A short film about a man who never gave up on his dream of becoming a renowned race car driver.
Defy the Odds, the short film directed by award-winning director and editor Corry Wiens is based on the true story of Bill Lester, the first black NASCAR driver to win a race in NASCAR’s Grand-Am series.
Selected and awarded for several categories, the short film captures the audience with a fascinating story, engaging visuals, and powerful editing.
“Defy the Odds is a story about a man caught between two worlds. It’s a juxtaposition between his monotonous 9-5 office job that he’s trapped in and this high-octane world of racing that he’s constantly dreaming about.”, said Corry.
The short film captures just that: From 3D and 2D office scenes shot on the LED Volume at Arc Studios representing the mundane work environment Bill Lester had to endure to adrenaline-packed racing scenes filmed by Shift Dynamics and Gear Seven at the Polecat Training Center in Tennessee.
For the custom-designed virtual set of the office space, Corry had a very specific vision: The overhead fluorescents had to include a unique light trigger that would turn off the lights behind the subject one by one. Finding this type of location would have been next to impossible, and building this type of set would have required a much larger budget.
The filmmaker was able to see and adjust the scene to exactly match his vision in the pre-production phase, enabling him to quickly wrap up the virtual production portion of the shoot on site. In the final short film, the line between the physical and the digital components of the scene is hard to define.
Learn more about Defy The Odds and director Corry Wiens’ experience using virtual production, in this interview.