NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience The Movie in Windsor, ON
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Genre: Documentary
Synopsis:
Filmmaker Simon Wincer follows racers who are traveling, and sometimes crashing, at nearly 200 mph; narrated by Kiefer Sutherland.
Release Date: 03/03/2004
Running Time: 49
Rating: PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
http://www.imax.com/racing/flash.html
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Cast:
Narrator: Kiefer Sutherland
Crew:
Director: Simon Wincer,Producer: Lorne Orleans,Producer: Doug Hylton,Executive Producer: Neil Goldberg,Cinematographer: James Neihouse,Stunts: Steve Kelso
Production Companies:
NASCAR,Warner Brothers,IMAX Corporation
Distributors:
IMAX Corporation,Warner Bros. Pictures
Notes:
Production Notes - Notes Provided by Warner Brothers Pictures - The pressure. The teamwork. The danger. The speed. The fans. The groundbreaking IMAX® 3D film NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience thrusts moviegoers and NASCAR fans into the driver's seat to experience the heart-pounding thrills of stock cars racing at breakneck speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Captured through eye-popping IMAX 3D technology and presented on IMAX screens towering up to eight stories high, with 12,000 watts of pure digital surround sound rendering the thundering engines and the roar of the crowds, the film is a visceral journey inside America's most popular spectator sport. NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience transports film audiences into the world of today's elite NASCAR drivers, the teams that keep them on the track and the fans whose intense devotion fuels the phenomenon. Narrated by Golden Globe® Award-winning actor Kiefer Sutherland, the film shifts into reverse to review the history of the legendary sport, told from the viewpoint of some of its most revered drivers, then thrusts into high gear with a look at the thrilling spectacle that is NASCAR today. Featuring rare behind-the-scenes glimpses, as well as gripping footage of the unpredictable action on the track, NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience will reveal what motivates NASCAR drivers both in and out of competition. NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience also examines the intricate science of today's racing technology, the cutting-edge machines and the underlying physics that drivers depend on to race at unbelievable speeds while skillfully maneuvering within inches of their competitors. Gentlemen, start your engines! NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience is directed by SIMON WINCER (Lonesome Dove, Free Willy, Phar Lap and the recent large format film The Young Black Stallion). JAMES NEIHOUSE, one of the large-format medium's preeminent cinematographers (Space Station 3D, Michael Jordan to the Max, Rolling Stones at the Max, The Dream Is Alive), is the director of photography; IMAX Corporation's LORNE ORLEANS and DOUGLAS "DISCO" HYLTON are the producers; and NEIL GOLDBERG (producer of the FOX network's NASCAR coverage) is the executive producer. NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience is sponsored by AOL for Broadband and will be distributed exclusively to IMAX® Theatres by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and IMAX Corporation. This film has been rated "PG" by the MPAA for "some crash scenes." www.imax.com/racing / AOL Keyword: IMAX NASCAR *** "There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile." - racing legend Richard Petty For 38 weeks every year, 43 of the country's best drivers compete in a series of grueling races on tracks across America in pursuit of NASCAR's (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) Winston Cup Series Championship. Powered by custom-engineered cars and backed by their elite racing teams, they attempt to win races and rack up the points that will determine the prestigious Series Champion. The intensity of NASCAR racing - the cars tearing around the track at breakneck speeds, the accelerated choreography of the pit crews and the makeshift cities erected by diehard fans who follow their favorite drivers around the circuit - has propelled NASCAR to its current status as the most popular spectator sport in America. "When you're at the track, the sound almost trembles through your soul; it's mind numbing," describes NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience director Simon Wincer. "There is nothing small about NASCAR, and until you actually experience a race, it's hard to comprehend the scale of this sport. I've been into sports all my life, and I've never seen anything as intense as this. It's just extraordinary." Narrated by acclaimed actor Kiefer Sutherland, NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience examines the science behind the speed, exploring the means with which the cars are engineered to sustain extremely high speeds for brutally long stretches of time while simultaneously addressing very real safety concerns. The film also travels back in time to touch on the history of stock car racing, following the sport's evolution from humble beginnings into the empire it is today. "The opportunity to participate in an IMAX® film is an incredibly exciting endeavor," says Sutherland, the Golden Globe-winning star of the hit FOX drama series 24. "I don't think there is another sport or activity that lends itself to The IMAX Experience® like NASCAR does. You get such a