Revving Up Post Production

When Adam Carolla and Nate Adams formed Chassy Media, their goal was to create a collective of automotive and motorcycle videos where enthusiasts could go to find content. The two first worked together on ROAD HARD, a film starring Carolla about a stand-up comic who goes back out on the road to provide for his daughter. While working on that project, Carolla learned that Adams had a background in creating sports documentaries. Carolla wanted to do a documentary on Paul Newman’s racing career, and after showing Adams the material he immediately signed on.

https://blog.adobe.com/media_894b8592cfd0e55312a5b21214a91d1843b458e4.gif

Adam Carolla in ROAD HARD

They completed both projects in 18 months and their partnership has been going strong ever since. “Adam has a deep love for automobiles; he collects and races vintage race cars,” says Adams. “I love cars as well, but I’m definitely more of a documentary and story guy. We work well together; he knows car details and I stick to the story and make sure regular people will like our content.”

The documentary Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman, opened in New York and Los Angeles, was ranked the #3 sports documentary of 2015 by Bleacher Report, and won the Motor Press Guild feature of the year. Next on the docket was The 24 Hour War—a documentary about the Ford/Ferrari wars in the 1960s and development of the GT 40 racecar—which also did extremely well on the festival circuit.

https://blog.adobe.com/media_9c67e780ec24428f7cbc172b39371c4d7c7f2f82.gif

THE 24 HOUR WAR

“Depending on the narrative, documentary, feature films, commercial projects, and music videos are all definitively different,” says Adams. “I’ve done them all, and at the core of each project, you have to fundamentally be able to outline the process in your mind and have a good imagination, so you can see things before they happen.”

Chassy Media does all of its own distribution and has a first look agreement with Amazon Prime. The team also distributes content on its own Chassy.com platform, as well as through other online channels including iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft, and Vimeo. Adams works with four other editors and a production manager, with everyone working with Adobe Creative Cloud.

The team is currently working on two new projects. The first is a documentary on Willy T. Ribbs, the first black driver to race and qualify for the Indy 500. In this project as well as others, Chassy Media does a 2D effect on still photos in which they pull an image away from its background using Adobe After Effects CC, giving it the effect of movement. “It’s an effect we use in all of our documentaries and it’s been really well received,” says Adams.

https://blog.adobe.com/media_07501304df9434c7e4f79ecef103e5a9b3889ce4.gif

KING OF THE UNDERDOGS Willy T. Ribbs interview

The second project is a six part documentary on KROQ, the largest radio station in Los Angeles that has spawned many alternative music artists, including The Cure, The Clash, The Ramones, Depeche Mode, No Doubt, Blink 182, U2, Coldplay, Oasis, 21 Pilots, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Imagine Dragons, and more. The documentary, which was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, includes interviews with the bands.

https://blog.adobe.com/media_5f942cc5ecde1f8924b6095e3a6bb71a57dc601b.gif

KROQ Imagine Dragons interview

Chassy Media’s documentaries include a range of archival content, from Super 8, VHS, ¾ inch, and 1 inch to 16mm, Digi Beta, and Beta SP. Everything goes into Premiere Pro natively, including content the team shoots using a Canon C300.

“I like Premiere Pro because you don’t have to convert footage before you start working like you do with other editing software, so it’s a big help and definitely makes the process faster,” says Adams.

With many other projects planned for distribution, Chassy Media shows no signs of slowing down. And that suits Adams and Carolla just fine.

Read the blog on Corolla Digital

Learn more about Adobe Creative Cloud pro video tools