Bonneville on TV

[bvillercr]

Good to know that there is interest from those making the film.  Glad to have you on the forum and if you ever have any questions about any of the racers/cars this is the place for the answers.  Enjoyed the show.
Troy

[sabat]

I don't have cable, is the show available for purchase?

[narider]

There were MANY reversed images in the show(mirrored vehicle numbers, turbos hanging off the right side of Hayabusas and long course videos from the right side without the pits being visible were some of the small giveaways).

Hey, maybe that's why they said Leslie had twin turbos... someone in editing saw one on each side of the bike And of course the dubbed sounds of the rescue squad and the helicopter were good for effect.

All the criticism aside, it's always great to see people, places and things we know on the tube... and it beat the dodge out of watching pinks, one of those chopper shows or the golden girls.
Todd
PS: I will now and forever have Glen's voice etched in my head - and although the voice remains the same.... I've changed the words from, "We have a rider down - we have a rider down"  to  "Take it to impound - and bring Dan a beer".

[landsendlynda]

I was wondering the same thing....are there dvd's available and is there more on the dvd than there was on the television?  I enjoyed watching the show, but have to agree on the commercials.  Did it really take that many sponsors to get the show aired? Or, was there that much interest?

Still, I have to admit, you guys did an excellent job of filming, and those of us that hit the cutting room floor, are still excited about there being something on television about our "salt fever express".


Lynda

[Bville701]

I also enjoyed the show. I saw our car as well for about .5 seconds, but hey that's better than nothing.

It also bugged me that they didn't mention the other cars that have gone 300 MPH before the Blowfish, especially since I had helped with one of those cars. Oh well though, I guess you can't expect everything to be perfect. I'm very glad that they are showing our sport on TV, and I hope they continue to keep filming. 

Ryan

[OhioGal]

Hi All-

Thanks so much for the all the great feedback- positive and negative.  Producing a show is like a great Bonneville machine- always a work in progress.  And while you constantly struggle with power vs. traction, we wrestle with striking a tone that appeals to both the salt diehards and the masses.  Repetition isn't something we love to do as filmmakers either but is an unfortunate cable necessity in the world of 300 channels, TIVO, etc.  If you flip to the show 25 minutes in, we need to bring you up to speed (pun intended) so you will stay. 

I'd like to thank all of the racers, SCTA, crew and fans for the amazing hospitality they extended to our crew and at this year's Speed Week. We'd also like to personally thank the Kugels, Ron Main, and the Old Crow Team.  We had some great storylines and coverage of Jerilyn's first run, the Speed Demon, and Bobby and his team- unfortunately we only had 43 minutes of final showtime to work with.   

I would like to address Ed's comment- nobody gets into non-fiction production for money, like building a car its the opportunity to create.  If it was about money we'd all have found different careers.  We've actually spoken in the past, I am sorry you have had an unfavorable experience with another production team, but that's an unfortunate generalization. 

For the record, I am hooked as a land speed fan.  This was my 3rd trip to the salts, maybe some day I can scrape up enough cash and find some time to actually build something, bring it out and race it. 

Dan

Thanks for the great program.  It is always exciting for me to see something about the salt on tv.  With that in mind, I had a couple questions:

- is this the first in a "series" about the salt/Speedweek/landspeed racing on the Discovery channel?

- will you be showing any coverage of the Old Crow team in future episodes? I heard the coverage of their team is only being shown in the European and Asian markets, true?

Thanks!

[Jonny Hotnuts]

I really enjoyed the show last night but I agree with many of the comments especially the emphasis on the crashes, danger etc. Glad my wife didn't watch it. Would have started a whole new round of "discussions".

Many of my friends and fam dont have a clue what B-ville and LSR really is. Many of them watched the show and the show did show a number of crashes. In truth there is the potential for a crash but out of the huge number of runs in homegrown vehicles running unreal speeds there is not really too much badness in the big picture.....but my friends and family now think I have WAY bigger balls than I really do....that to me is A.O.K.

~JH


ALSO....

Made me sad to see #7070 a few times.

[osti]

I don't have cable, is the show available for purchase?

ARGHH!!!  Me too Dean!

Anyone know if we can buy it.

Or if someone recorded it and can run me a copy I would glady pay them for it.

