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Car Productions

​OUR FILMS

​Synopsis
Baseball may be the National Pastime, but football is clearly the national passion. Frenzied crowds of 100,000 or more fill iconic college football cathedrals on Saturdays while only slightly smaller crowds jam NFL stadiums every Sunday. Even high school games in football-feverish Texas can sometimes draw 30,000 or more gridiron groupies.

The love of the game burns deep within those who play it as well, even after the glory days of high school and college ball have faded like Sun-stained pennants hanging in a grown man’s empty childhood bedroom.

It’s a passion that helps explain the popularity and proliferation of minor and semi-pro football leagues; an obsession that drives the dedication and sacrifice made by those gifted weekend warriors who trade in their day jobs for the helmets and pads of smash mouth football.

In front of crowds that break triple digits on a good night, these part-time pros and all those who cheer them on represent a uniquely fascinating subculture of American sports. 

Between the Twenties shines a light on this ardent group of gridiron devotees. We’ll meet minor league team owners, league officials, and football historians; people for whom semi-pro football is more obsession than hobby.

We’ll also meet players from the Austin Vipers, a semi-pro football team comprised of former high school and college players, veterans of assorted professional leagues, and ordinary over-sized Joes, located in Austin, Texas, to get insights from those who play the game. 

Through archival photographs mixed with interviews and up-close, sideline-access game footage, Between the Twenties brings this fascinating world to life.

Running Time: 45 minutes/Digital Video/NR
© 2015 Car Productions

Director of Photography - William Ambrico

​Music by Jacob Lutz & Kelly Hancock

Co-Produced by Kristina M. Weber

Produced, Directed, & Edited

by Merle M. Bertrand

Why put themselves through the pain – and considerable risk – of playing full contact tackle football for no money and virtually no chance of ever reaching the NFL?

Pride and passion are two of the most essential ingredients of a successful football player at any level. Combined with their love of the game, these three powerful motivators -- especially in football-crazy Texas – keeps these players chasing their dreams, riding the lingering waves of glory days gone by, or seizing one last chance to grab a gridiron memory.

They don’t often have many fans in the stands for their games, but count me as one anytime.

Music Notes
​NFL Films meets hip-hop. That’s the interesting clash of contrasting musical styles showcased in Between the Twenties.

About half of the film’s music came courtesy of one of the Austin Vipers, wide receiver Kelly “K-Smooth” Hancock, who also appears in the film.

To be sure, none of Kelly’s four compositions were written specifically for this film. In fact, all four tracks – In Love with Love; Mic Cheka; Go Git It; and, the haunting closing credits track Clovers – were performed by Hancock’s R & B-infused hip-hop outfit, Born Soul.

All four tracks fit like a receiver’s glove, however, and help give Between the Twenties its authentic streetwise edge.

On the other hand, all four tracks written and performed by Jacob Lutz were originally written for a football film; just not this football film.

Lutz had originally written his four tracks as demos for a documentary on fantasy football. When that project temporarily fell by the wayside, Lutz graciously agreed to allow us to use the tracks in Between the Twenties.

(Ironically, Lutz eventually wound up composing for the fantasy football film anyway; a win-win for everyone!)

Between the Twenties benefits wildly from his orchestrated anthems; dramatic interludes that add to the power and athletic grace on display on the gridiron.

The film’s musical styles are as diverse as a spread offense versus a Slot-T. At the end of the day, however, both styles score touchdowns – and the audience winds up the winner.

GO FOR TWO!

THE RETURN OF SOUTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL

Synopsis

It had been 63 years since Southwestern University last played a football game. When the final gun sounded on the Pirates’ closing game of the 1950 season, it appeared as if Southwestern football was gone forever.

Call it the longest off-season in NCAA history.

Fall 2013 marked the start of a brand new era in Southwestern University athletics when football returned to the picturesque campus in Georgetown, Texas.

Go for Two! - The Return of Southwestern University Football chronicles the story behind football’s return to Southwestern. Featuring interviews with coaches and members of the 2013 Pirates, prominent alumni and school administration officials who spearheaded the effort, journalists, and community members, Go for Two! captures the excitement surrounding the school’s revival of the “National Sport of Texas.”

