California Trip to Appear in BMW Film about Electric Mobility

 

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would like to be in a documentary that BMW is making about the future of mobility. I accepted and a few days ago I was off to LA for the day. They asked two other MINI-E drivers Peder Norby and Todd Crook from California if they would also like to be in the film and they also accepted.

 

The idea for our part in the film was to get the three of us together and talking about our experiences driving an electric car and what our thoughts were on the future. Would electric cars become mainstream? What do we like most about them? Plus other questions about the future of cars. It was a great experience and really nice to finally meet Todd & Peder after over a year of communicating with them online. They both have MINI-E blogs also, and I have links to them here under "Other MINI-E blogs" on the right side border. Todd is #140 and Peder is #183. Others in the film include Astronaut Buzz Aldren, visual futurist Syd Mead, CEO of Virgin Galactic George Whitsides and a bunch of other notable individuals. (None more important than me, but really who is?)

There will be four short films that you can view online, each coming out a week apart in February. For now you can see the trailer at this link.

BMW put me up in the Universal City Hilton and covered all my expenses. The filming was only about 4 hours and we were paid a basic SAG rate for the day. Todd, Peder and I all had a great time and the producers told us we did great and gave them exactly what they had hoped we would. After the shoot, Peder had to charge his car for his 100+ mile home to Carlsbad and Todd and I went out for dinner.

However, as strange as it may sound, the most surprising part of the trip was in the car ride to the airport.  I was picked up at about 4:00am by a car service that was hired by the production company. We were only about 5 minutes into the hour and a half drive to JFK Airport in New York when the driver asked me if I knew of a 24 hour gas station in the area because he had only about 35 miles of range left so he needed to fill up. I told him there was one on the way and to my absolute surprise he responded "Thanks, I hate going to gas stations, what we need are electric cars!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing and for a minute I thought he knew why I was going to LA and was part of the whole film plan. When I told him that I was flying to LA to be in a film about electric cars, he had all kinds of questions and we talked about electric cars for the whole drive to JFK. He told me his name and I think it was Milon but I'm not 100% sure now. I did take a picture of him and gave him this blog address so he can stop by and read about my experience with an electric car. 

So check out the trailer and watch the four films as they become available. Feel free to critique my "acting"!

My film partners Todd Crook (left) and Peder Norby stand in front of their MINI-E's