“oh the street drift video. here goes.

Idea was simple. Shut down a windy road that lots of car people know about and drift it. It’s been done before so the best way to stand out was to do it on the first take. That right there sounds like a project I would want to be part of. Now here’s where it goes downhill. They had some sort of funding for this project. I don’t know what it was, and frankly it doesn’t matter, because the final product was good, but not great. Driving was good, but not great. When you take into account that it was Tanner’s first run, it does push the impress-o-meter up a bit, but not enough for me. Its the same reason people love watching the chase scenes in movies despite the skid marks on the road. even if it’s the 50th take, the audience feels like it’s the first because thats the first time they’ve seen it. So when two cars crash or slide past each other at 100mph within 3 inches of each other, it’s still impressive.

I would have rather seen Tanner really push it to the limits and tap some guard rails and rocks, rather than lay fresh rubber the whole way. He played it safe, and who can blame him? It’s a car that probably has Half a Millon dollars invested in it and it’s the only one he has for Formula D competition, which is where he makes a big chunk of his bread and butter. Using the “It was his first run” statement to justify the video is like justifying Steve-O’s behavior by saying, “Well, he’s a druggie.” It makes sense, but doesn’t change the fact.

The driving is impressive, but I’ve seen Tanner do WAY more impressive things in a car. The filming was a debacle. Again I don’t know the situation, but if I had to guess here’s what I would say. Someone talked their way into being able to direct the project, and decided that Ken Block’s videos were a good way to go. Rather than do something original, they applied a style that worked for someone else, despite not having toyed with the style themselves. Then you have a budget that doesn’t allow for proper cinematographers AND proper cameras. It allowed for one or the other. They chose nice equipment, but you can have the best stuff in the world and not know how to use it effectively. So you have a crew that isn’t familiar with this type of action sports short film style, using equipment they may not be familiar with, shooting something in one take. Even with the best subject matter in the world, it’s a recipe for a mediocre final product. Thats why film has always revolved around the concept of multiple takes. You do it until you get it right. No one gets it perfect the first time, not even Tanner, who is, in my book, one of the best drivers on the planet.

So when they looked at the footage, they realized they needed to spice it up somehow and went with, “Well, it was his first run.” Then the editing wasn’t great in my opinion. there wasn’t much flair to it. Kind of mundane.

So to re-cap. Impressive idea for a project, decently executed, poor choice of style, lacking originality, and good driving flaunted as amazing driving. Not much to write home about. I’ll keep you posted as we get ready to release our street drift project to the world.

Also, let’s close Berthoud this summer and make a movie.”