Beneath The Anvil

A little background-

This film is about a group of three people who chase Supercell Thunderstorms across the midwestern United States. There is a rapidly growing community of storm chasers in that area, comprised mostly of people who are doing it for recreational value. There is a rich and interesting story here about the people that do this, and the reasons behind why they do it.

I first came across this project when talking with the first two members of the group, Blaize and Lelsee Justice of Amarillo, Texas. A recently married couple, they say chasing is something that brings them together and connects them. They explained the process behind storm chasing and the value it holds to them. The both of them work their jobs year round for the sole purpose of saving money for storm chasing in the spring. Their fascination began when growing up in Texas. They watched the horizon as tornados rolled toward their towns, and wondered if it would be hit. The storm clouds, they say, would turn day into night, and serve as a warning from mother nature that we are not in charge after all.

They met the third member of the group when stopping to change the oil on their car during a chase. The man working behind the counter at the car-care center at the time, David Evans, began chatting with them about the storms, asking them about their process, and listening with complete fascination. Since that day, he has ridden along for every single storm chase.

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Blaize describes it like this. “Every spring, we set our on a series of journeys called storm chases. Only these storms are not just storms, but a rare form of storm called a Supercell Thunderstorm. This storms are some of the most powerful forces in the mother nature and are the only storms that form tornados. They can reach heights of 70,000 ft in the atmosphere, travel across the great plains at upwards of 60 miles per and hour and create tornados with 300 mile and hour winds of destruction (the highest wind speed recorded by any other storm on the planet trumping hurricane force winds) To some, chasing my seem like a weird hobby, but to me the passion for it just comes natural. These storms take us on the journey. Every chase is different. You will travel down roads you have never driven, see towns you never knew existed and meet people you would have otherwise never met. Out there in the plains there is no social networking, no traffic jams and the only deadlines to meet are to be at the right spot at the right time as these tornadic Supercells form. Simply put, its just you, the storm and the most organic form of entertainment in the world. We chase to be in awe. We chase to take brief break from our worldly worries, to experience the unpredictable journeys and to warn others who are in impending danger of these sometimes deadly storms. Most of all its about connection, both human and atmospheric.”

This storm season beginning in April, we will begin shooting for two months following them on every storm chase. Through use of time lapse photography, unprecedented audio recording techniques and Vérité style footage, this will be a completely new documentary tapping into ideas that have never been expressed in the medium. We are very excited and can not wait to begin production!

P.S. The song from the trailer is Southern Skies by The End of the Ocean their music is amazing. http://theendoftheocean.com/

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

Seeing as this is a documentary about storm chasing, it is based on how many storms manifest. The average number of supercell thunderstorms through the months of April and May are 20-30 and while we are confident that we will see that number or more, it is always possible there may not be very many storms during the season. However that is not an issue, due to the fact that this is a real documentation of what these people go through in a storm season, for better or worse. If there are any slow times, it’ll make the fast times that much better.

Through years of chasing, they have an uncanny intuition about what directions the storms are heading next, and that is part of what I want to show in the film. However we will also have a meteorologist following us in a second car, tracking the storm as well.

And of course the final challenge is funding for equipment and travel so thank you for your consideration in donating to this ground-breaking project!