Take a screamingly fast, incredibly loud hot rod that hits more than 200 miles an hour in six seconds in the quarter mile. Add an underfunded drag racing team owner from Wynnewood, Oklahoma—a colorful, larger-than-life entrepreneur—and fold in his father and two rowdy brothers. Mix in a deadly serious father and son team of crew chiefs from Illinois. Fold them in together with a 31-year old female race car driver from Houston, Texas who had just lost her ride for the season. Then go compete for the 2014 NHRA MelloYello Pro Stock championship. A snowball’s chance in hell? That’s pretty much what everyone said.
A popular driver and drag racer from the age of 8, Erica Enders-Stevens and her sister Courtney were seasoned professionals and had even been the subjects of a 2003 Disney movie Right on Track. A fan favorite and a proven, winning driver, no one was more surprised than Erica when she was abruptly removed from the driver’s seat of her current ride just as the 2014 season was about to start. But Richard Freeman knew her potential and placed the call that put Erica behind the wheel of the Elite Motorsports Camaro.
As the season began, Erik Danielson, a close associate of team owner Richard’s and owner of Danielson Entertainment Group, LLC had the forethought and vision to know this was a story that needed to be told. Using his own capital, he engaged husband and wife design and filmmaking team Kevin and Kelly Anderson of Design con Carne, Inc. Together the two filmmakers traveled with the Elite team through the bulk of the season. The cameras rolled constantly, beginning in February with shaky test runs of the new car and driver and in Phoenix and on through the ups and downs, wins and losses, big paydays and empty bank accounts, trophies and blown engines of the grueling 10-month NHRA season.
The filmmakers lived with the Elite team, traveled with them, broke bread with them and in the process, captured one of the most amazing stories in the history of motorsports—a story of money, speed, women in sport, faith, betrayal, danger, sponsorship…and ultimate triumph over adversity.
But we need your help. Filmmaking, like drag racing, is expensive. The core team of experienced cinematographers, editors and writers have put in countless hours on a very tight, self-funded budget to get to this point. But to tell the story properly and to complete the film, we need financial assistance.
This is where your hard earned dollars will go:
- Scriptwriting
- Video post-production
- Color correction
- Animation / compositing - Graphic design
- Voice talent
- Licensing fees
- Historical footage
- 2014 NHRA / ESPN season footage - Audio post-production
- Original music composition
If you love cars, racing, a good woman’s story, colorful language or just a damn good story, we invite you to be a part of Racing In Red. From becoming an executive producer on the film to a signed parachute from Erica and Elite and much more, there’s a place for every budget and there’s for sure a way we can use your greatly appreciated dollars.
Take a look at the trailer. If you don’t get excited well, thanks for your time. But if it gets your blood gets pumping like it does ours, then join us on a journey to completing Racing In Red.
The Racing In Red team is small but experienced:
Danielson Entertainment Group, LLC was created by attorney Erik Danielson in 2004 as a vehicle to pursue and assist others with creative projects.
Kevin and Kelly Anderson are co-owners of Design con Carne, a graphic, motion design and post-production studio located in Boulder, Colorado. Creating high-impact media for a diverse array of local, national, and international clients, small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies since 2001.
Patrick Cullie is an experienced writer whose film writing credits include the PBS documentary “Last City of Caracol,” and instructional film “How to Shoot Better Home Movies” featuring “Back to the Future” director Dean Cundey. Patrick is credited as lighting director on the 1972 film “Filmore”, as well as Bob Dylan’s 1978 film “Renaldo and Clara”. He has also produced hundreds of corporate films for clients as diverse as IBM, Motorola, Seimens and more.
Post-production on the film will be completed, edited and sweetened in Boulder, Colorado. Design con Carne, creative force behind Racing In Red, has its editing facility in Boulder, Colorado. Coupe Studios, audio post-production facility is also located in Boulder, Colorado.
Risks and challenges
We feel that given the fact that 95% of the film has been captured throughout 2014, the fact that the principals are well-known motorsports personalities with many fans and social media followers in the tens of thousands, together with the collective experience of the filmmaking team, the risks are minimized greatly. That said, and while this is a work in progress, we believe that the possibility for risk and delay always exists. The biggest risks that we see are a.) completing the project in a timely manner. The quantity and quality of the existing footage require that hours must be spent scrubbing and pulling selects from that footage, and b.) there is footage from outside sources that must be licensed and again, scrubbed and selected. These are being tackled in two ways. First, much of the footage has already been scrubbed and the remainder of the existing footage is currently in process, even without the funding in place. Secondly, careful logs are being kept of the outside footage to be licensed and negotiations are underway with the owners of that footage.
Because the cameras and editing facility are owned by the filmmakers, because of their deep experience and the amount of they have time invested pro bono to this point, we believe that the likelihood of follow-through to the completion of Racing In Red is extremely high.
The Racing In Red Kickstarter Campaign is conducted by an independent entity, not by NHRA.
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Funding period
- (45 days)