The film also pays homage to the original pigskin Pirates -- charter members of the once-mighty Southwestern Conference -- through the use of archival footage, photographs, memorabilia, and interviews with those connected to the original Pirates football program.

Combined with an exclusive peek inside the team’s preparations for its first new season in over six decades, Go for Two! - The Return of Southwestern University Football brings the Pirates’ historic past to life while connecting it to the present.

Running Time: 46 minutes/Digital Video/NR
© 2013 Car Productions

Director of Photography - William Ambrico

​Original Music by Brian Satterwhite

Co-Produced by Kristina M. Weber

Produced, Directed, & Edited

by Merle M. Bertrand

​

Director’s Statement
When I learned that I was going to get the privilege of broadcasting the first Southwestern University football season in over 60 years on behalf of K-MAC Sports, my first thought was, “How awesome!”

The second thought was, “What a cool story for a film.”

How in the world, I wondered, did a school with such a storied football history go from its litany of gridiron accomplishments – charter members of the old Southwest Conference, back-to-back Sun Bowl titles in the 1940s, victories over the mighty Texas Longhorns during that same time period – to not playing football at all?

I also imagined how difficult it was going to be to build a program from scratch; no kids, no facilities, no staff. The reality turned out to be far more intriguing than my wildest imagination.

As the Pirates’ play-by-play voice on the K-MAC Sports broadcasts, I knew that I would be in a unique position to have those questions answered. I also felt that – given my film production background – I might be able to create a documentary that would share that story with football fans from Southwestern and beyond.

It was a case of total immersion. I only had about 14 weeks from the time the school gave me final permission to make the film and the Pirates’ 2013 season-opener, when SU wanted to the film available to all.

Somehow, it got finished on time, including a final frantic push that saw us shooting the team’s scrimmage on a Saturday morning, editing for about the next 36 hours to get that footage in the film, making the final tweaks, and having it ready for review by Monday morning.

Why the rush after 60-some years? Because the story was every bit as awesome as I imagined it would be.

​

Key Crew
​William Ambrico – Dir. of Photography At the time Go For Two! got the green light, I was finishing production on another documentary, Between the Twenties, (see far left column). It only made sense that the first call I made was to my Director of Photography on that film, my friend and longtime collaborator William Ambrico. Even though Will had just finished traipsing all over central Texas to shoot interviews and game footage for that film, he jumped at the opportunity to work on this project.

I will be forever grateful.

​Brian Satterwhite – Original Music

Music is always one of the most difficult things to acquire on any film, let alone a (very) low-budget documentary that’s being produced on a ridiculously short time line.

Fortunately, I remembered Brian Satterwhite, an Austin-area musician whom I had interviewed for an article – ironically enough – on music in film for Indie Slate magazine several years ago.

A talented musician who regularly works on projects far larger than this one, Brian composed four pieces of thematically coherent music based on just a rough cut of the film, and did so in a remarkably short period of time. This film literally wouldn’t have been completed without his insight and talent.

BETWEEN
​THE TWENTIES

An Independent Motion Picture Production Company

THUNDERHILL:

LONG SHOTS ON A SHORT TRACK

​Synopsis
From the misty back woods of the Appalachians to the sun-drenched beaches of Daytona, from running moonshine to advertising beer companies, NASCAR's history is as colorful as the powerful machines that thunder around America's super-speedways. Today's NASCAR drivers race for millions of dollars in prize money, cheered on by millions of race fans tuned in to a dizzying array of network coverage.

​But that's the big boys. What about the stock car drivers closer to home; the local guys and gals whose cars sport sponsorships from neighborhood garages, body shops, and wrecker services, who race on any one of hundreds of tracks scattered throughout the country on Saturday nights? Far away from the network cameras, these semi-pro speed demons will race for a few hundred bucks, a set of racing tires, or maybe even just a trophy and a cold beer.

