SUPER SPEEDWAY

In Conversation with Director Stephen Low

When did you get the idea to do a racing film?

Ever since I've been making IMAX® films I've been hoping to do a racing film. I've been an enthusiast of open-wheel racing since my father (acclaimed filmmaker Colin Low) filmed Jimmy Clark winning the Indy 500 in 1965. I tried to put together a film about Gilles Villeneuve in the late seventies, when he was racing Formula 1. I was about to start researching when he was killed.

What were some of the technical obstacles?

We were only going to make the film if we could get authentic- looking footage shot at real speeds. The first serious question was whether an Indy car could carry an IMAX camera while going 230 miles per hour without scaring the hell out of the driver, ourselves and the insurance company. I didn't believe we could speed up the action and keep it looking realistic.

How did Mario Andretti get involved in driving for the production?

Mario was approached by the Newman/Haas team to drive the camera car for us. The first thing he worried about was whether or not we were going to run at race speeds because he didn't want the footage to look phony. I remember standing on the side of the track when the camera first went out. It looked unwieldy on top of the roll-bar, and one of the engineers said he'd be lucky to get up to 150 miles per hour. But he smoked by at 210. I think from that point on the expectations rose substantially. That's when we realized we could make this movie.

Why did you choose Mario as a focal point in the film?

There are a few reasons. First of all, Mario Andretti is easily the best all-around driver of all time. He has won everything sports cars, sprint cars, stock cars, Indy cars, and Formula 1.

Second, he is a timeless subject, who embodies the spirit and the history of the sport. Mario raced professionally from 1959 to 1994 and is, miraculously, still active in the field. His championship career has spanned the enormous changes in technology over the last three decades. He is one of the few people around with first-hand experience driving both the old-time roadsters and the latest, most technologically sophisticated Indy car. Third, Mario is a charming, charismatic, larger-than-life character, which makes him a great subject for a film. There is also an interesting contrast: here's an intense guy with an overwhelming desire to win - a hero in a violent, macho sport. At the same time, he's an incredibly gentle, sympathetic human being, with a terrific sense of humour. I liked the fact that he's a bit eccentric, too - I, mean, this is a man who is best buddies with a pig.

How was Mario as the cameraman?

Mario always used his common sense, and it worked. We gave him tips on how close he should get and how much movement we wanted and when to switch the camera on or off, but basically, he had good instincts. Mario would see an opportunity and he'd get it.

When it came to shooting scenes on actual race-days with all the cars on the track, timing was critical - we had this narrow window of opportunity just before the start of the race and the special lightweight IMAX camera we were using on the car could hold only three minutes of film. We were in contact with Mario by radio, and with the other teams, trying to juggle incoming information and keep Mario up-to-date on the fast changing situation on the track: what cars were approaching and what the next opportunity might be. It was strategically very complex and challenging, but Mario managed to seize all the right moments - he was wonderful.

Super Speedway has racing scenes filmed on the track with more than two dozen Indy cars - how were you able to get that footage?

That was a big hurdle, to see if we could get at least 25 cars in the shots at race speeds. It required enormous amounts of politicking with all the teams. Producers Goulam Amarsy and Pietro Serapiglia and myself had tremendous help from people like Neil Richter and Carl Haas and Mario Andretti. They helped convince the Indy car community that this project was a good idea.

Are you surprised with what you accomplished?

It's amazing to think we put our camera in the middle of race- type conditions in Toronto with 25 cars going through the streets at 200 miles per hour on the straight. I would have thought it was impossible, politically and physically. But we did it somehow.

How did you obtain the footage?

We built special camera mounts onto the car that were hard- mounted with some rudimentary dampening to get rid of the highest frequency vibrations. I've never been much for dampening because it's always been my experience that it introduces more problems than it solves, but in this case it was effective. We preset the focus on the camera and Mario had a switch he could turn on if there was something worth filming.

What is the key to making this kind of film?

The essence of documentary filmmaking is to have an idea with a good mixture of conflict, counterpoint and character. It's important that the character be larger than life. You also have to work hard to shape your story. But a lot can happen during the process to change things in ways you don't expect. We juggled an unbelievable number of variables to get this footage. Mario's and Michael's schedules alone were enough to discourage us from making this movie. It took weeks of work just to coordinate with them.

