The Official 32 Hours 7 Minutes Film Production Blog
Imagine coming across this puppy while searching for free pencil-sharpeners in the Daily Examiner and saying, "yeah, jeez, that does sound like a good idea. Count me in!" I can’t imagine that because I’m soft, but I do think it’s pretty cool that this was just slotted in there with the rest of the junk you might want to fill your attic with.
Now, some of you might think this film isn’t done because Loch has been focusing all his energy on extreme sports, and some of you might think we haven’t finished yet because Cory (pictured above) is drinking margaritas on a beach somewhere in Cali while two guys named Dan and Dr. Smooth (unfortunately not pictured above) fan her with palm fronds, but I’m inclined to think it’s not done because this puppy is freaking big.
Sorry I couldn’t locate our dolly for this shot, but I think you get the picture. Regardless of your takes, though, thanks to wireless beach access and advancing osteotechnology, we are running at full blast, and can see the light and the end of the tunnel.
Putting oneself through a sleepless high-speed coast-to-coast dash is a Herculean challenge to both mind and body. The men and women who competed in the transcontinental races in the 70′s and 80′s all shared an unequivocable passion: to push themselves to the utter limit of their sport. One racer, George Egloff, stands out to me (and to most of the other competitors) as a sort of icon in the sport of long distance driving….
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The Danger Snake, Loch Phillipps, has really stepped it up this time, folks. Picture this: Phillipps, tricked out in his usual caution orange, powering home on his Trek 678, attempts an indy-rodeo-fake-mcJaberwoke over a pot hole, miss-judges the landing and bails over his handlebars. Diagnosis: Broken humerus. My take: only sort of humorous.
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What? I don’t look serious to you?
Alex had a night-vision thermal camera installed into the grill of the M5. The initial thought was driving at night, sans lights of any sort, using only an in-dash screen, and thus obtaining ultimate stealth. This turned out to be super dangerous. Surprise! The camera wasn’t deemed useless, though, as they could still spot a cop hiding in a highway median in the dark of night. Another more aggressive option that some drivers employed back in the Cannonball and Express days was night vision goggles/binoculars. The maniac pictured above used infra-red goggles while at the wheel in the 4-ball rally, an early 80’s Express knock-off run from Boston to San Diego. Call me crazy, but this, for some reason, also looks incredibly dangerous.
photo: [Road-Race Outlaws, The Plain Dealer, 9/18/83]
In early November 2005, 32 Hours 7 Minutes director Cory Welles screened a rough cut in NYC for Alex Roy, Team Polizei’s fearless captain and experienced rally driver. By mid-December, 2005, little more than one month later, Welles and Roy, along with his co-pilot Jon Goodrich, set out to see if this 20+ year old cross-country driving record was real – and maybe even breakable – today.
Are you freaking kidding me with this one? I want one of these. And I’m not driving a million miles an hour in a 55mph zone. This is a "ticket" Mack Howard got in his ’82 US Express run. Granted he received 2 actual tickets within 3 hours of this warning, but still…
Loch and John Mims, editors, discuss the music for the film and give some feedback to our composer, Hub Moore. As usual, the feedback proves useless. The music, on the other hand, is really starting to mesh. The song, Car Porn, is looking to be the highlight jam of the fall. Still, extensive discussion of what kind of overall “vibe” we’re after remains unresolved. I, of course, vote for chill. Loch pushes for ambient electro-post-prog Euro-trance. And Cory stands behind badass (she does own 12 snakes, after all).
However it gets pinned, Hub’s coming with 18 brand new, built for speed tracks that’ll leave you screaming for more (or screaming for Moore, depending on what you’re into).
Get pumped.
Most of you car-folk out there have heard of the Cannonball Run races that took place throughout the 70’s. But you are much less likely to have heard of the US Express, another coast to coast race that existed for four years following the last Cannonball in 1979. Very little information exists about it today due to the highly secretive and serious nature of the race, but it is this race upon which 32 Hours 7 Minutes is based.
Continue reading ‘The Countdown Begins: 32 Hours 7 Minutes Production Blog Launched!’
