How To Support The First Great American Rally Documentary
Raphael Orlove
How To Support The First Great American Rally Documentary
Matthew Johnston is making the first feature-length documentary covering rallying in America. He's two years and $10,000 into the project and he's looking for $47,630 more. Ford or someone really needs to sponsor this guy — but they haven't yet. You can — and here's why he might be worth it.
You may have already seen Johnston's work before. He's worked for Rally America, the governing body for rallying in the US, for ESPN's HD WRC coverage, and you've seen him here on Jalopnik. Two years ago he did a true hoon's tribute to his AWD Civic Wagon and we saw him filming rally last year.
For the past two years, Johnston has been busy covering rallying in America and two of its drivers: Chris Duplessis and Ken Block. He's turning his footage into a documentary called "Easier Said Than Done", but he's run up against a familiar problem when covering the sport. Rallying is unbelievably beautiful, but it's extremely difficult to package into something marketable. There's no wheel-to-wheel racing and the action is difficult to follow, racing in deserts, through forests, and up mountains.
What makes "Easier Said Than Done" different from race recaps or other documentaries about rallying is that Johnston is focusing on the behind-the-scenes side of the sport, and, as the trailer shows, the colossal costs involved for the drivers and teams.
The costs are mounting for Johnston as well, but they are all additions to what he already has filmed and what he can already produce with a few high-quality digital cameras, aerial drones, and lots and lots of his own time. In his own words:
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This isn't a "Hey, give me money so we can do this thing!" It's a "Hey, I'm already doing this awesome thing, help me make it even better".
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Johnston needs money for travel, helicopter shots, and more high-speed cameras. Music rights go on top of all that. As he says himself, less than 50 grand is not enough money to make a high-end cinematic film, but it is enough to make an excellent documentary, so long as you have a good person running the project.
From what we've seen, Johnston has what it takes to make an epic movie on the growing world of rallying in America. We want to see this documentary made, so read more about it and donate on
kickstarter.