How dangerous is this sport?

For the first time in history viewers will viscerally experience what race car drivers experience. They'll realize that the danger is very, very real. On TV it looks abstract. IMAX® reminds you of how serious a game this really is.

I remember standing on the edge of the track at the start of the Toronto Indy and noticing how tight the cars were as they headed down the main straight at 200 miles per hour. It was terrifying. They were so close together and there were 28 of them. An hour later a driver and a track marshall were dead.

What have you learned about the public's fascination with racing?

I think people want to see how other people confront danger. They wonder what they themselves might do. Everyone knows they have to die and everyone is scared of dying, so they want to see what it looks like. Watching is a natural instinct.

What will the audience experience?

If you've ever wanted to know what car racing is really like, now you're going to see it, smell it and feel it in your bones. It's pretty savage. Racers are modern warriors, because racing is really a form of war where the bravest and most skilled and luckiest get the rewards.

In Conversation with Carl Haas of Newman/Haas Racing

Was Super Speedway your first experience in filmmaking?

I'd done some movie-related things before. I get a lot of requests and I tend to be leery of them. They require considerable effort and aggravation. But when this project was shown to me, I thought it would be a really good thing for us and our sponsors. We knew we'd have a very good product out there.

Obviously, our engineers should be mentioned, and Mario and Michael. You have to give Mario a lot of credit because the project wouldn't have been nearly as successful without him. I must say, Paul Newman has been very impressed with the cuts he's seen. I'm really looking forward to the movie.

Who was primarily responsible for convincing you?

Neil Richter was very excited about the project from day one, and he passed that excitement on to me and the engineers. I'm really glad I came on board.

Were there any risks to either Newman/Haas or its drivers?

I don't think there were any particular risks to the drivers; however, there was a certain amount of disruption. The work we had to do to put the camera car together and mount the camera and coordinate the testing, all of that was disruptive. Because of that at first I had some reservations about doing it. But they paid some of the monetary costs for us, so I decided to get involved because of the eventual overall product. Over the last six months we've been very happy that we went along with it.

Did the production of the film affect the performance of your racers?

No it didn't. We had to put some more people out, but no. This is a very intense business, and generally, people don't understand what it takes to keep a race team like this going. We did an extraordinarily good job last season. When we last won the championship, in 1991, it was easier, the equipment had fewer problems. Considering everything we had going on, I think we did one of the best jobs ever.

In Conversation with Neil Richter of Newman/Haas Racing

You have been dubbed the "grandfather" of Super Speedway. How did you first come upon this project?

Well, approximately two to two and a half years ago, Ralph Hansen, who's our marketing director and who deals with all the sponsorship programs that Newman/Haas is involved in, brought Stephen's proposal to me. Ralph was interested in doing a film about racing and he asked if I would work with him on the file. It sounded interesting. We met with Stephen and Goulam early in the '94 season and listened to their concept and basically fell in love with the idea.

I've seen other film proposals, but none with such credible people and none in the IMAX® format. We see many film ideas because the team has a very high-profile image, as do the owners and the drivers. But most of the proposals we receive don't consider how our team would benefit. They're mainly self-serving projects.

My thought was that this film would be a tremendous boon to Indy car racing, and that perhaps its underwriting could best be attacked by bringing it to the governing body and having them take it on board as a racing project. They could utilize Newman/Haas as the featured team in the project.

What happened then?

At that point we went to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and made the presentation. Andrew Craig, the CEO, was very familiar with IMAX®, and in fact he had a proposal on his desk from another organization to do an IMAX film. In the interim, I had gone through a due diligence and had satisfied myself as to the credibility of Stephen and his group. At the end of the day you want a high-profile, quality product. The people who are producing it have got to be top-notch, and there isn't anybody better in the industry than Stephen.

What were the sponsors looking for?