THUNDER HILL: Long Shots on a Short Track introduces us to several such drivers who race regularly at Thunder Hill Raceway, a tricky 3/8 mile oval just outside of Austin, Texas. Through archival photographs and thrilling racing footage, as well as interviews with these drivers, their families, friends and fellow competitors, we'll discover that each races for a different reason.

Whether he's a Late Model driver hoping to use the track's most competitive class as a launching pad to an eventual Sprint Cup ride or just a Hobby Stocker enjoying a thrills and spills diversion from her day job, these unsung drivers have stories to tell.

Mixing human drama with the colorful spectacle of a family-friendly Saturday night at the races, THUNDER HILL: Long Shots on a Short Track tells tales, not of the fame and fortune of NASCAR's most glamorous racing circuit, but those which represent hometown stock car drivers -- and their fans -- all across the country.

Running Time: 56 minutes/Digital Video/NR
© 2006 Car Productions

Co-Produced by Kristina M. Weber

Produced, Directed, Photographed & Edited
by Merle M. Bertrand

Director’s Statement
​​The very first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a stock car driver. I still have vivid memories of going to the races with my Dad at the Kankakee Fairgrounds Speedway on long-ago Friday nights.

I’d spend countless hours drawing on and coloring playing cards to make them look like my favorite stock cars. Then I’d spend even more hours patiently pushing these homemade "stock cars" around my Grandparents’ upstairs hallway, an out-of-the way hideaway that my imagination turned into a sun-baked super-speedway. I’d crinkle up the corners of the cards whenever they inevitably “crashed,” and a Talladega-style “Big One” generally resulted in a bunch of badly torn up playing cards.

Unfortunately, my mechanical skills never advanced much beyond the holding-the-flashlight-for-my-Dad stage, and my dreams of high-speed glory faded…but never quite disappeared.

Ironically, I got into filmmaking because of stock car racing. For some reason, I got this vision in my head of making a music video using animated model stock cars for the song Castle Walls by the rock band STYX. I talked to some guys down the street who were really into making Super 8 movies, and the rest, as they say, is history. I never got around to making that STYX video, so THUNDER HILL: Long Shots on a Short Track just might have to do.

What makes this film so appealing is its universality. It’s a film that could just as easily have been made at a Midwestern dirt track as at a Texas asphalt oval. It would be just as relevant if the subjects had been those Kankakee hot-rodders from three decades ago.

In fact, the true beauty of THUNDER HILL… is that this film will ring true for everyone, whether they’re into racing or not. Anyone who has ever experienced a burning desire to compete or excel at something, and then set out to accomplish that goal, will be able to identify with the passion of the drivers featured in this film.

The biggest passion in my life, my fiancée and co-producer Kristina Weber, inspired me to stop talking about it, and go make this film. A perfect blend of my two other loves, racing and filmmaking, THUNDER HILL: Long Shots on a Short Track brings things full circle -- or rather, full oval.

It’s a long ways from my Grandparents’ hallway, but then again, it’s really not all that far at all. 

​Music Notes
​Race fans will tell you that stock car racing has its roots in the South, starting with backwoods moon shiners souping up their hot rods to help them out-run the law with their load of hooch.

The music in THUNDER HILL: Long Shots on a Short Track pays homage to racing’s Southern heritage, yet updates the sound to reflect today’s ironic sensibilities.  As this film was produced in Austin, Texas, (AKA “The Live Music Capitol of the World”), it should come as no surprise that THUNDER HILL… taps into its hometown’s famous musical pedigree for the film’s raucous soundtrack.

From the psycho-rockabilly of THE FLAMETRICK SUBS to the country twang of the late BLAZE FOLEY, from THE AUSTIN TRANSIT AUTHORITY’s jangling surf-punk guitars to the mainstream power rock of DRIFTWOOD, the music in THUNDER HILL… provides an ear-catching accompaniment to the roar of the engines.

TITLE THEME/WRECK THEME PIT MONTAGE THEME
Written & Performed by VICTOR M. LONG
© 1990 Victor M. Long

I’ve known singer-songwriter VICTOR LONG since my Film Production III class at the University of Texas at Austin way back in 1986. Victor has contributed music to films I’ve produced before, most notably providing original music for the adventure parody Quest for the Monkey God and another song to the award-winning romantic comedy Seeking the Café Bob.

