Lab8 is a video production company in Milan that is participating in the Mongol Rally race from London to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The three founders - Francesco Barbieri, Federico Maccagni, and Francesco Fanelli - plan to document their 14,000 km journey through the Balkans, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Central Asia, and Russia to raise money for charities along the way. They will create a blog, videos, photographs, and a documentary film to share their experience.

1. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
00
HIGHWAY
TO KHAN
INDEX
01 mongol rally
02 about us
03 why join?
04 quando e come
05 media
06 positioning
07 sponsor & endorsement
08 contacts

2. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
01
MONGOL RALLY
It was 2001 when two dauntless british guys, Mr. Tom and Mr. Joolz, had the questionable idea to set off for
the most remote place they could think of, just to test the endurance of their FIAT 126. They jumped on their car
straight away, with no changes of clothes, bringing nothing but a pack of cheap cigarettes and a hunting knife.
The place they were heading to was Ulaanbaatar: the Mongol Rally was born.
Although they obviously couldn’t see their adventure through, due to visas and passports issues, they had such
a great time they promised they would try it again.
The Mongol Rally is run by the League of Adventurists International Ltd, an award winning company based in the
UK committed to raising money for a good cause, recently smashing the target of gathering 1.5 million pounds.
It’s also their job to look carefully at where the money goes and how it will impact the societies the adventures
take place in.
The first organized rally took place in 2004: out of six teams that left London, four made it through deserts,
mountain ranges, bandits and dangers of any kind and reached Mongolia. From then on the number of partici-
pants grew rapidly: 2005 saw 43 vehicles on the starting grid (of which 18 were successful), that became 167
in 2006.
The teams signing up for this year’s competition will be almost 500!
Each team is asked to raise at least 1000 euros, money that will help children in need through charities such as
Mercy Corps Mongolia, Hope and Homes for children, Send a Cow and many more.
It is no classic rally either: you don’t need a 4WD and a GPS navigator to join; in fact, they are forbidden. To be
allowed, the vehicles must have an engine size up to 1.2 litres.
Regarding the route, there are no restrictions: every team will chose their own path to Ulaanbaatar. No assis-
tance of any kind is provided.
This year’s edition of the Mongol Rally leaves from Goodwood, UK on July 23rd.
Clearly, success is not guaranteed.

3. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
02
ABOUT US
FRANCESCO BARBIERI was born in Piacenza in 1982.
After completing his studies at the Liceo Classico, he entered the Civica Scuola di Cinema in Milan, where he
graduated in 2004. Pupil of Gaetano Sansone, Marco Bellocchio, Jean Claude Carrière, Stefano Benni and the
photographer Massimo Bersani.
Screenwriter, playwright and director. Among his works the short films “Crapa pansa” and “Lost in Montanaro”,
the documentary “Noi siam nati chissà quando chissà dove”, the stage play “Bianco silenzio”, all of which pre-
sented at international festivals.
FEDERICO MACCAGNI was born in Piacenza in 1986.
Liceo Scientifico graduate. He enrolls at Dams Cinema in Bologna. There he founds a cultural association
named NOART.
In 2007 he moves to Milan; in 2008 he graduates in Digital Film Making from SAE Institute. He gathers his most
brilliant schoolmates to found Lab8, a freelance videomakers network. In two years they have worked for several
communication agencies based in Milan, France and Spain. At the same time he is committed to projects with
a social purpose: “A satellite dish army” is a film about kurdistan and “Braccianti XXI secolo” illustrates the life of
immigrant farmworkers in the south of Italy.
FRANCESCO FANELLI was born in Piacenza in 1987.
He attends Liceo Classico. He then graduates from Cattolica in Milan, after studying abroad in China and the
US; he’s now specializing in Geography. He speaks English, Chinese and Spanish.
He loves cinema. Natural born traveller.

4. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
03
WHY JOIN?
We decided to participate for two reasons: first, we want to experience a different journey;
and secondly, we want to bring our solidarity and help to charities we will meet along the way.
Milan and Ulaanbaatar are easily linked by daily flights nowadays, and the plane is the only
means of travel we think of when planning to cover considerable distances. On the other
side, authors like Kapucinski, Rumiz and Bettinelli taught us the beauty of slow travels that let
you meet people and dip into sounds, faces and smells, giving you a real chance of under-
standing so different cultures. Staying away from the coldness of airports and the impersonal-
ity of hotel chains, and living instead the atmosphere of markets, public squares and hostels.
Getting our hands dirty to nourish our souls. This is our aim.
And to report about this absurd trip with the instruments that our work provides, photographs
and videos.
The other reason that drives us in undertaking the Mongol Rally is charity: on top of the
funding the organizers request, which is mandatory, we would love to meet volunteers from
associations we meet along the way, from Bosnia to Kurdistan, from Kazakhstan to Russia.
We would be honored to support, report about their awesome job and maybe set things for
future cooperation.

5. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
04
HOW AND WHEN
Mongol Rally will leave London at the end of July, to reach Mongolia in a time between 3
weeks and never. The only scheduled stop will be in Prague on day 2, then every team for
itself.
We, for the reasons stated above, are planning to take a bit of a detour: from Balkans to
Turkey and Kurdistan, where we have operated already. Then into Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbeki-
stan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally Mongolia.
Which makes approximately 14.000 kilometres; with a supposed average of 700 kms a day
it would still take no less than 20 days.
We’ll make use of several cameras; one will be placed on the roof of the vehicle, making sure
not to miss a single bit of it.

6. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
05
MEDIA
BLOG
The trip will be covered almost live, with daily updates: pics, videos and texts.
Taking advantage of the support from Lab8 organization and press agency, we’ll send the
materials and they’ll do the job for us.
The blog will be directly linked to major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Youtube);
every blog post or video will be automatically shared through our network of contacts, maxi-
mizing visibility.
REPORT
We will report about the organizations visited through short films, photos and articles.
Keeping our eyes open for anything worthy we run up against.
PILLS
Quick tiny updates in pictures, videos or texts, just to keep the users up to date.
MOVIE
As soon as we are back, all the shot material will be put together to build a documentary
about the whole experience.
PHOTOGRAPHS
We’ll take both snapshots for the blog and artistic photos meant to be exposed.
ART
We want to realize something absolutely original. Like shooting the whole voyage with a sub-
jective micro-camera placed on the roof of the car.

7. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
06
POSITIONING
Our idea is to realize various material to be used in a wide range of different situations, making
the most of our different backgrounds and networks of contacts.
BLOG AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Texts, photos and videos will have a strong visibility during the trip and immediately after.
WEB JOURNALISM
Articles from the blog will be reposted by the bloggers who wish to do so.
TRADITIONAL NEWSPAPERS
We’ll prepare articles including our best photographs to be sold to local and national newspa-
pers and magazines.
FESTIVALS
The short film?? will be submitted to festivals on a national and international scale.
The Adventurists themselves organize a contest for films produced by rally participants.
ART, PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography exhibitions.
ART, VIDEO
The experimental subjective video of the whole trip, shot from the car, will be exposed as
videoart.

8. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
07
SPONSOR &
ENDORSEMENT
We’re looking for partners and
sponsorship for our trip.
The logo will be visible on the
sidebar of our site, in the videos
and photographs taken through-
out the journey, and will be linked
to our project in any circum-
stance that will give it visibility.

9. VIDEO PRODUCTION
MOTION DESIGN www.lab8.biz via san calocero 9
NETWORK info@lab8.biz 20123 milano
08
CONTACTS
www.highwaytokhan.com
info@highwaytokhan.com
Francesco Barbieri
+39 380 3813381
farewell58@gmail.com
Federico Maccagni
+39 333 3228197
fmaccagni@lab8.biz