visceral reaction from the experience of seeing an IMAX film, and as a performer, I very much wanted to be part of this project." Indeed, IMAX is world renowned for its extraordinary large-scale films. Shot using state-of-the-art technology and presented with striking clarity on colossal screens up to eight stories high with 12,000-watts of digital surround sound, IMAX films engulf audiences in an immersive experience unrivaled in motion picture viewing. "IMAX takes you to places you could never go, whether that's into outer space or to the top of Mount Everest, and gives you an experience that you wouldn't have in your normal everyday life," comments NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience producer Lorne Orleans. Paul Brooks, senior vice president of NASCAR and president of NASCAR Digital Entertainment, recognized the unique potential for a dynamic collaboration between NASCAR, an event too big to be fully contained in any other medium, and IMAX's technology, which provides a medium with an almost unlimited capacity to capture images and sound and present them in a format that is larger than life. "Very few people will ever be able to experience what it is like to drive and compete at up to 200 miles per hour with the precision and skill that NASCAR drivers achieve every week," Brooks says. "The IMAX 3D technology allows us to take the audience inside their world to bring that thrill and excitement, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the science of the sport, directly to NASCAR and IMAX fans." Producer Douglas "Disco" Hylton values the added depth and breadth of the NASCAR experience that can be achieved using IMAX 3D technology. "The original IMAX is very much a wide-angle medium," he says. "When people think about it, what comes to mind are beautiful vistas and great landscapes. And 3D in many respects is the opposite of that; 3D is about very intimate space. With NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, we have combined the best of both worlds - the wide shots provide that phenomenal sense of scale enhanced by the magic of 3D to make you really feel like you're part of everything -- that you're racing in the car or you're in the shop while the cars are being built." Through IMAX 3D technology, the thrills and dangers of NASCAR racing are presented as an in-your-face, edge-of-your-seat experience. "You'll see a tire blow off a car and come hurtling at you," promises NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience director Simon Wincer. "But it's just as fantastic when you see a race team pull an engine out of a car and it swings over the camera and into the audience." "The 3D is so realistic, you actually feel like you're driving a racecar," says 2002 series champion Tony Stewart. "I have the luxury of sitting in one three days a week as an occupation, but to see the cars and experience our sport from IMAX's 3D perspective is unbelievable." "The 3D perspective also brings the depth of the fan experience to the screen," adds four-time Champion Jeff Gordon. "You feel like you're in the infield, standing on top of a motor home watching the race." Another key aspect of the film is the men inside the machines. NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience follows the drivers from qualifying to race day as they attend to their numerous other duties, such as sponsor meetings, charity events and signing autographs for their legions of fans. "Whether you're a fan or a driver, a sponsor or a casual observer, this film takes you into the world of NASCAR and allows you to experience it in a whole new way because of the 3D effects," adds Kurt Busch, who finished third in the 2002 Winston Cup point standings. "Like NASCAR, IMAX creates an experience that you won't forget." While NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience does not focus on any one driver in particular, many of the top NASCAR drivers appear in the film, including Tony Stewart (#20); 2003 Champion Matt Kenseth (#17); Jimmie Johnson (#48), who earned second place in the points standings in only his second year competing; third-generation NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#8); Jeff Gordon (#24), a four-time series Champion; 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year Ryan Newman (#12); and 2000 series Champion Bobby Labonte (#18), as well as many other legendary faces integral to the past, present and future of the sport. For veteran broadcast producer and director Neil Goldberg, who helped to create what has become FOX Sports' signature NASCAR coverage and shape the way the sport is seen by fans and television viewers around the world, NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience provided a new perspective on the larger-than-life world of NASCAR. "This film put me back in the trenches and it gave me the opportunity to re-appreciate how truly amazing the people in this sport are," says Goldberg, who serves as the film's executive producer. "NASCAR fans will love the way the film envelops you and takes you inside the sport, and hopefully it will also reach a lot of moviegoers who would not normally see a NASCAR race." "Watching this film sent a chill up my spine," says Gordon. "It really captures the roar, the thunder, the essence of our sport onscreen. This is NASCAR for real." *** BACK TO THE FUTURE: FROM MOONSHINE TO MAJOR SPORT To capture the full breadth of the NASCAR experience, the producers tapped Simon Wincer, the accomplished director of drama, action, sports