So back in May I made the journey up to so far the most fun drifting events I have been to ever. I mean, just a week before Formula D Wall there was a hand full of drivers out for this only for fun event! I however noticed this van, this sweet ass van I have been seeing on the web for a month or two. It was covered in stickers, and inside was full of camera equipment. I then knew I was lucky enough to meet the two men behind the next greatest drift video to ever be made. The video, Keep Drifting Fun. The 2 guys behind the lens, Will Roegge, Joshua Herron. I waited until the end of the weekend to catch up to the guys and have a chat with them about the movie and the plan. I first hand found out these guys are legit, down to earth dudes with a passion with drifting like myself and the rest of us. Now, why this took so long to get out? Come one people, I drive too, and I have that beat s13 that needs attention like you!
1K: What are you guys doing with this movie?
Will: With this movie we are going across the United States documenting grassroots drifting, were going back and forth twice!
Josh: Does that count as doing double United States...double states...
Will: ...following the Formula Drift scheduleand like in between the month between events were going to city's in between the city's for F.D. shooting all the ametuer grassroots drivers, between those ccity's kind of like events like East Coast Bash where were at right now..
1K: Whats the idea behind the movie?
Josh: Basically, a lot of people loose track of like what makes drifting fun like when they get into competition and stuff like that...I mean theirs a lot of guys that still do it and have fun doing it but its like..the whole “stress” situation that comes along with competing at like a “pro” level...we wanted to show what keeps drifting fun and what keeps people enjoying it basically..
1K: How was Formula D Atlanta?
Will: Formula D Atlanta I think I've been there for the past 3 years now and this was..the best Atlanta event I've seen...I think that 2 of the judges in the judges meeting said that they really wanted to focus on the entry's...really made a difference at how the drivers approached the course..and I think it was alot better from a fan perspective and just drivers had a better time out there when they saw that people were stepping it up in qualifying so...
Tanner Faust and his crazy backwards entry...
Josh: Yeah there were a couple dudes that had some really good entry's too..Gushi...Gushi had a really good entry...pretty much everybody had good entry's...
Will:..and its not the easiest track to do that on cuz its kind of like an off camber corner your going into and its not like you can really setup a car backwards with the speed to be able to do the rest of the course uphill so..
Josh: ..theirs a hairpin you get into..
Will: Yeah definitely Tanners is insane..
1K: Where are you headed after this? (ECB)
Josh:After Formula D New Jersey were gonna head down to Maryland for a few days, then were gonna make our way back up to Maine..check out Main..then work our way back down through like...Buffalo and Pittsburgh, out to Ohio and then out to Chicago for Midwest Bash...Then from there..Seattle, then back to Vegas...
a lot of editing...
Will: Tons of editing, we haven't even started yet so like the main editing..the way were approaching this is WAY different from any of the videos we've done before..usually we shoot for like 2 or 3 days and then we will get all of our footage from that weekend and we'll compile and edit really quickly after that..this is different because this is gonna be feature length so we really haven't been reviewing or editing anything we've shot so far..we just have hundreds of gigs of footage we have to go through this winter and make a feature length narrative out of it...
Josh: Even after the actual road trips over were organizing some stuff, were working with some guys in Texas and some guys in Florida to set up some big events for them since we missed out on each one of there events..their big events so..were gonna get something good goin for sure …
1K: Do you guys have an idea of what your doing with the editing?
Josh: I guess its all gonna kind of come down to when we check out all the footage...
Will: I think ideally we kind of have this concept in our head but its gonna be tough cuz it really depends on what we get in an event..it really comes to the quality of the driving, the quality of the interviews.. like a lot of it is up in the air, that's kind of what makes it interesting..were trying to document everything that happens with us in the van and we really don't know you know? Like we broke down in Atlanta, the van wasn't running had to replace the motor..just like things you see when you go to events...its the same thing when you go to a competition weekend..you don't know..you kind of have to play along with whats given in front of you...there's no way to really tell if you know, your best friends gonna come out and break his transmission on his first run you know..its just the way it is...kind of have to roll with the punches..which is kinda the cool part about it...
1K: How long have you guys been drifting?
Josh: I'vee been into drifting since...im gonna say about 2003 when I first got bent up about it..and then I bought my first car which is still my current car, s14...2006 I got to do my first drift event in it and then...at the end of 2007 Iwasn'tt able to drive any events any it so I took my parents camera, filmed it so its pretty cool because at the same time I started film school so everything just kind of fell into place...
1K: How was East Coast Bash for you guys?
Josh: East Coast Bash was...amazing. As always...
(in-audible due to Mad Mike's RX8 in background)
1K: Where do you guys see drifting going in the up and coming years?
Will: Every year we've been to Formula D it seems like the next season is going to be make or break kind of like there's going to be this big boost in popularity where its going to become so much more mainstream like where it is more accessible and available to everybody. They're going to know about it and be more involved in pop culture kind of like people see in like Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift which kind of soured a lot of peoples outlook and perspective on what drifting is. I mean you have scenes like Texas with guys like this here Russel Walker with a really big scene. With so many good drivers coming out of different areas of the country now..there used to be like a bi-coastal sort of thing where yeah you got these dudes like here in Jersey and eastern PA, then you got like these guys in LA and that's it...but now you these scenes all over the United States like with technology and websites people are able to share like how and what people are doing like in different parts of the country and all over the world and that's just stepping up the popularity and the driving level..I think that it could be really huge but I also think that on a competition scale that cars are getting to a ridiculous level, entry speeds are really high, super angle, super drivers that just aren't making mistakes...I think your going to start seeing like a whole nother level of street legal types of stuff happening like there needs to be a series that fills the gap between the pro series which is out of control and like amazing and it needs to happen and keep going and just like building the most insane car possible, and then like the in between so people can progress up the ranks...
1K: What do you guys see the drifting community as?
Josh: The drifting community is great I mean there really is no other racing form where the comradery Is the same at all...dudes will break cars in..pro competitions and other teams will jump in and help them out. We saw that with the Bergholtz guys jumping in to help Chris out when he bumped into Gushi..I see it all the time, somebody will break a part..somebody will lend out a part...its like a big huge family...
Will: Its more like action sports then it is like other motorsports with the comrodary. There's no way that we could have done this trip if we didn't have friends in drifting and be able to help us out with taking us to the city, taking and showing us the spots like the reason we are able to do this is the network of people that's all over the US that you could call up or meet on a forum or meet on a website and they're going to be in Atlanta and be willing to open up there house and like give you all the good places to eat locally, where to stay what to do..if we didn't have that kind of hospitality and like the family aspect there's no way weed be doing what were doing right now you know? Driftings incredible..its unlike any other thing...its that tight...
