Father and Son legacy documentary Canaryville to Bonneville is a fast paced story of building a business on the south side of Chicago while breaking speed records on the Utah salt flats.
fig documentary team spearheaded by Joseph Martinez and James Gustin collaborated with a local family to create a feature length documentary. This project was hatched in the most Chicago way possible, at a Bears game tailgate where Joseph Martinez was busy meeting people for his upcoming personal documentary project, Bear Down. This father and son story took the fig team two years to craft as we followed the family from Canaryville to Bonneville to watch them break speed records on his Indian Motorcycle. Our chicago production crews spent time interviewing family and staff to weave the story of a father and son that refuse to loose.
Filmed by Joseph Martinez and James Gustin. Traveling across country to follow the story as it unfolded proved to be a logistical challenge. Sometimes crammed into the back of a Semi Truck for hours following the crew as they traveled to race destinations. The salt flats are a difficult location for equipment and the corrosive nature of salt on all surfaces required extra tending to gear as filming took place.
JB is a legend in his own right and finding people to talk about him was not difficult. The sheer volume of interviews conducted was a massive undertaking that expanded in scope with each shoot. The story shifted multiple times throughout the project. Our team had to stay flexible and open to what emerged.
With over 850GB of footage (that is about 150 hours) our lead editor Melissa Fox spent six months crafting unique chapters without a script. Combing through interviews and finding story threads to pull together a feature length documentary. Often working with Joseph and James to view a chapter and make adjustments as she went. Unique to this project was the business component. The chapters needed to be able to break apart to use for promotion for the large scale business, Brackenbox.
The movie trailer received a best of industry Telly award. The documentary was screened privately for close family and friends to a tearful and grateful audience. The footage contained family members that had passed since the production began, thus becoming a priceless heirloom. Our photography exhibition coincided with the opening of the Stockyard Garage and still hangs on its walls today. This project is proprietary to the family and we can not show a sample of it at this time. It’s awesome tho, we promise.
How our services were used:
Full service documentary production crew - cross country.
Drone pilots
Full service editing suite, music supervisor.
Photography services for races, James Gustin.
Printing large scale photography for client's motorcycle shop.
Full feature documentary 120 minutes.
Movie Trailer for promotion
Business Chapters broken apart for marking use.
Raw footage of business in action provided for future use.
Full family archive on hard drive.
Team
Executive Producers and Directors Joseph Martinez + James Gustin
DPs Joseph Martinez + James Gustin
Drone Pilot Troy Walsh
Editor Melissa Fox