the afternoon to finish off my “Offline” and email the info to John so he is ready to go on Monday morning. Time to think about flying out on Friday morning for our next round of racing. Most of the flights leave early Friday, so getting the bag packed without forgetting everything is a priority. Dinner on Thursday leads to Jonathan’s second baseball game of the week. Home by 9:00 Thursday night. Time to find my “race weekend” legs. Friday 6:00 a.m.: Alarm goes off, but this time I find myself sleeping beside Andie McDowell, oops, Monique. It is Ground Hog Day no more. Time to get my act together, confirm my packing is done correctly and we are ready to leave for the airport. Forgot to mention I have to take a package from Hill’s for Rob: race tape labels, all of the cards for the ENG camera, extra tape stock, the HD deck, a few copies of Coronation Street, a fresh bottle of Febreeze, and anything else Rob Hill needs for his western journey “On the Bus”. This means two carry-ons and my weekend OGIO bag. My hands are full. A bit of traffic and I arrive at the airport with a just a few minutes to spare. The LINK train from the cheapest parking lot at the airport is not working; I now have to take the bus. This is a pain in the ass and throws me off schedule. I forgot to check in last night, so it’s to the kiosk for my bag tags and boarding pass. The line up to drop off my bag is huge; feeling the pressure. Still
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need to go through security but since I picked up a Nexus card last fall, I get to bypass the big line up. Scores! I breeze through the special trusted traveller line right into the screening process. Bingo! Arrive at my gate to find Gauldy, Kinger, and Danny Brault waiting. They seem relaxed, I seem tired. On the plane we go, and it is time to go out west. Eyes close as we take off. We arrive in Calgary. I am hungry. As a matter of fact I’m always hungry. Stally picks us up and we are off to the track. Friday at the track is a very casual day. Darnell (Race Course Marshall – Darryl Murphy) is now looking after all the on-site organization, parking of rigs, and general problem solving. Kinger (Head Referee – Paul Kingsley) takes a track walk, Gauldy begins to tweet, and I take a deep breath. It is now about trying to figure out how we are going to shoot the changes they have made to the track. This is one of the most important jobs I have. Since moving to HD, we have dropped a camera, so now I have only three fixed positions and Calgary is an enormous track. I have a few favourite spots, hopefully they will still work. I normally draw a new track map each year so that Orten (Track Crew Manager) and I can sit down on Friday afternoon and go over camera placement, talk about ideas of how to dress the track, areas of concern for visuals, where to put the Monster Can, and a few other details to keep his crew moving in a positive direction. Orten has a great disposition; a very even keeled man, just the right person for the job, which may be one of the most difficult jobs at the track; long, dirty hours. By Friday afternoon Calgary time, I am ready to leave the track. I have my camera spots picked out, I have my Sky Jacks and scaffold organized, I know where the White Bus is going, and I am ready for a quick nap; back to the hotel. Friday night is a good night to relax. The past few years we have been going to the Fox Headquarters party hosted by Jay Moore; a very cool event. So everybody piles into the rental cars and off we go. Good food and a few beers, and we are back at the hotel. Sleepy time. Saturday 7:30 a.m.: Because of the time change, I usually wake up early, regardless of how tired I am, but I don’t mind this really. I just readjust and grab another hour or two of shut-eye, but by 7:30 I am usually awake. Saturday mornings have become my morning of rest. I don’t have to be at the track until about 10:30, so I like to drink coffee, watch Sportscentre, text Monique and get ready for my run. mxpmag.com · Motocross Performance 49
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White Bus
Kyle (Scott) and I are basically tied to the hip for the first three hours shooting all of the support footage we need to bolt the show together” Run? Yes. I have been running on Saturday mornings since I started this job. I usually run three-four times per week, but with my summer schedule I do not get the chance. Saturday is my only day but it makes me feel good, so off I go. To be honest, it is one of the things I look forward to the most. I have seen more of the towns we stay in by running around the streets close to our hotels, compared to the monotonous drive from the airport, to the tracks, to the hotel, to the track, to the airport. We go to the same places every year, so I like to mix it up a bit. I arrive at the track at 10:30, fresh and ready to go. The track is already alive with the sounds of amateur day, and the first Moto of the Western Canadian Women’s Championship is ready to go. Gauldy and I look after the podium for the Women’s races so we need to set up the PA, make sure the impound is bannered, and have the trophies and champagne ready. The balance of Saturday is made up of confirming the camera locations, getting the lifts and scaffold in their exact places and set up, confirming with the track crew where we need to cut the track to bury the camera cables, deciding who we are going to interview for the “Naked Truth” segments the next day, picking our Helmet Cam riders so we can get the mounts set a day early, choosing the “Lock Off” camera spots; basically getting all of our ducks in a row for the big day on Sunday. Did I forget to do anything? We’ll know in the morning.
