Meet the Filmmaker: Andrew Lahmann, Out of Nothing
The US team behind thrilling speed race documentary Out Of Nothing are gearing up to attend BBFF2015. As excitement mounts, BBFF's Lonnie Gilroy spoke to Andrew Lahmann, who produced the film and composed its score.
The credits thank Kickstarter contributors, including Charlie Sheen. Could you give us a run down on your Kickstarter campaign? What kind of budget were you working with?
On top of having to raise money for the film's budget from private investors, it came to our attention, part way through editing, that we needed to return to the land speed races on Utah's Salt Flats to do additional filming. In order to capture what was needed for the film, we needed to take a crew of 15 with us, as well as enlist the help of a remote-control helicopter team and a full-sized helicopter and pilot.
To tackle all of this, we needed to raise an additional $US50,000 beyond what we originally thought. Since the timeline to enlist private investors had closed, we turned to Kickstarter for help, and they responded in the most incredible way.
We received support from motorcycle riders, friends, family, and many others from around the world that we had never even met in order to help us finish the film.Ryan Stiles (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) is my other producer on this film. He and I contacted Charlie Sheen (who Ryan has known for some time, and also co-starred with on Two and Half Men). Charlie pitched in $10,000 to help the Kickstarter campaign, which was fantastic, but the best part was the sheer number of complete strangers who believed in us, and contributed enough little bits of change here & there that ultimately led to us eclipsing $50,000.
Were there any antecedents you looked at for inspiration? (Documentaries or feature films)
The crew got together to watch and discuss such films as The World's Fastest Indian, Dust to Glory, Undefeated, and King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I personally didn't want to watch too many films for guidance, as our goal from the beginning was to create a documentary experience on a scale unlike many others. Rather than try to match the moves of other films, we really let our own instincts guide this production.
What was the most challenging aspect of the project?
This project has been amazing on so many levels, especially working with such a truly incredible team of people who are able to do so much with very little. The most challenging aspects of the film I'd say really came from the lack of the full funding we were hoping for. This resulted in the majority of the team having to hold a full-time job in addition to working on the film, just to pay bills & make ends meet. Another challenging aspect would definitely be turning 100+ hours of footage into a 90-minute story that audiences around the globe could relate to whether they were into motorcycles or not. Our goal was to create a film about perseverance, and working hard to follow your dreams. Giving audiences a true cinematic experience in the form of a documentary can be daunting, but our crew really understand the ultimate goal, and the final product has been a success on every level.
The film has already premiered at a number of film festivals to great success. What are your further ambitions for the film?
The main ambitions for the film were to acquire distribution around the world, and the film is already on its way to this goal. We've been picked up theatrical and sales distribution in multiple territories with more on the way, and have also locked in major network television distribution immediately following the theatrical release. It's been the perfect storm of events for this team, and everyone who's worked so hard on this project certainly deserves this payoff. I'm extremely proud to be a part of this crew.
Any upcoming projects for the filmmaking team?
We have a feature film narrative in development currently, and are working toward pushing it into production as soon as possible. It's a period piece thriller set in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, USA. We also have a couple options for upcoming documentaries that I'm fairly certain we'll also pursue.
I understand some or all of the team is coming to the festival at Byron Bay. Who is coming and what are you looking forward to?
We really looking forward to the chance to meet new filmmakers from around the world and have the opportunity to see their projects as well. And it is, of course, nice to represent our film as new audiences have the chance to experience the story we believed in from the very beginning. The list of those coming includes:
Andrew Lahmann (Producer/Composer)
Chad DeRosa (Director/Cinematographer)
Colin Dalvit (Associate Producer/Visual Effects Supervisor)
Logan Barnett (Executive Producer)
Kirsten Lahmann (Web Designer)
Eldad Efendi (Production Assistant)
