Dreaming of Wauseon

For the past 6 years I have spent my third Friday of July at the Fulton County Fairgrounds filming the Wauseon National Vintage Flat Track Races for Roeders Racing. It's one of my most anticipated shoots on the calendar every summer.

As a filmmaker you couldn't ask for a better environment - high speed race action, sun soaked vintage bikes and gear along with the wild and charismatic personalities that flock to this 1/2 mile gravel Motorcycle Mecca every year. Each time I try to capture a different stylistic look and feel. It's not an easy task as the format and general scene is basically the same every year. Last year I went to the max cinematically bringing along a second shooter and renting a few fancy lens to get a different perspective visually.

After that peak I went into this year wondering what direction to go? Realizing I couldn't really go "up" cinematically and action wise from last year I decided to slum it "down". With the cult documentary "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" as a loose inspiration I came in as minimal as possible. Two hand held cameras each with a fixed focal length, fixed aperture and infinity focus aka "throw-away" lens. Then nothing else expect a shotgun mic on one of them. Oh and one drone shot to open that I have thought about doing for years. I wandered a bit more from the race action pits into the stands and around the perimeter to capture the feel from a different perspective. I chased the action less and just took it all in more like a spectator. In the edit I color graded this like I had just finished a wild eyed, full throttle, pin it to win motorcycle rip around the track. Blurry, burnt and light leaked. Expired film stock soaked in the summer sun. When it came time for music I went with the most obvious choice that I had veered away from the last 6 years because it seemed too obvious. My older brother's guitar shredding, 80's inspo band Roxy Mae. Sometimes obvious is obvious because it's just gonna work really effing good

In the end this year's video treads backwards in all the right ways. It's a Lo-Fi to the max full throttle rip into the wild world of Waueson.