We are usually done by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Gauldy and Stally handle the Amateur podium, so they are always a bit later at the track, but basically by 7:00 p.m. we are all cleaned up and ready to go out for dinner. This is one of my favourite times of the weekend. We usually go out on mass so there could be as many as 10-12 of us. Always a good time, chatting about the track, last week’s race, who we think is going to win, busting each other’s chops, and hopefully catching a period or two of the Stanley Cup Finals. 11:00 p.m. - time for bed. That is my personal curfew on Saturday night. Need to be rested for Race Day. Sunday Race Day - 5:30 a.m.: The alarm goes off and I am a bit groggy. I wish it was Saturday so I could roll over. No dice. In order to make sure I am totally ready to walk out the door by 6:30, I have a routine. A cup of hotel room coffee and a little Sportscentre, pack my bag, as we will be leaving that night, get my uniform ready for the day, shower and shave and I am out the door on time. This weekend in Calgary is different than most as we can walk to the track, but since I have all of my stuff, I hitch a ride with the crew or one of the teams. At the track for 7:00 a.m. The day starts off full throttle. Timing is key on race day as things have to be done in a certain order and at certain times and places, so I need to be efficient. Rob and his crew are getting the cameras set up in the three hard
locations and confirming all of the cable runs are complete. This has to be done by 8:00 a.m. as that is when practice starts. 7:30a.m. is riders meeting so I have to have my ENG cameraman ready to shoot. This year it is Kyle Scott, new to the series, but young, energetic and enthusiastic. Kyle has a full list of shots we need in the morning, from riders’ faces at riders meeting, to track shots, to pit B-roll and practice B-roll. Kyle and I are basically tied to the hip for the first three hours shooting all of the support footage we need to bolt the show together. Shooting practice is a very important part of the day because it gives you a good idea where your race ENG positions are going to be. A good ENG shot makes the show that much better so we are always looking for a good start and finish to each location. Brian and Gauldy were the best at finding the right spots when they were directing ENG on the ground. I also have to make it out to each one of the hard camera positions to talk to the cameraman about what I need from them during the races. If they have shot with us before then it is easy. If they are new then we need start from scratch on how I like the racing to be shot. This is a very unique situation for a cameraman. Most of them seem to really like shooting moto and working with me as a Director since a lot of them keep coming back, but it can be stressful because it is make or break. Once qualifying is done we are off to the pits to do our MX2 then MX1 interviews. This a good time because the riders have relaxed a bit once qualifying is done. The Naked Truth interviews
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White Bus are one of the more fun things I do. Setting up the look of the shot takes a bit, but our conversations on camera are funny. I tend to ask off the wall questions, moto questions, or I will hear an answer and go off on a tangent. Most of the riders are pretty young so I enjoy their take on life. I think most fans would love to see the outtake reels from these interviews. It is 11:00 am now and things are really rolling. I need to have a quick meeting with the Monster girls to make sure we are all on the same page for what I need of them and where they need to be; another of the tasks I enjoy. Then Gauldy and I need to do our show opening so picking the right location and blocking it out takes a bit of time. Gauldy is great on camera, very animated, so after I mess up a few times we get a good take. Time for a quick snack as we get ready for our first race. 12:00 p.m. MX2 Moto 1: There are a lot of specific shots we need at the start of each race so the show has the right pace as you come in from commercial. Over the last few years we have developed a formula, which I think is a very accurate, if not a condensed view of exactly what it is like. We all know how important the start of a race is. We need our pre-race shots: out of staging, gate picks, gate prep, out on parade, Monster girl 30 board close up, Monster girl moto board walk and rider pan. Once the riders come back from their parade lap, I need to set the helmet cam on record and quickly get to the “White Bus” so I can get into the Director’s Chair for the start of the race. At this point Kyle is on his own but he knows his program so he is good to go. Back in the bus, sitting in my Director’s chair where I also switch the cameras for the line cut. It’s a good thing I have two hands. Here is where it get’s interesting. Being inside the bus means I can only see what the cameras show me so I need eyes on the outside to enable me to get the cameras in the right position. This is where Stally comes in. Mark Stallybrass and I have directed every national race that has gone to TV since Grunthal in 2000. That was my first race in the “Chair”. Stally is great at knowing how long before a battle will start, keeping his eyes on the leaders, and finding those “hidden gem” battles that seem to come out of nowhere. Our motto is, shoot the best battle behind the leader, as far back as it takes. If there are no battles, we shoot the leader, then 2nd, then 3rd and so on, so we have footage of all of the top ten guys. Kyle, on ENG, shoots in a different manner. He always shoots the leader, plus every rider back to the best battle inside the top ten, in a different spot on every lap. Therefore we acquire as much variety as possible. The checkered flag is out. The moto is over. I now have to run out of the bus and get my ass to the stage. This can be a long run or a short jog. In Calgary it is usually a long haul. A quick stop at the CMRC trailer on the way by to pick up the stage goodies: swag, holeshot cheque, camera mic and we are ready to go. Gauldy and I switch off between TV interviews
Top: The famed television production bus. Bottom: Marc Travers giving last minute instruction.
and the stage so we each end up doing two sets of TV interviews and two podiums with each of us taking a final podium of the day. Each rider in the top three gets a TV interview. At least one interview per rider will make it to the TV show. Okay, the podium is over, but I hear Kinger blowing the horn. 20 minutes to staging. Here we go again. Of course each race is different and holds it own set of challenges, but as you can see we have developed a nice routine for each so we don’t miss any details. The final podium of the day is done, the champagne has been sprayed, time to relax. Nope, not yet. Back to the bus to make sure the footage is transferring to the portable drive. We also need to take down the scaffold and bring the lifts back off the track. The camera crew is breaking down the gear and bringing everything back to the bus. At the same time, I am getting my bag ready from the bus, which contains all of the tapes we shot that weekend. Did I mention I have to take the HD deck? Time to find Stally and get our asses to the airport. It looks like Jan has us on another red eye. Just enough time to sit down for some dinner and a few beers before we fly. Finally, a chance to relax. Before you know it, we are called to our gate and on the plane. Before you know it we are touching down in Toronto and the circle is complete. What day is it anyway? There is no doubt we all have a busy schedule during the Nationals. Mine is just a little different than most: lots of hats worn, lots of details not to miss, and not nearly enough time in the day. I still have a lot of work to do on last week’s race. Back to the tapes. We’ll see you at the races. Travers, OUT
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