Thanks in advance,
Ryan

[Buickguy3]

I watched with interest looking for a shot with the SaltCat Jaguar in the background, but it didn't make the cut. Two members of our crew were in the tech-line shot for about 1.5 sec. [Robin Morris in the cowboy hat and T.J.] . There also was an Aussie film crew there and they got tickled by the Buick inline 8 powered Cat[to them: Jag-U-ar]. They just got the film edited and have promised to send us copies. Might be interesting. DG

[Dr Goggles]

Many of my friends and fam dont have a clue what B-ville and LSR really is. Many of them watched the show and the show did show a number of crashes. In truth there is the potential for a crash but out of the huge number of runs in homegrown vehicles running unreal speeds there is not really too much badness in the big picture.....but my friends and family now think I have WAY bigger balls than I really do....that to me is A.O.K.
~JH

I get interrogated about safety on a regular basis by She Who Must Be Obeyed( her dad raced ocean power boats and nearly bought it 3 times in big wipe-outs) , anything that had multiple crash footage on it would have had me sneakin' out the back and disconnecting the TV cable........the recent bike crash despite being as far removed from LSR as possible has undermined my stocks and increased her paranoia about an automotive themed funeral.

She just thinks my balls are WAY bigger than my brains...........

[donpearsall]

I loved the show, misrepresentations and all. Too bad the bike speed kings (Jason M and John N) did not get a part, they really acheived a lot and got no recognition. At least Jason was shown hugging Leslie. I stayed on the special course all week and did not see a single frame in the show from that part of the courses.

Don

[RayTheRat]

Hi All-
Thanks so much for the all the great feedback- positive and negative.  Producing a show is like a great Bonneville machine- always a work in progress.  And while you constantly struggle with power vs. traction, we wrestle with striking a tone that appeals to both the salt diehards and the masses.  Repetition isn't something we love to do as filmmakers either but is an unfortunate cable necessity in the world of 300 channels, TIVO, etc.  If you flip to the show 25 minutes in, we need to bring you up to speed (pun intended) so you will stay. 

Hello Mr. Caesar.  Thank you for popping in to discuss this.  I'm going to make the leap of assumption (since we haven't been introduced) that you're one of the folks responsible for producing the Discovery tv piece.  I hope I'm making the assumption correctly.

Regards your statement that you need to repeat and repeat and repeat to "keep up with the Joneses" (or the channel surfers) how does that reconcile with the next statement?

I'd like to thank all of the racers, SCTA, crew and fans for the amazing hospitality they extended to our crew and at this year's Speed Week. We'd also like to personally thank the Kugels, Ron Main, and the Old Crow Team.  We had some great storylines and coverage of Jerilyn's first run, the Speed Demon, and Bobby and his team- unfortunately we only had 43 minutes of final showtime to work with.  

I don't want to seem mean-spirited about this, but in the first paragraph you state that you have to keep repeating essentially because your audience has virtually no attention span at all, yet here you indicate that if you'd had more show time, you would have included more teams and/or people.  Honestly now..if you'd had, say 90 minutes of file time (again, I'm assuming that here, would that indicate a two-hour show?) wouldn't it just be twice as much repetition, since you'd have twice as many people to get caught up?  Would you have shown Jason's crash 6 more times, implying that it was Leslie's? 

It seems your comments are somewhat at odds with one another.  Between the repetition, the "preview" or "stay tuned for" type of things it seems like perhaps a third...or let's be generous and say a quarter of the time was taken up with useless fluff.  If it had been 43 minutes of all different material, I would have loved it.  In addition, your statement about Tivo (or DVR) seems to be inconsistent with channel surfing.  I use my DVR so that I don't have to surf during commercials.  And let's be honest.  What percentage of the viewing audience watches commercials other than during the Super Bowl or perhaps some other live sporting events? 

I would like to address Ed's comment- nobody gets into non-fiction production for money, like building a car its the opportunity to create.  If it was about money we'd all have found different careers.  We've actually spoken in the past, I am sorry you have had an unfavorable experience with another production team, but that's an unfortunate generalization. 

For the record, I am hooked as a land speed fan.  This was my 3rd trip to the salts, maybe some day I can scrape up enough cash and find some time to actually build something, bring it out and race it. 
Dan

I look forward to seeing you and your team race on the salt.  I'll be there to shoot the photos (God willing.)  And I'll put 'em on my web server for free.  I'm not in it for the money, either. 

I want to compliment you for something that you included.  That was the statement, "This is the last bastion of amateur racing."  I apologize for not knowing who it was who said it (I have memory problems with names and faces) but I'm glad that was included.  I think.  At Speed Week Monster Energy Drinks were a big sponsor.  I was told that was the reason that SCTA only sold black t-shirts.  The way it was stated was, "Well, Monster is our sponsor and since black is their color we have to do what they want."  I didn't buy one.  Who wants to wear black in that sun?  Heaven forbid that Johnson & Johnson ever sponsor the event.  Can you imagine pink T-shirts with images of baby lotion on them?