and westerns, to helm IMAX's high-octane NASCAR documentary. In addition to directing the blockbuster family adventure Free Willy and the Emmy-winning epic television miniseries Lonesome Dove, Wincer had recently completed production on his first live-action film in the 15/70 format, The Young Black Stallion. "Besides bringing his great directing talent and enthusiasm to our project," says producer Doug Hylton, "we knew from Simon's experience on The Young Black Stallion that he was not only quite adept at filming action, he would infuse NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience with a humanity one usually doesn't find in an action movie, while taking advantage of everything the IMAX technology has to offer." As part of his preparation for filming the ambitious documentary, "I got myself a library of books about NASCAR covering the history of the sport up to present day," says Wincer, whose extensive NASCAR research included studying videos of all of the 2002 races, as well as coverage of key races over the last two decades. "I really got a feel for the sport and the way that it's emerged in the last eight to ten years in particular." At the outset of the film, NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience travels back in time to briefly illustrate the history of stock car racing, following the sport's evolution from humble beginnings to the empire it is today. Racing legend Junior Johnson's trajectory from brash whiskey runner to winner of 50 NASCAR stock car racing titles partly inspired the film's opening narrative sequence. "I wanted to come up with a way to address the roots of the sport and get us up to 2004 very quickly," Wincer explains. "I devised this chase sequence through the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, where guys used to run moonshine." Wincer elaborates on the origins of stock car racing: "There was nothing illegal about the moonshine, but the bootleggers didn't pay tax on the liquor. These guys basically built cars to outrun the IRS and the law. That's why they became so good at racing, because they built cars with strong suspensions that could slide around on dirt roads in the mountains at night with no lights and outrun the police." Shot prior to the race at Bristol, the Moonshine sequence is set in 1949 and features two daredevil bootleggers who out-drive, out-maneuver and outwit a pair of frustrated cops who unsuccessfully give chase. The driving that powers this spectacular pursuit was performed by stunt drivers - two of whom are veterans of The Dukes of Hazzard television series stunt team - and two of the hottest NASCAR drivers of the 2003 season, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson, who portray the bootleggers."When the production team was applying the artificial sideburns to my face," recalls Newman, the 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year who plays navigator to Johnson's driver, "Simon said to me, 'You think this is cool? Just wait 'til you see those sideburns on the IMAX screen, because they'll be 20 feet tall!'" "The footage we shot of Ryan and Jimmie is just incredible," enthuses director of photography James Neihouse. "You could tell they were enjoying themselves. Any chance they get to drive without rules, they have a good time." As a nod to the fans and everyone associated with NASCAR, the filmmakers added a surprise to the end of the sequence: when the police car spins out in a cloud of dust as the triumphant bootleggers race away, the cop driving the car is revealed to be none other than Mike Helton, President of NASCAR, and his "duputy" is played by Gary Nelson, NASCAR's Managing Director of Competition. "It's a neat twist for fans and people inside the sport," says Jimmie Johnson, the 2003 series runner-up. Threading through the film is narration, performed by acclaimed actor Kiefer Sutherland, which offers additional insight and commentary on various aspects of the NASCAR experience. "We're thrilled that Kiefer Sutherland has agreed to lend his passion for IMAX to this one-of-a-kind IMAX 3D film," says Greg Foster, IMAX's President of Filmed Entertainment. "Through Kiefer's involvement and the magic of IMAX 3D technology, audiences will see, hear and feel NASCAR like never before, in a way that only The IMAX Experience can deliver to moviegoers." For Sutherland, the journey of bringing NASCAR to movie audiences through the power of The IMAX Experience was a winning one. "I now have an emotional attachment to NASCAR racing that I didn't have prior to working on this film, and I've become a very big fan of the sport," Sutherland says. "NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience puts you in the driver's seat at a series of races, and you can virtually feel the speed of the cars and the thunder of the engines. It gives you an incredible respect for what the drivers go through, how quickly they react and just how frightening it is to be moving at that speed. It's even faster and more exciting than I thought." ON THE FAST TRACK: CAPTURING NASCAR RACING ACTION "It's difficult to describe the feeling of driving a racecar," admits Roush Racing team driver Kurt Busch. "There are so many elements that a driver experiences during a race. When you go 180 miles an hour, the wind pushes your car down into the racetrack. It feels as if your car weighs four times the amount that it actually does because of the speed that you carry through some of the corners. And there are 43 drivers racing inches from each other and the