Sponsors are looking for exposure. That's the name of the game. They began to realize that this was an international project and that as sponsors of Newman/Haas Racing they were going to be a focal point of the program. They realized that of all of the teams that were hopefully going to participate in the project, the Newman/Haas team would be the highlight, and that would mean they would receive the highest degree of visibility. I think that whetted everyone's appetites. Some of our sponsors came on board as title sponsors based on the fact that, in addition to the film, there was going to be an educational and audience aspect to the project. It's a very worthy project in terms of dealing with museums and children, and it allows the sponsors to get involved with some of the educational foundations. I believe this created a desire on the part of a few of the sponsors to fulfill not just their normal business desires but also to pursue some of the other things they were involved with.

For example, Kmart has a substantive Race Against Drugs program dealing with the younger community, and I think the project ties in with their plans in that area. It allows them to bring a certain message to the children who will be part of the viewing audience. Kmart and Texaco are the two sponsors that took an interest in this project.

What does the educational spin of the film mean to Newman/Haas?

The educational spin deals more with Indy car racing than just with Newman/Haas. Even though it's a widely watched sport, one of the things you constantly try to do is grow your fan base. By bringing Indy car racing into a format that will be seen by people who aren't traditionally fans, you're showing them what this kind of racing is really about. It's more than just getting into a race car and driving fast. Understanding the technology we use and seeing the space-age aspect of what we do is going to tremendously enhance the audience's enjoyment of the film. I think it will appeal to both parents and children because it will deliver more than what people usually expect from racing. That will be very beneficial to the industry.

Obviously, as the industry grows in popularity, Newman/Haas, because it's one of the top teams, is also going to benefit. We'll get our larger-than-average share of the interest.

Who was responsible for convincing CART to get involved?

I felt that this project was too good for the sport to let pass by, so whatever influence I had I used, and I finally got CART's CEO, Andrew Craig, to look at some of the initial footage. Once the organization's members saw the footage on the giant screen they realized the film wasn't going to be a game or a video or a TV show. It was larger than life, and it generated a tremendous amount of interest.

Newman makes films, and he's one of the biggest stars ever. I'd spoken to Paul, and even he didn't understand the project until he saw the test footage. Once he saw it, he fell in love with it and told Carl Haas that it was the finest bit of footage he'd ever seen on racing. The task was always to overcome the inability of people to understand what the IMAX® format was all about. You had to bring them into the theatre and show them the scope of the screen and talk about the potential. That's when the film became much easier to explain.

What surprised you?

It surprised me that it took so long to convince people.

Was the film production itself disruptive to the Newman/Haas racing team?

It was difficult because, in addition to all the normal work we had to go through during the season, we had to assign several people to take care of the camera car. It was a race car like any other, except that maybe it didn't come under the same stress the competing cars did, but nevertheless, the driver had to be well protected, and the camera too. Everything had to function perfectly so that when an opportunity arose to take a shot, it could be done. All that took some extra personnel and added responsibility.

I was able to convince a couple of people involved in our program at the engineering level, including the team manager, as to the tremendous benefits this project could bring over the long haul. Then they were able to convince the rest of the crew that it was doable.

I would also like to pay a compliment to Stephen and his crew. They were highly in tune with the complexities of the racing program, and very seldom did we ever experience any problems. They were patient and always willing to work around the schedule that was allotted them.

I enjoyed watching the transition the project went through. At first it was just some added work imposed on the crew, but before long they were really into it and had a lot of fun. It was a real pleasure to watch everyone at work. There was a genuine blending of the organizations, between Stephen and the production team and the race team. That was nice to see happen.

I think kudos should be paid to the engineering effort, which took us from the initial concept of the camera to the actual engineering of the car with the camera. I don't know if enough can be said about the complexity of dealing with film under these circumstances-in varied weather conditions, at high speeds, with all the stresses imposed on the car, the camera and the drivers. There are always conditions you don't have much control over. For the crews to work together to get this footage was remarkable. I don't think anybody can really explain to the viewing public how much of an accomplishment it was. The public will be thrilled with the speed and with the proximity to the car and the race track. For my part, I have respect for what everyone had to go through to obtain this footage.

The key people from the Newman/Haas side were Peter Gibbons, Brian Lisles and Lee White. These are the two engineers and the team manager. Of course, all the support guys were great too. But these three were responsible for either doing the work or for delegating the responsibility and overseeing it.

Production Notes | Meet the Team | Participating Organization
In Conversation with ... | The Stephen Low Company