Does this foretell more sponsors dictating how future meets will be run?  I hope not.  The amateur nature of the events is what drew me to them in the first place and what keeps me there.  I photograph other forms of motorsport but I enjoy LSR more than any other for that very reason.

I won't ramble any more other than to ask, "what would you have done if you hadn't had to pander to surfers and commercialism?  Would you have done things differently?"

RtR

[manta22]

List;

My 2 cents worth----

Let's face it this was NOT a documentary. These types of programs are targeted toward a broad audience, most of whom couldn't understand the technicalities of racing. In a short program only a few principal characters can be dwelt upon; these are selected for their interest or appeal to the audience. Sure we'd like to see many other racers featured but Leslie has more audience appeal than 99% of the rest of us and her continued racing after having survived a bad crash adds a bit more drama.

A TV show simply showing cars & bikes going down the salt in a straight line would bore the cr*p out of most TV viewers and audience ratings is what sells TV. We'd love it but few others would.

Frankly, I enjoyed it and so did my wife. I think it helps many others not familiar with LSR know more about what it's all about. Yes, there were crashes but not objectionable footage and of course there was repeated use of some footage but as Caesar states, it is done to bring channel surfers up to speed as to what is going on-- this is SOP for TV.

As I said, this is only my 2 cents worth.

Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

[Seldom Seen Slim]

We don't have a television -- so we did not see the show.  We have seen a documentary that was shot by a photographer and a journalist -- with nothing in mind but producing a show that might be salable to a network or something.  That show was "Bonneville Wide Open".  First my disclaimer:  Nancy (and I) were one of the three teams featured in the program, so I have a bit of a biased judgment, I expect.  But Benn Karne, the fellow that put the show together, is a regular here on the forum, and a bit of a racer, too.  The show was shot by a racer that hoped to sell it -- not a television journalist that was confident he had a purchaser and therefore edited his shots into something the buyer already had stated he wanted.  Watch B W O and see if you see the difference -- other than no commercials, I mean.  Nice long shots -- no herky-jerky 5-second scenes here and there and bouncing around.  Yes, those aren't my favorites -- but I guess they're what everybody does, and therefore everybody else does it because they think it's what the audience wants.  I think it's done because everybody else does it.  My opinion...

This past World of Speed Chris Hartwell was shooting some tape and taking photos to produce a documentary.  We got to know him when he was shooting photos at WoS '07 -- and during the interim 'tween '07 and WoS '08 he contacted us to say he wanted to make a show this year - and would include us in the coverage.  I haven't seen the finished work yet -- I don't think he's done putting it together.  But I do know that he's putting the program together for his own purposes, not for the intended sale to a known customer.  He said his interest was in making a program (and before that, taking photos) that show his abilities -- so that a future potential customer would be able to see a good example of his work and perhaps base a decision to hire him (Chris) upon what Chris did in the program and the photos.  I'm sure hoping that Chris' program doesn't include those 5-second shots.  I do know that he's got a few videos shot from our on-bike camera.  Would be cool if those show up.

Deep enough for now.

[bvillercr]

I also enjoyed the show. I saw our car as well for about .5 seconds, but hey that's better than nothing.

It also bugged me that they didn't mention the other cars that have gone 300 MPH before the Blowfish, especially since I had helped with one of those cars. Oh well though, I guess you can't expect everything to be perfect. I'm very glad that they are showing our sport on TV, and I hope they continue to keep filming. 

Ryan

In the late 80's and most of the 90's there was a great race to be the first doorslammer over 300mph.  Of course most of know how that was(Kugal/Lefevers), but many cars at one time were in the hunt.  Egars, Kugal/Lefevers, Cook, McDonald and Pitts, Leggit, Gale Banks (who we got many ideas for our car), us and probably others that were trying very hard.  Now the new number is 333 for the fuel guys and 310 for the rest(although we want that 333.1 also).  Next year will our 20th year with the car and who knows maybe then.  We came close in 94, and if the inner-cooler didn't burst this year there was a good possibility.  Bonneville is a strange place where she slaps you in the face and you go home disapointed, but ready for nex year.  That is what Bonneville is for many of us, our dream to go faster than the competitor.  This is what keeps us comming back, the dream of next year.  Maybe we can do it in 09.