wall." As part of their extensive effort to capture every thrilling detail of NASCAR racing, the filmmakers scouted the NASCAR circuit and prepared to shoot race events in Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Martinsville, California, Richmond, Rockingham and Charlotte. Wincer and the production team also immersed themselves in Speed Week, two weeks of racing and race-related activities at Florida's Daytona International Speedway that precede the season-opening Daytona 500. "I was amazed by the sheer logistics of the operation, from the drivers and their race teams to the numbers of fans in the campgrounds to the size of the telecast, the merchandising trailers and the number of hamburgers sold in one weekend," Wincer marvels. Once he experienced the speed and intensity of NASCAR racing first-hand, Wincer looked for innovative ways to capture these powerful elements of the sport on film. "The IMAX camera is so big, it can be very difficult to follow action that is moving that fast," Wincer explains. "But to capture the speed, I knew we had to keep the camera moving, we had to get the camera on the track with the cars and we had to find a way to get a camera inside a race car." Indeed, it was a daunting challenge to orchestrate filming the frenetic race environment with a camera the size of a bar refrigerator that weighs over 200 pounds and requires four people to carry it. The highest-resolution image capture device in the film industry, the IMAX 3D camera takes 17 minutes to load and shoots only three minutes of film at a time. (The average 35-millimeter film camera shoots 10-minute film rolls.) "In a lot of ways, the fact that Simon hasn't spent 20 years working in large format films was a great benefit to NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience," observes producer Lorne Orleans. "He wasn't limited by expectations of what you can and cannot do with the tools, which meant he often made really wild suggestions like, 'Let's put the camera in the car.' And we managed to pull it off." Wincer wanted to devise a way to put the IMAX audience in the driver's seat for a more visceral perspective than those provided via video monitors mounted inside cars for televised race coverage. (Video simply doesn't provide high enough resolution and image quality for the large format; additionally, because the racecars travel at such high speeds, when they corner, it's possible for the centripetal force to cause the tape to slip off the heads of the video recorders, making the footage unusable.) "From the beginning, Simon said 'We've got to put the audience in the racecar. That's key,'" Hylton recalls. "Everyone said 'You can't do it, the camera is too big.' When you say we can't do it, that gets all of our guys excited to find a way to do it." With the IMAX production requirement in mind, Jack Roush and his team at Roush Racing custom built a NASCAR car with a suspension equipped to handle the 600 pound weight of the 3D camera. Constructed with removable panels to enable six different camera positions, this special rig was used to capture the driver's point of view and low angles beside the car as it rocketed around the track. The result is an unprecedented glimpse into the racing experience. "To say that the racing community was incredibly supportive of our production is an understatement, but the team at Roush Racing went above and beyond the call of duty," Orleans praises. "The footage we got from using that car literally puts the audience in the driver's seat of a NASCAR racecar. When you watch this sequence, you feel it in your gut." To further enhance the audience's sense of being in the race, the production worked with Andy Hillenburg's (owner, operator and race car driver) Charlotte-based driving school called Fast Track, which provided a racecar rigged as a camera car that is used primarily for shooting racing-related commercials. Once the Fast Track team modified their platform slightly to support the larger-than-normal size and weight of the IMAX camera, the NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience crew mounted the camera and remote head onto the front of the car and counterbalanced it with lead weights placed on the back of the vehicle. Driven by a professional instructor from Fast Track, the camera-mounted vehicle hit speeds up to 165 miles per hour with the camera remotely operated from inside the car by cinematographer James Neihouse, who was able to pan, tilt and track with the surrounding race action, capturing the driver's experience from multiple extreme points of view. "I was concentrating on a little monitor as I operated the camera," Neihouse describes. "Occasionally I'd look up and we'd be right in the middle of a pack of cars going at breakneck speed. I'm thinking, 'Can we fit through that hole? Oh, I guess we just did!'" This special camera car setup was also used to recreate racing action in a controlled environment, in which the filmmakers could capture shots that would be too dangerous to attempt during a live race. The Richard Petty Driving Experience, a premier driving school featured in NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, supplied many stock cars and drivers to the production for the controlled racing sequences. "Simon carefully thought out each of the shots he wanted to get to convey the speed and sensation of NASCAR racing, using the Fast Track camera rig and the cars provided by the awesome people at the Richard Petty Driving Experience," Orleans notes. "As a result, we