''Big Rig'' is a 2007 documentary film by

Doug Pray Doug Pray is an American documentary film director, cinematographer, and editor who often explores unique subcultures in his films. His work includes ''Surfwise'' (2008), a portrait of the nomadic, 11-member Doc Paskowitz family (often referred to ...

about long-haul

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

s. The film consists of a series of interviews with different drivers, focusing on both their personal life stories and also the life and culture of truck drivers in the United States.

Production

The film was shot with a crew of three people: director and cameraman

, producer Brad Blondheim, and lighting, sound, and general production assistant Jim Dziura.http://bigrigmovie.com/bigrig/INFO5-about.html, official production notes Filming took place over four different two-week roadtrips. The crew of three did not schedule interviews with truckers: they would drive into a

truck stop A truck stop, known as a service station in the United Kingdom, and a travel center by major chains in the United States, is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made food and other services to moto ...

in their RV and approach the truckers for interviews. If the driver agreed, Pray would ride as the passenger and interview the driver for the day, while Blondheim followed in the RV. Most of the interviewees were very skeptical of the crew at first, and the crew was repeatedly thrown out of truck stops for soliciting interviews, which is typically not allowed. Director Pray and producer Blondheim became interested in a trucker documentary after a series of road trips to various concerts during the filming of Pray's '' Scratch''.Doug Pray, Brad Blondheim, audio commentary on ''Big Rig'' DVD In 2001, Pray and Blondheim shot and edited a 10-minute film as a

proof of concept Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...

for the film's production process. For the film's music, producer Blondheim was inspired by the roots music featured in the film ''

O Brother, Where Art Thou? ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is a 2000 comedy drama film written, produced, co-edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Chris Thomas King, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and ...

''. One of the music producers from '' Scratch'' interested them in the music of

Buck 65 Richard Terfry (born March 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian alternative hip hop artist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, count ...

. The final cut of the film uses several contributions from Buck 65; about one third of this was composed specifically for the film. The film was shot on a Panasonic

Varicam Varicam, originally stylized as VariCam, is a brand name associated with specialized Panasonic video cameras that are mostly used to imitate the look and feel of motion picture cameras. They have been used to record scenes for many feature films. T ...

and edited by the director using

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Mac computers powered by macOS Big Sur 11.5.1 or later. The ...

. In July 2012 it was announced by several in the truck driving community and by a source inside Ocule Films that there will be a sequel to the film, No time frame for when filming or production will begin on the sequel.

Reception

The film was an official selection of the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

and

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

, and was featured at a handful of other small film festivals.Source: DVD jacket It was released on DVD in late 2008. The film was and remains a big hit with the trucking community and truck drivers.

References

External links

*
Collection of press reactions
at the ''Big Rig'' official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Rig (Film) 2007 films American documentary films 2007 documentary films Trucker films Films directed by Doug Pray Documentary films about road transport 2000s English-language films 2000s American films