​The driving guitar riffs in both songs used in this film hearken back to the classic ‘70s Southern rock sound that was hugely popular during NASCAR’s Golden Age.

Fast Fact:  Both tracks used in THUNDER HILL… are from an unfinished demo tape Victor gave me years ago.  Intending to use them for editing reference only, I became attached to their raw, gritty sound and made them part of the film.

UNTIED
Written & Performed by DRIFTWOOD
© 2000 Bootleg Records and Driftwood

Finding the footage to break up all the “talking heads” and piece together a daytime heat-race sequence to flesh out the film’s chronological progression was the easy part.  The hard part was finding the music to accompany that sequence…until I heard DRIFTWOOD’s power-rock anthem, Untied.

Once again a throwback to racing’s Southern rock roots, “Untied” was a tricky piece to cut the video to, but it was worth it in the end; especially the comically congratulatory “Aw, yeah!” vocal as Marvin Buck celebrates a Checkered Flag with Miss Thunder Hill, Michelle Reeder.

Fast Fact:  I met DRIFTWOOD founder and movie buff Tommy Hazleton at a nearby coffeehouse and he gave me this CD in case I was ever looking for music to use in a movie. 

Years later, I was.

1-2-3-4-5
Written & Performed by BLAZE FOLEY
© 2005 Waddell Hollow Records/Texas
Ghost Writers Music

Quite the story here.  The late BLAZE FOLEY is somewhat of an icon in Austin music lore.

1-2-3-4-5 comes to us courtesy of Late Model Driver – and accomplished musician -- Leland Waddell, who played on the track when this album was originally recorded.  Thought lost forever, the raw tapes were discovered in an out-of-state-attic and shipped to Waddell, who oversaw their restoration along with his brother David.

Released on the brothers’ Waddell Hollow Records label, 1-2-3-4-5 serves as a tongue-in-cheek accompaniment as the drivers try to explain the financial costs of stock car racing. It’s easy to picture the drivers peeling off dollar bills as Foley warbles, “1-2-3-4-5…”

Fast Fact:  An in-joke of sorts: That’s Leland Waddell playing drums on 1-2-3-4-5, as on-screen, Waddell talks about drivers being lucky if they make enough money racing to keep fuel and tires on their racecar.

TOO HOT TO HOOT (LIVE)
FULL STEAM AHEAD (LIVE)
Written & Performed by THE FLAMETRICK
SUBS
​© 1998 Texas Flat Lizard

THE FLAMETRICK SUBS are the most under-rated band in Austin.  The two songs used in this film, Too Hot To Hoot and Full Steam Ahead, were both recorded live at Austin’s infamous Black Cat Lounge, a smoky, suds-soaked den of sin where the Subs used to hold court for a faithful flock of late night cellar dwellers…until the joint burned down.

Campy, creepy-crawly, and retro-cool, the SUBS’ toe-tappin’, psycho-rockabilly nuggets nearly steal the show.

Too Hot To Hoot -- a palindrome, if you look closely -- works as a dance hall ditty for the Official’s Dance sequence, (which was co-producer Kristina Weber’s brilliant idea), while their instrumental anthem Full Steam Ahead takes us home during the End Credits.

Fast Fact:  I co-produced and edited two music videos for THE FLAMETRICK SUBS several years ago; the disturbingly amusing Tijuana Cat Toss and the even more politically-incorrect Life-Sucking Voodoo Women.

BOCK’S CAR
​Written by J. SZOT
Performed by THE AUSTIN TRANSIT
AUTHORITY
© 1998 Texas Vernacular Music

The big racing montage towards the end of the film was pretty cool already. Set it to the surf-punk sounds of THE AUSTIN TRANSIT AUTHORITY, however, and the segment becomes a climactic highlight of the film. 

While stock car racing and surfer music would seem to go together about as well as racing slicks on a rainy day, just remember this:  The first Daytona 500 was run on a beach.

‘Nuff said.

​Fast Fact:  Neither I nor Kristina have ever been on a surfboard.