Kyle Cowling
Pre-production, planning, strategizing, and all of those other fun things that keep you organized and, well, essentially on top of your shit are how you usually handle your film productions. However, here at vurbmoto, we like to throw caution to the wind and see how long it takes until Art Dog (me) crumbles into a full blown meltdown by literally doing the exact opposite of what’s mentioned above.
How was the second installment of ALL IN made? In the 11th hour, that’s how.
In all seriousness, it wasn’t that bad. But, in retrospect, I see a lot of holes that could’ve improved the most recent installment to levels unfathomable to mankind and melt YouTube to the ground. We would be YouTube famous right now, cashing checks, and laughing at the thought of going to Loretta Lynn’s because we just bought a vurbmoto yatch that we are sailing to the fucking Catalina Wine Mixer. Bye, Felicia.
So, the reality is, that would never be the case. For some VERY odd reason, the dude who never talks to me (@vurbhotdogonastickwes) or watches my videos, really loves spending over a week in Tennessee… in August. Apparently, he is unaware of the ocean and places like Hawaii. Nonetheless, The Ranch does have a magical vibe to it. I’ve only gone one and a half times and while the vibe was magical, my passion for that place is not at levels like @weseatshotdogsonastickvurbranchlover. So, last year when I was coerced to spend 15,000 days at The Ranch and shoot two new episodes of our popular doc series, ALL IN, I was both nervous and excited.
The plan? Well, it was decided in the Delta terminal of the Los Angeles International Airport roughly one hour before I boarded my flight to Tennessee: follow seven families around for one week to share their respective stories and struggles and what The Ranch means to them, while also shooting a separate web series with Jeff Emig.
While I did have help from @vurblovespotatoesandhotdogsandsometimeswesbutneverelitomac, and the rest of the crew in Jeff (Homer) Simpson, Seth (Enslow) Heggie, and the kid with two first names, Blake Keith, the bulk of shooting seven storylines, plus the Mr. 1997 series fell onto my wimpy shoulders. And, boy did the week start off rough. I had a minor anxiety attack on day one at The Ranch. I had to lock myself in the camper, lay down for roughly 20 minutes and focus on my breathing, regain my shit, and get back to it. Luckily, that only happened on the first day. Rad, right?
After that, the next 14,999 days were a blur. Enslow, Homer, Ricky Bobby, and I spent a lot of time driving golf carts all over the facility to conduct interviews, BROLL, etc. I think I logged roughly 10 miles of walking every day, while carrying around my ridiculous camera setup to impress the moms who are tired of listening to their husband yell at their kid for going 16-DNF-22 (it didn’t work. No moms were impressed with me). Honestly, that’s really how this was made: walking. Walking a lot. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. every morning so that I was out of the camper by 6:00 a.m. and to my first location with camera up by 6:30 a.m. and then shooting until the sun went down.
Somehow, someway, I survived the objective. Our celebratory dinner? The McDonald’s down the road. I think I made @vurbwesateapotatoandelitomacblockedus spend roughly $25 dollars on my McDonald’s order alone. Then, I flew home on Sunday night and the very next morning, I drove to downtown Los Angeles, CA for a client shoot for a lube company for those into sexy lube things. Seriously. And, from there, I went into shooting season one of Red Bull’s Flight Plan with Jason Jett Lawrence to Red Bull Imagination, back to more Flight Plan, then to client work for SportClips in San Diego, CA to Red Bull basketball work in San Francisco, CA to Red Bull Keys to the Track in Indianapolis back to Red Bull Flight Plan to other vurbmoto shoots. That was just 2021. That doesn’t include 2022.
So, it wasn’t until middle June of this year that I was able to finally dive into post-production on chapter two of ALL IN. And, guess what? I had exactly 30 days to knock out part one, and then one week to edit part two and one week to edit part three. Yes, you read that right. Not only was my turn around time going to be painfully short, but also I was going to edit THREE separate episodes.
In total, I edited, colored, did all of the audio mixing and mastering, all graphics, etc for parts one and two of ALL IN in exactly four weeks. That is two 20 minute episodes, HOURS of footage, HOURS of interviews, and I had four weeks to finish all of it. Somehow, I did just that. Apparently, people like it. I think? I don’t read comments, but I have seen the view count. So, that’s cool. However, what happened to part three? A couple of things.
- A four week window to edit three 20 minute shows to completion, by yourself, is not possible. At least not without illegal drugs and I barely drink alcohol let alone do drugs. So, that in and of itself was just not feasible.
- I did spend time trying to lay out a rough cut of part three and while we had the interviews in the can, I simply did not have enough action footage or BROLL of the three remaining families to cohesively and effectively build out the episode.
That’s a shitty feeling. No one story was more important than the other. All seven stories shared were heart-warming, emotional, and inspiring in their own way. All of the stories should be heard. I am working on the idea of doing some sort of little vignette piece with the remaining stories so they can, to some degree, be told and be seen because I do believe they are powerful and important.
I’m not really sure this explains how chapter two of ALL IN was made, but if you’re reading this, just know it was stressful, chaotic, inspiring, emotional, and gratifying. I am proud that we shared stories of the families many do not know about, but they are stories that matter. These families did not go to Loretta Lynn’s in 2021 for the results or a factory ride, they went their because its the one place that brings them together and makes them feel whole. The racing is just a bonus. And, if you ask me, that is why you should be going to The Ranch. Screw the results, screw the factory rides… be there for the experience, making memories with your family, making new friends.
My favorite moment from last year at LL? I dipped out for almost two hours in the middle of the day to have lunch with Jared Conely (A World of Echo) and the infamous @DwellerBoy (Charles Bakke). We ate lunch together in the shade, talked about our week, our perspective on the sport, our lives, and everything else in between. It was a genuine moment that I still cherish right now because that 90 minutes or so we were there for the company of each other and couldn’t care less about the shots we got, didn’t get, or the struggles we were having. It was just a few dudes hanging out and talking shit.
Anyways, apparently people still like ALL IN? So, we have chapter three coming later on this year or early next year from the 2022 Freestone Amateur National. It’ll be another two part installment. After that, I do have some ideas on how to elevate the series and make it even stronger. Until then, enjoy chapters one and two of ALL IN. We’ll back with chapter three as soon as Tomac accepts our potato.
