OPTIMA BATTERIES | Client
JACOBSON ROST | Agency
ANDY RAMSEY | Editor
TOM GORTON | Creative Director
MIKE MATUSEK @ NOLO DIGITAL FILM | Color
MICHAEL MASON | Sound Mixer
Betim Berisha has been building cars his entire life. He had a dream of taking a production line Porsche 911 and custom fitting it with the best bespoke gear available to set a new record at the legendary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This dream did not include having less than 30 days to build the car from scratch.
When I first received over 30 hours of footage from Betim and his media partners Hoonigan, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. Unlike Betim, I’ve never built a car (though I bragged for years that I was able to change the shocks myself on my 2001 Maxima). I scrolled through hours and hours of meticulous tuning, machining, installation and assembly becoming more and more panicked with every day’s worth of footage. I had no idea what the story was here- no one wants to watch someone put a puzzle together. But when I got to the very last day of footage and saw Betim’s reaction to seeing the car- that he and his team build with their bare hands- up on the mountain, it all clicked. Suddenly all that build footage was like gold to me. Betim may not know it, but his job’s a lot like a video editor’s: I had to take all these individual parts and bring them together in the right balance to get to this final moment. Yes, a lot of that is the assembly of the car. But the real story here is Betim’s passion and perseverance. Initially the assignment was to keep this video under 5 minutes but I quickly realized that wouldn’t do it justice. I’ve never sent a first cut that was twice as long as the target but I was prepared to go to war for Betim’s story. Luckily, everyone who saw that first cut said “that was 10 minutes?!” and I was vindicated.