were able to shoot some really exciting footage that puts you right in the heart of a race." "This footage portrays NASCAR in its truest sense," says third generation NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. "It's really exciting and really loud, which is exactly what it's like when you're inside the car." "The racing details that are presented in NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience are phenomenal," Kurt Busch concurs. "The IMAX camera gives you a realistic perspective of all those aspects that we drivers see and have to digest during a race." Wincer's inspiration for one of the film's most breathtaking shots came while driving around the track at Alabama's Talladega Super Speedway during a camera test. "I was doing 40 miles an hour around one of the banked turns and I felt like I was going to tip over because the banks are so steep," says the director of the 33 degree-angled turns. "It's hard to explain how steep a 33 degree bank is, but you literally have to use your hands to climb up the track," Hylton elaborates. "When you're at the top of that bank, you're about four stories high looking down." Wincer envisioned a shot that would be captured by a camera placed midway up the bank, set level with the flat straight-aways, as racecars barreled into the turn mere inches from the lens. Due to concerns about the tremendous vibrations caused by the racecars, and the possibility that the cars going by at more than 165 miles per hour might blow the camera off the track, the crew bolted the IMAX 3D camera to the track. (Camera vibration would cause the image to jump up and down on the vast IMAX screens, rendering the footage unwatchable.) "The hardest part for our rigging and grip team was getting the camera halfway up the bank," Orleans reports. An elaborate system of ropes and pulleys was created to haul the camera up the bank. Once attached, the camera was operated using a remote as drivers sped past the equipment at enormous speeds. Equally important to Wincer as putting audiences behind the wheel was finding a way to maneuver the unwieldy IMAX 3D camera to capture the high-speed action on and off the track without interfering with race personnel or spectators. "We had to get every shot on the fly," Wincer says. "That's easy when you're using handheld cameras, but with an IMAX 3D camera, it's a different situation entirely." To keep pace with the spontaneous race action, Wincer and company also needed flexibility in camera transportation and positioning. "We needed to be able to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible with as little sweat as possible," says Neihouse. "When the opportunity arises to get an amazing shot, you've got to make it happen." In order to achieve Wincer's vision for dynamic camera movement and simultaneously maximize race coverage, the production utilized a device called the Shotmaker, a sophisticated camera crane mounted on a truck platform that allowed the filmmakers to move, pan and truck with the action as needed. "Using the Shotmaker was ideal because we could move the camera very quickly, reposition it, elevate it and get high angles if someone got in our way all of a sudden," Wincer says. "The Shotmaker was key to conveying the intensity of the sport as well as a great tool for camera crew mobility and production efficiency," Orleans adds. When filming a key race scene, the Shotmaker was positioned over the track with Neihouse astride it, operating the camera as cars zoomed toward and underneath him. Wincer sat atop the crane in close proximity during these shots, absorbing the tremendous vibration created by the thundering machines. "It's very exhilarating to be that close and yet feel safe," he declares. Neihouse got even closer to the action during a test shoot in Richmond, where he actually lay on the track operating the camera as cars raced by, passing within inches of him and the IMAX equipment. As for the fear factor and sheer exhilaration involved, the experience "rates right up there with flying into volcanoes," says Neihouse, who began his accomplished large format career on the 1976 film Ocean and served as director of photography on the IMAX Dome film The Eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Short Documentary in 1980. The Shotmaker was used extensively to capture racing action like the highly detailed operation performed by the pit crews, who change four tires per vehicle, refuel the cars and make crucial adjustments in less than 14 seconds. "When I take somebody to a NASCAR event who has never seen a live race before, the pit stop is the first thing I want them to experience because of how exciting and dangerous it is," Earnhardt Jr. reveals. "The pit crew's movements are choreographed down to each individual move that every person makes, and it's all done in this screaming, loud environment." "Filming these pit stops is extremely challenging because the cars come tearing in and then they're gone," Hylton points out. "We captured several pit stops from the same car so that we could thoroughly cover all the activity that takes place in a matter of seconds." "The IMAX footage of the action in the pits is as real as it gets," Jeff Gordon attests. "You're hearing lug nuts fly off the wheel. You can feel the pit crew's steps as they're running around the car. It's an awesome experience for fans. Heck, it was an awesome experience for me. I don't get to watch the pit crews in action other than from inside the car." At the sprawling California Speedway