Road Quest Episode 13 - Live Q&A

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Vital Statistics

Date: 06 January, 2020

Category: Road Quest

Cohosts: Matt Griffiths, Alex Steacy, Brendan "Beej" Dery, Graham Stark, Ian Horner, Serge Yager

Runtime:

Questions

Season 2?

Graham: No plans and nothing to say. Sorry.

Post-recording

How did everyone get home and what happened to the cars?

Graham: Everyone got home in different ways. Some people flew and some people had to drive.

  • Jay: Flew (it was cheaper than paying his day-rate for the trip home)
  • Jason: Flew
  • Graham: Flew
  • Serge: Drove
  • Ian: Drove
  • Beej: Drove
  • James: Drove
  • Adam: Drove
  • Alex: Flew
  • Ben: Flew

Ian: When I say Saabine went to the scrap yard, when I went to collect the rest of my things from it she was fully detailed, which isn't something you do to cars that you are going to just junk. So I am pretty sure Saabine is up in the north, tootling around, literally having a better life than she ever could have.

Graham: The original plan was to drive them all back to Victoria, but it was on day 8 or 9 that Serge bought up "What if we just leave them in Whitehorse?"

Beej: Gandalf and the Crown Vic were signed over to John, the guy who picked up the Saab.

The Driver Mutiny

What did Graham/the crew think when the hosts ignored the instructions to take Yukon Highway 6?

Graham: The plan for for it to be the big challenge for the cars. We hadn't expected what we called in the show "The Nisga'a Highway" (which Google and Wikipedia are wrong about) [to be as bad as it was]. When we were discussion it that morning, it was kind of like 'We sort of have that content. We have the "these cars suffer on a terrible road" bit. If we do this again, is it just going to be "Oh yeah, we put the city cars on another terrible [road]. Is it just going to be that, or is it going to be really worth it.' Then the Saab died. So while we in Teslin, we said "Alright everybody, what do we do? How do we do this and how do we show it on camera?"

Beej: And I put up my hand and said "I think I have an idea." And it was essentially how you saw it play out.

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes footage and stuff? (See also: the backer videos?)

Graham: We have a lot of behind the scenes footage that we are going to do something with eventually.

The Cutting Room Floor

Hosts: Is there anything you really wanted to make the final cut, that didn't?

Ian: There was a lovely monologue I did on day one that was mostly unusable because unfortunately half the car (Alex) was sleeping.

Alex: There was one or two things I wished I had done. The sequence where I build the gunpla? We only figured this out afterwards; you know what I should have done, is turned it around and said "It's great", [Ed: Alex mimes throwing it out the window] and bunged it the window.

Graham: There was a bit that was not in camera on the last day, joking about what they were going to find at 40 Mile. Adam had this idea that it's just going to be an empty field and Wario is going to be there and he'll go "Wah! Nintendo is real"

Alex: It is a shame we didn't shoot much when we got to 40 Mile. I really wish we could have seen inside Dredge 4.

Ian: Something that I wanted to do half way through and realized we couldn't was buy some pans and when we get to Dawson, go down to the river and pan for some gold. Until we were told that basically the entirety of the riverbed is owned and partialled up into claims.

Serge: I had expected more filming on the accommodation, so had booked interesting places. This turned out to be a mistake in Dawson where it was a hostel.

The Hardest Part

What was the hardest part of making Road Quest?

Graham: Definitely the post-production. The editing took a long, long time because it was difficult.

Choosing Cars

What were the other cars Ian and Beej looked at?

Serge: I have a spreadsheet. Give me a minute to bring it up.

Alex: On the reveal day, I seriously expected Ian to turn up in a miniature truck.

Ian: I considered it, but I didn't because I knew we were going to be going at highway speeds for a very long time.

Serge: The way the buying process worked: the drivers were allowed to talk amongst each other and us[Ed: the production crew] to figure out the cars, but we never wanted the co-pilots to know what the cars were so the reveal was more organic.

Graham: The reason we talked back and forth was because we didn't want 3 of basically the same car.

