Attending the China 3D Expo always provides me an opportunity to meet with China Filmmakers. Little did I expect to meet an American 3D Filmmaker that I didn’t know before. Ole Schell is a California native who has embraced 3D film making. His first production, “Sunday Morning Drive” is near and dear to my heart. A low budget short that is both creative and fun.
I spoke to Ole during a break in the action at the 3D Expo. It’s always fascinating to find out why a film is made so I asked him to tell me about making this film.
” I grew up on the Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California just outside of San Francisco. As a boy I would hear stories and sometimes actually hear an infamous group of men who would race on select days on the beautiful but treacherous highway. It has been happening since the 1950’s and some of the riders are world class.”
“I had always thought it would be awesome to be the first people to race with them in an automobile. We put together a pitch and got a race car from Audi, enlisted the services of pro rider and staged several invitation only rallies edited to look like one. We came up with a loose fictional story that would incorporate real racing footage. The premise was we were the first team invited to race against the bikes in an automobile and that last years champ and the newest contestant would get the advantage of air support for navigation. So we also had a helicopter and airplane in tow.”
” The film features an Audi R8 race car, 30 motorcycles a seaplane, helicopter and an Australian Super-model. We documented the whole thing with 6 Sony TD 20’s and TD10’s since they were small and could be mounted on the bikes and car. We also mounted several GoPro Hero 3D rigs in some of the harder places like under and on the side of the airplane wing.”
The 3D Expo was a wonderful array of Chinese and western 3D experts like Chuck Comisky and Al Caudullo who shared their vast knowledge in the world of 3D. Through panels, speeches and screenings different creative processes were shared. I learned a lot as East met West and was honored to share the stage with such accomplished filmmakers and technicians.