Keep Up - Trailer
As the chlorine washes from Ryan’s swim cap under the hotel shower in Montreal he turns me and says, “dude, I think we have a long way to go.”
He wasn’t wrong. We had a long way to go…
How it all began…
When I first decided to take on this project it was simply because it just sounded fun to follow Ryan’s progress over the year as he trained for the Ironman World Championship. I heard about Ryan and his balancing act between being a professional musician and Ironman triathlete on a podcast by REI in fall of 2021. I was inspired by his story so reached out and asked if he was willing to let me follow him throughout the year to make a short documentary about his road to Kona.
What followed was a whirlwind of business success and failures, sentimental conversations with his music executives and best friends, and a blossoming friendship between Ryan and myself. There was blood sweat and tears from both Ryan and I in the production of Keep Up so I wanted to share a bit of the behind-the-scenes on the process here…
First Meeting Ryan Kinder…
The first time we met was in Nashville in December 2021. I was dating a girl in Nashville at the time so was making a long-distance visit when I scheduled a time to meet with Ryan and his manager for lunch. We had already talked a few times on video calls but it’s always fun to begin the in person stage of creating a documentary. That night after our initial lunch meeting I attended a Christmas concert where Ryan and some of his musician friends were performing. It was at that concert that I knew what Ryan had was special.
Discovering that Ryan has that “It” Factor
The music was a large part of the Christmas lounge scene but certainly not the main focus like a traditional concert, until Ryan came on stage. While performing “Still Believe in Crazy Love”, Ryan stepped away from the microphone and stop strumming the electric guitar and begun singing the final chorus of the song all a cappella. Nobody in the crowd moved or spoke. All eyes were on Ryan. People were captivated by that “it” quality that nobody can quite describe but they know it when they see it.
As other musicians continued to play through the night nobody had the effect on the audience like Ryan did. Ryan Kinder everybody - he’s here and he’s ready to make waves.
In February 2022, I flew to Montreal for a weekend to film Ryan record his album. It was my first time filming with Ryan and it really set up the whole experience in a fun and lighthearted way. We filmed Ryan running through old town Montreal, swimming in the pool at the hotel in the morning and in the music studio over the course of the weekend. Ryan wasn’t where he wanted to be physically but the Ironman World Championship was still eight months away. We still had a long way to go.
Getting the Project Funded...
To provide some context on how the behind-the-scenes business process went, up until this point it was entirely self funded. I had paid to fly to Tennessee, Montreal and even paid to hire a local videographer to follow Ryan to his physical therapy appointment after breaking his collarbone because I was unable to make a trip out. The costs were adding up and I was really looking for a sponsor to help complete the film.
This film was never about the money, as most of my passion projects rarely are, but when you’re spending thousands of dollars of your own money to create a high value documentary it’s important to think through how it can be useful for a brand or organization. It seems everybody is needing content these days so I just needed to figure out how to position myself in front of the right people.
Then, we hit a pretty major road block…
Because Ironman is a private organization, any footage shot at one of their events technically needs to be licensed and approved for public use. This was a documentary about Ryan completing Ironman races so, after a disheartening phone call with them in Chattanooga to learn more about usage rights, we anticipated we’d likely have to pay thousands of dollars just to license the footage. Since we had no solid leads at this point for selling the project or having a company sponsor us, things felt bleak.
But, because of what Ryan’s story taught me, it’s important not to stop but to figure out how to keep moving forward.
Thankfully, the opportunity of my career came a month later…
Because of my collaboration with Outside Magazine on my Goat Surf Club series, I was asked to pitch a few documentary ideas for their Dispatches series. Dispatches is an ongoing documentary series that Outside produces to feature special stories in the outdoor industry. After being a fan of Outside’s work for my entire career, being asked to direct a project for them felt like a huge break for me and this project.
When I pitched this project I was nervous how they’d react since it wasn’t about skiing, rock climbing or traditional outdoor adventures but they were able to see some footage and trusted my vision as a director to complete the project in an exemplary manner.
The project was saved!
The sponsorship from Outside completely saved the film because, as mentioned previously, licensing Ironman footage tends to be extremely expensive. However, because Outside TV (now Outside Watch) is Ironman’s live streaming and video distribution partner they waived the footage licensing requirement. Without this deal, the film we wanted to make would not have been possible due to that licensing agreement so everything worked out absolutely perfectly in the end.
Traveling to connect with Ryan
Because I live in Boulder, Colorado and Ryan lives in Nashville, Tennessee we knew we had a finite amount of time together to complete the project. In May, I flew out to Nashville again to film him around his home and completing the Half-Ironman in Chattanooga. Then, after a couple trips to Tennessee and Montreal it was time for the finale. The Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. I spent a week total in Kona and it was as stressful as it was beautiful. Now that the project was funded, there were expectations on me. I typically hold a high standard for myself and because we had spent a year crafting this project I felt a lot of nerves surrounding the race and the days leading up to it.
I filmed Ryan swimming, biking, and running before the race because we had limited access on race day. That meant I couldn’t go into the transition zones, ride on the back of a motorbike following Ryan or be underwater with thousands of other athletes when the race started. Everything ended up working out perfectly with carefully planned filming locations I made along the route to help guarantee we get sufficient footage of each discipline. Plus, I even made a few friends in the Ironman community along the way so while all that stress and anxiety felt huge at the time, I really had nothing to worry about. I spent a few days after the race taking time to just relax, have some surf sessions in surprisingly mediocre waves and lounging on the beach. I was really sad to say goodbye to Ryan after our entire journey together but thankfully, it doesn’t seem like that journey is over just yet.
Since this project was such a blast for both of us and many brands and organizations loved the film, we’re starting conversations with companies about future collaboration opportunities for next year.
How We Made the Edit
In terms of crafting the edit, I was directing a lot of other projects when this was completed so I knew I couldn’t devote as much time to the specific and technical details of editing so I collaborated with longtime friend and editor Alex Rubenstein who helped bring this across the finish line. I gave Alex a pretty specific outline of what I wanted and, likely to Alex‘s dismay, spent a number of days editing over Alex’s shoulder telling him to move things around. Ultimately, we walked out of the editing room with a draft that felt finished and ready for the world to see. It was a long process and had well over 24hrs worth of footage for a 16 minute piece but it’s finally done and ready to go out into the world.
The full 16 minute documentary will be released in July 2023…
About Roo Smith
Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.
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