Serge: The drivers would send the list [of cars] to me and I'd start making phone calls - is it available, when can I see it when can we (including the driver) test drive it. If the test drive passed, let's go and get a mechanical inspection. Oops, mechanical inspection failed, lets start that all over again. So my spreadsheet for all the drivers, including titles, has over 45 lines. James predominantly wanted a sports car, a convertible. So we were looking at 2004 Mustang Convertible, 1996 Mustang, 1999 Accord, Pontiac Sunfire, 2000 BMW 323 4 cylinder. Beej and I looked at 7 cars together: 1976 Dodge motorhome, Dodge 360 motorhome, Victoria van, ??? Small RV, Ford Motorhome, 1976 Vanguard Class C 20 foot. Ian...

Ian: Here's my search by the way: Car, $0 to $4000 (there was wiggle room), Manual transmission, not front wheel drive (if possible).

Serge: I have over 20 rows from just Ian. Some of the examples we have: 1993 supercharged Subaru, 1985 Fiaro GT, 1989 Toyota MR2 Turbo, TE72 Corolla Coupe.

Beej: James knew what he wanted, he wanted a straight up sports car, convertible thing. You [Ian] wanted something quirky, you wanted an unusual piece of automotive history. What I wanted a van, an RV or a camper van. I was asking the owners "How does this do on the highway?" and getting answers "Well you can get 90[km/h] out of it."

Serge: We had a big conversation, Beej was like "I found the prefect motorhome", Graham said "That would look great on the show" and I was saying "It maxes at 90km/h. It'll ruin all of our scheduling."

Morning Notes

RealGamerCow asked: Were there actual notes every morning?

Graham: Yes, the morning notes on the next location were scripted. That was about the only things that were.

Alex's Props

flatluigi asked: Did Alex bring any props that didn't end up being used?

Alex: Probably. (Yes, director megaphones)

Number of Episodes

LBD "Nytetrayn" asked: Was RQ always going to be 12 epsiodes, or was it determined during the editing process how many episodes there would be?

Matt: During the editing process.

Graham: Partially. It was originally going to be 10 days, 10 episodes. Half way through day 1, Beej's car isn't starting, we're stuck at the side of the highway, there's an unrelated accident on the highway, and Jason walks over to me and says "This would be a great place to end Day 1". And Day 5 had the airstrip and the pothole road, so that also became a split day.

Difficult Drone Shots

Demigodchaos asked: What was the hardest drone shot to film?

Graham: The cars going across the covered bridge at Bell 2.

Multiple Cameras

MarioMario42 asked: "How was the multiple GoPro footage and charging handled?"

Graham: They were running off big (20,000 mAh) Anker battery backups. [Footage is answered earlier, Graham was downloading and backing up footage while they were driving]

Missed Locations

DrChillbrain asked: Were there any locations you wanted to have as part of the trip but, for one reason or another, couldn't?

Graham: Going on the Canol Road. I really wanted to involve somebody from the Nisga'a Nation in the episode where we in the Nisga'a Valley. There was more we wanted to do at Cassiar, I thought there would be more stuff.

Alex: If it were up to me we would have check out more of the mining equipment at Barkerville.

Serge: Dredge #4.

Out Of Car Sound

Middlegirl asked: How did you record the sound for the scenes when the crew was out of their cars? It doesn't appear that the crew is wearing microphones. Was there someone on boom duties?

Graham: It does not appear like they are wearing microphones because Jay is a professional and everyone was miced.

Alex: Jay would prep us in the mornings using a type of surgical tape which we were finding in our garments for many months afterwards.

Serge: [Reading from chat] James says Ashley legit found a piece of tape a few weeks ago.

Jimmy's Character

gnome_friend asked in chat: How does Jimmy talk regularly?

Serge: He would not break character.

Specific Memories

Kikazi asked: What one location, piece of scenery, activity, event, etc. amazed or intrigued you the most, a specific memory that will always stick with you?

Alex: The mirror lake at the very, very end. [Serge agreed]

Ian: Some scenes from the Top of the World highway.

Beej: Hitting the breaks after the drag race and wishing I had worn a helmet in case I ended up in the woods.