in Fontana, the production captured Wincer's dream shot on film: all 43 racecars pitting at the same time. "It's a spectacular sequence," Wincer reveals. "It's amazing to see 43 cars ducking into an absolutely empty pit road at 55 miles per hour, then watch 43 crews change four tires and refuel in a matter of seconds before the racecars roar out of the pits." Wincer and Neihouse also designed several aerial sequences for the film to depict the massive scale of a NASCAR event. At California Speedway, which attracts crowds of more than 130,000 spectators, merchandisers and race personnel, the production placed an IMAX camera in the nose of a Lear jet that flew in formation with a team of F-16 fighter jets as they performed a flyover during the National Anthem. IMAX cameras were also mounted on a gyro-stabilized helicopter using a rig called the SpaceCam, and on top of an industrial crane positioned approximately 150 feet above the main grandstand. "I remember going down the back straightaway during the race and there's a helicopter flying 80 feet off the ground coming at me head-on," Jimmie Johnson remembers. "I'm thinking 'What in the world is this helicopter doing?' Then I see the huge ball on the front that's holding the IMAX camera. As I'm going by at 160 miles an hour, I realize Oh, they're shooting the IMAX film. And they're getting pretty close!" At California Speedway, as with every other race covered by the production, the IMAX cameras attracted attention from the crowd - including attendee Arnold Schwarzenegger, who inspected the camera and chatted with Wincer during a setup in the drivers' meeting room. "Everyone associates IMAX with big," Wincer observes. "The fact that we were shooting an IMAX movie about NASCAR with the added element of 3D really blew the fans away. 'Wow! You hear that? Man, they're doing a movie about NASCAR in IMAX!'" "Seeing the size of the IMAX cameras and the production crew, I knew this was going to be a big picture," says 2002 series champion Tony Stewart. "I didn't realize, until I was sitting in the IMAX Theatre, just how big the picture was going to be!" The formidable 15/70 format requires a different composition than shooting for feature films and television, as Wincer explains: "When you look through a small camera viewfinder or you watch a shot on video replay, it's a miniscule version of the image that's going to end up on the IMAX screen. So the temptation is to shoot everything tighter than it needs to be. Shots that wouldn't look like close-ups in 35 millimeter appear incredibly close up on a screen eight stories high." The stunning visual aspects of NASCAR as seen through NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience are complemented by a soundtrack that reproduces, in 12,000 watts of digital surround sound, the all-enveloping aural elements of a NASCAR race environment. "Sound is a critical part of the NASCAR and IMAX experience," Orleans attests. "At a race, you feel it in your gut. Your ribcage rattles. The sound of the engines has that kind of low rumble that a space shuttle launch has. Not only will the imagery of being in the car give you a huge visceral sensation, but the sound in those moments is going to rock people right out of their seats." "When our racecars idle, there's a distinct crackle that they make because there's 850 horsepower we're trying to contain," Jimmie Johnson explains. "So when I saw shots of the cars racing by in the film, it gave me goosebumps. This movie made me think I was actually standing in the garage. So not only does the picture give you this amazing detail that makes you feel like you're there, the audio is totally realistic." "When the film shows Rusty Wallace making a pit stop at Daytona," adds 2000 series Champion Bobby Labonte, "a crewmember throws a wrench down, and you can hear the wrench hit the ground. Details like that are important to conveying NASCAR racing in its truest sense." IMAX soundtracks are typically constructed in post-production, but for NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, sound recorders were on set every day to capture as many different perspectives of car and track sounds as possible. In post, the sound is separated and individually channeled to six different key speakers in the IMAX Theatres. "With our unique sound design, you will experience the sensation of cars speeding at you through the front speakers, then hear them rumbling past you as the sound travels to the back speakers, and meanwhile F-16 jets are blasting over your head. Your senses will tell you that you are there," Hylton says. During a race, the sound level on the track is so overwhelming, it prompted Neihouse to rig an intercom system that he used to communicate with Wincer and the Shotmaker operators. When he was filming inside the Fast Track camera car, he utilized earplugs with speakers embedded in them that blocked out the deafening noise while allowing him to communicate with the production team. "The mind-numbing sound combined with the speed and how close these cars are together is truly impressive," Wincer states. "It shows how amazing the drivers are. Their ability to drive at speeds reaching 200 miles per hour for three hours amid the noise and the distractions, and yet remain so focused, is extraordinary." THE MEN BEHIND THE MACHINES: THE WORLD OF NASCAR DRIVERS The top drivers in NASCAR are featured in various sequences throughout the film, which provides insight not only into their racing experience but to the extensive respons
