Producing an event documentary for the great race
Four states. Two-hundred Cars. Over two-thousand miles. One event documentary.
That’s what the Driven Films crew got a taste of when we got the chance to film the 2019 Hemmings Motor News Great Race. We had the pleasure of filming an event documentary production for The Great Race in partnership with Powerscope Productions and were responsible for capturing footage using a camera vehicle, drones and “run & gun” video production setups. It was easy to get distracted by the amazing scenery that we traveled through but our goal remained the same each and every day of the race: capture the most breathtaking shots we can!
Racing teams, family members and spectators gather for the start of the 2019 Great Race in Riverside, California.
““We said all along that the 2019 Great Race was the best event we have done, and now the entire world will see that is true,” ”
Making use of our car rig system, we captured various hero shots of Great Race teams traveling through the western united states for thousands of miles.
Starting off in Riverside, California, the video production crew traveled throughout the Western United States, documenting hundreds of vintage and classic cars driven by rally race teams ranging from seasoned veterans, to first-time rookies.
Our team filmed through the mountains in the Sierra Nevada, through the great Redwoods, up to the Pacific Northwest Coast with stops along the way including Crater Lake, the famous Drive-thru Chandelier Tree, all the while capturing the racing teams traveling through the breathtaking landscapes. The camera crew visited cities that best represented small town America like Eureka, California, Bend, Oregon, Lancaster, California and so many more.
Coker Tire CEO Wade Kawasaki talking with one of the Great Race teams prior to the start of the race in Riverside, California.
Hey! That’s us! Our camera car roaming through the mountains as we chase racing teams to capture footage.
Along the journey of filming this epic event documentary, we met some amazing people in the towns we visited. We witnessed teams helping each other, making sure that no one was left behind. We heard amazing stories from residents of every town we passed through, as well as the racing teams.
We didn’t just film the racers, we dined with them, we stayed at the same hotels each and every night. It’s safe to say that the crew was 100% immersed in the Great Race. We’d be lying if we said that we haven’t considered building a car of our own to take part in a rally race in the future!
While we captured terabytes worth of footage, it came down to sorting through everything we shot and find what we felt best represented our experience on this race. The following showreel video covers several days of the rally race, spanning from Riverside, California to Tacoma, Washington. During this documentary production, we filmed hundreds of racers and their teams driving their vintage cars, some of which were over 100 years old, rallying through small town America and we feel this showreel best represents their journey.
The final stop for The Great Race was Tacoma Washington where a massive car show was put on in honor of the racers. Car enthusiasts from all over Washington State and as far as Oregon came out to cheer on the racing teams as they crossed the finish line.
The Fruits of our Labor
When all was said and done, we had traveled alongside hundreds of racing teams for a total over 2,300 miles, ending in Tacoma Washington where the grand champions (Howard and Doug Sharp from Fairport, New York in their 1916 Hudson) were awarded their prize. At the end of it all, Driven Films was proud to have been along for the ride with The Great Race. As we put this event documentary together, we were reminded how amazing mother nature is, and how much more there is for us to experience, to film and to share in the world. That being said, we couldn’t be more proud to share this showreel with you.
Our favorite part: How We Pulled It Off
To achieve some of the shots seen in the event documentary production, Driven Films utilized our lightweight camera car rig package which consists of a Freely MoVI Pro gimbal attached to a Rigwheels Cloudmount Pro car rig. This gave us a reliable and easy to setup solution that allowed us to quickly break down the rig each and every night and set it back up in the morning. We were incredibly impressed with not only the quality of both the MoVI Pro and the CloudMount but we were also impressed with how well both stood up to the elements. Our camera car traveled through the deserts of Nevada in blistering hot weather, through the Redwoods of California and up the foggy, cold and raining coast of the Pacific Northwest—and the gear didn’t miss a beat!
We used the Atomos Ninja Inferno to monitor and record all car rig footage.
We controlled from the inside of our camera vehicle with various monitors and controllers, such as the Atomos Ninja Inferno. This combination allowed Driven Films to capture rolling shots of the racers that would normally be impossible with just a handheld camera sticking out the window of a car.
To capture the footage, we relied on the pairing of a Panasonic LUMIX GH5S and also a GH5. We chose this combination due to the LUMIX cameras having amazing battery life and a robust set of features, as well as being weather-sealed bodies, just in case we got caught in the rain for a moment—which we did!
This allowed us to capture high-quality ProRes files in 4K resolution without ever having to worry about storage space. As with our car rig package, we were impressed with the LUMIX cameras and how they stood up to continued use for 9 days straight in harsh weather.
Ready for Takeoff
To capture stunning, high-quality aerial footage to use in the event documentary, we piloted a trio of aircrafts, including two DJI Mavic Pro drones and also our “big boy” (as one racer named it)—the DJI Inspire 1 RAW drone. All three drones helped us capture the aerial footage we were after, including some gorgeous shots over Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, as well as some gorgeous tracking shots along the Pacific Northwest.
Capturing stunning drone footage was an absolute must on this project. Thanks to our trio of drones we were always prepared.
Seeing as we were on a very “run & gun” style shoot, we knew we needed to be prepared when it came to drone footage.
Since we didn’t have a chance to scout the entire route (it was virtually impossible seeing as directions are given out every morning to racers, Great Race staff, crews and even the media (us!) we never knew when something amazing would be around the corner.
That being said, we were fully prepared to hop out and take a drone up at any time thanks to the trio of drones in our arsenal during the trip. We were even tempted to stop at Best Buy to pick up a fourth drone.
Ultimately, as a video production company, it’s vital that you are able to rely on your equipment and that was the case with the gear we brought along for the trip.