Alex: Adam's "rapscallion" soul-read.

The F-350

Chantzzzzz asked in chat: Why they went with an F-350 as a rental car? As opposed to any other type of car?

Graham: We couldn't get literally any other car. Not only were there very few rental places in Whitehorse, but they mostly rented car IN Whitehorse. So if you wanted to take a out of town, you can't.

Meals

Control Rig asked: Describe the favorite or most memorable meal you had during the trip

Ian: When we went to THE Chinese food place in Watson Lake, The Golden Nugget. I decided I wanted to eat a little bit healthy after sitting all day and eating diner food, so I'll have the Tofu. First off, the waitress said "What do you want? I don't think we make that." What came out was a wall of bricks of hard tofu with some soy sauce and green unions on top of it.

Graham: I had their Nugget Burger, which had been mispelt on the menu as "The Nuggest Burger". It has 2 patties, cheese and a fried egg.

Beej: I didn't really enjoy much of the food.

The Forest Access Road

who_am_youttv asked in chat: What was the story behind the forest access road you had to suddenly get off of early in the series?

Graham: Going by Google Maps at the time the streetview was taken, this was not a forest access road. I wanted to get a shot of these switchbacks down the valley and go on a bumpy road, then we'd go "Woops we went the wrong way" and go back. So we got there and that section was a forest access road that you can only go up if you have a radio. The road we were actually on was fine to be on.

Cameron's Involvement

Atreides42 asked in chat: Was Cameron originally intended to be one of the hosts, or was that just for the pilot?

Graham: When I started planning this, Ben and Adam weren't regulars; so yeah, it was going to be Cameron and Kathleen.

Beej's Boxers

UrbanSamurai_22 Asked in chat: Question for Beej. What happened to all the boxers you kept posting on twitter?

Beej: I did what I do on long trips and take old underwear with me and wear it and when I'm done with it, throw it out. Then I realised I could take photos of it and tweet "do I throw this out or keep it?" and you guys [the audience] kept saying to keep them. So I laundered them all and then they sat in my closet for a year while I decided what to do . The intention was I was going to make packet of them and put them into the Desert Bus mystery box and everyone I told this too said it was a terrible idea. We ended up moving and I threw them all away.

Crown Vic's Steering

omdorastrix asked in chat: What happened with the steering issue on the crowne vic after the hellroad?

Graham: Nothing happened.

Beej: It never got any worse.

Radio Interuptions

erfunk asked in chat: How much trouble did you have with someone over the radios interrupting in-car bits? I know you showed it once.

Graham: The one we showed was the best. After 2 or 3 days we started doing a thing were someone would ask for radio silence for 5 or 6 minutes so they could do a bit.

Graham Cameo

flatluigi asked in chat: Did you ever consider a director cameo Graham because I honestly half expected you to show up at 40 Mile

Graham: I thought about it, but it made more sense not to.

Matching The Vision

simriel asked in chat: Graham, was this everything you wanted it to be when you first envisioned Road Quest?

Graham: Yes. I am super, super proud of this show. Everyone did a terrific job.

Trivia

  • Jay was extremely excited to kiss the toe.
  • There was a Pre-Prerelease 4 days after the end of filming.
  • Alex didn't pack enough anti-depressants for the trip and had to get more in Whitehorse.
  • Beej has the hub caps from the Crown Vic. Ian has the manual holder from the Saab (and the free hammer). James has the volume knob from the Sunfire.
  • The red button in the Crown Vic was probably an ignition lock.
  • There was a lot of back and forth about scheduling and the amount of filming time to ensure they arrived in town before restaurants closed.
  • There was ~470 hours of footage or about 10TB.
  • The plug is removed from the bottom of Hooty and Alex, Beej, Ian and Serge takes a whiff, after Ben does it multiple times on camera.
  • They came in under the fuel budget.
  • Woodcock Airstrip was found 3 days before they left.
  • Jason wanted small lights in the cars, but that was vetoed by the pilot episode drivers.
  • Serge bought an EXTENSIVE coffee brewing setup with him.
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Watch Road Quest Episode 13 - Live Q&A