Long Way Home – The New Motorbike Adventure with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman

Fans of the “Long Way” docu-series with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman jubilate! Apple TV+ released a trailer for the new season called “Long Way Home,” which will span a 9-week adventure through Europe. Two friends will once again hop on their motorbikes starting May 9^th and take us – the viewers – on a colorful journey with all its ups and downs. But surely, such a production requires a lot of effort. How to plan a docu-series like this? Let’s learn some of the insights from Russ Malkin, the co-producer, director, and long-time collaborator of the series.

Over the last 20 years, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman have traveled across the world and back, documenting their motorbike journeys with a talented team. If you like watching this series, as I do, then you surely know that they are not only exciting adventures to follow but also heartfelt and human pieces of filmmaking that let you connect with other cultures and stories.

But this time around, the two friends won’t go too far. In the new season, their motorbikes will take them across 17 European countries: through the Arctic Circle, down to the beautiful Baltics, and through the magnificent Alps.

Long Way Home and its director Russ Malkin

For “Long Way Home,” Ewan and Charley decided to journey on refurbished, vintage, fifty-year-old bikes, which, of course, bring their own charm and interesting issues to the road. Although the geography and vehicles differ from previous seasons, some stayed the same. For one, Ewan and Charley are still not only driving through but also trying to find interesting stories in each country they visit. Also, the new season is again directed and co-produced by Russ Malkin.

Russ is a producer and director who creates content for many broadcasters globally, including BBC, ITV, Sky, National Geographic, Apple, Amazon, and Discovery. He also hosts a course, “Adventure Filmmaking with Russ Malkin,” available on MZed.com. Here, he talks about all the nooks and crannies of preparing for such a long and multi-dimensional travel docu-series. We already mentioned some of his do’s and don’ts here.

As the “Long Way” series inspires a lot of filmmakers to take on a journey of their own, the launch of the new season is a great opportunity to revisit the basics of logistics and planning. And what better way to do it than by listening to Russ’s approach?

Finalizing the route

Let’s say you found a great new angle for a traveling documentary and want to go on a journey, just like Ewan, Charley, and their team do. You pitched the concept, chose the locations, defined your talent, did your research on stories, and even secured the funding. (Or maybe you are in the process at the moment). What’s next? Logistics.

However, you can’t really get into the details of planning before finalizing the route. In the MZed course, Russ Malkin shares his approach to this task. First, you need to connect the duration of your documentary with the stories you found. What are the places you have to visit in order to tell them? Which key points are essential, and what is optional? In creating previous seasons of “Long Way,” Russ Malkin and his team used a huge map to connect the route through physical threads. The thick red woolen one would reflect their main route, but they also had other colors to mark possible detours and exciting places slightly off the path.

Another tip that Russ gives is to take the weather into account while finalizing the route. I mean, as a filmmaker, you possibly do it automatically. But in a long documentary series, where the shoot spans over weeks, weather surely will inform your decision. For instance, areas that are better to avoid.

Safety training

According to Russ Malkin, safety training is also an important part of preparation for a travel documentary format. In the case of the “Long Way” series, as they used motorbikes, they did a lot of medical training exercises. Also, they took survival classes with scenarios like: If someone approaches you with a gun and tries to kidnap you, what would you do?

It may sound harsh, but depending on which countries you plan on traveling and filming in, this bit might be essential to save your life. (I had to think about “The Dawn Wall” – a documentary about Tommy Caldwell – and the kidnapping episode in Kyrgyzstan when Tommy was a young rock climber).

Also, as Russ explains, such sessions are important not only to you but also to your team. They are also beneficial for the viewers, so filming them will provide you with valuable footage, even before you go on the journey itself.

Immunization, passports, and insurance

Other important logistical bits for a travel documentary are immunization, visas, and insurance. It’s better to take care of them earlier than later. Here are some of the tips from Russ Malkin’s vast experience:

• Respect the immunization, and remember that everyone from the team should be covered, not only the DP, the director, and the talent. It’s good to have someone to look at the current health issues in your destination area, even if you are only traveling through Europe.
• Visas are not always simple to acquire, and some countries take time to provide you with them. Also, not everything is possible to do digitally, even nowadays. For some visas, you still have to send in your passport and wait for months. Checking this information might be crucial for your pre-production and scheduling. Also, it’s not a bad idea to get a second or even third passport for you and your crew.
• Insurance is important on any production, but on travel documentaries, it is imperative to consider additional ones. For instance, (trekking) rescue insurance, provided if you shoot in the mountains. Or kidnapping and ransom insurance if you plan on visiting high-risk zones.

Scheduling something like Long Way Home

The golden rule of scheduling something like the “Long Way Home” series is to find a middle ground between a notion of a plan and space for spontaneity. Why is it important to have a schedule? A few reasons. Firstly, there might be events along your route that you don’t want to miss. Secondly, there comes a point when you’ll need to start arranging meetings with the people whose stories you plan to tell. And, as Russ Malkin points out, when covering long distances, it’s not always practical to carry all your filmed footage with you. Often, someone from the main production office will fly in – both to collect what you’ve shot and to bring fresh media and supplies for the journey ahead. So, it should be possible to plan their arrival at a particular date in a particular place.

Troubleshooting is also key. Russ finds it useful to gather your team at the table during late pre-production to brainstorm. What can go wrong? What are we overlooking?

What I like doing when I think it’s appropriate is making what I call a state-of-play document. And that document might end up being very thick, but it’s got everything in it. From day one, it could be anything from insurance to petrol, to safety, to budgets, to anything that might happen.

Russ Malkin, from his MZed course

Long Way Home on Apple TV+

Of course, these were just some of the insights important for the logistics and planning of a travel documentary. If you want to learn more about the making of the “Long Way” series (from the initial idea to the camera equipment and last checks), head over to the “Adventure Filmmaking with Russ Malkin” course on MZed. The latest season, called “Long Way Home,” will start streaming on Apple TV+ on May 9.

In the meantime, let’s talk a bit more about this topic. Do you film travel documentaries and series? If so, what other tips on logistics can you add to this list? Please share your experience and insight with us in the comments below.

Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD

Feature image source: Apple TV+