Way To Go Magazine, Spring 2005

What a Trip!
Training for the Movies
by Barbara Herron

Baltimore-based filmmakers Steven Fischer and Craig Herron are not your typical commuters. Like many self-employed people, they’re based in home offices and go where their work takes them. Even though their work travel doesn’t fall into twice-a-day routine, Steven and Craig learned that clean commuting can save them time and enhance their productivity as they do their share for cleaner air.

Their current project requires background research beyond what can be googled from a home computer. “One of the great things about living in the Baltimore area is being near Washington, DC,” Steven said. “The Library of Congress and National Archives are invaluable sources for reference photos that will help us create the right visual feel for this film.”

“I used to drive to Washington all the time,” Craig added, “but traffic has gotten so bad over there that you can waste a lot of time just sitting in traffic. And then there’s the parking.”

Way To Go caught up with Steven and Craig at Baltimore’s Penn Station on an early spring morning. Their plans for the day included a stop at the Library of Congress and possibly a visit with another course on Connecticut Avenue. They opted to take the MARC train from Baltimore to Washington not only to avoid traffic and parking woes, but because they wanted to make the best use of their time. Once they arrived at Washington’s Union Station, they knew they’d be able to connect with the DC Metro to continue on their appointed rounds.

Almost before the train left Penn Station, Craig had his laptop fired up to show Steven the latest scenes he’d been working on. Steven brought along some new ideas for tweaking the script, and the two spent the 55-minute trip working on script revisions and planning their next step for the project.

Once they reached Union Station, they didn’t even have to leave the building. They followed the signs for Metro, went down an escalator, and there they were.

Best of all, when it was time to head back to Baltimore they just needed to hop on the train. They were able to review their day’s work – and then have a little nap on the way home.