Behind the Scenes
Thirteen Hours in July
From a sunrise workout at Caldwell Park to an evening run outside the high school, a summer production day spent with the runners, coaches and community behind the program.
Practice started at the high school at 6:30 in the morning.
By then, our crew had already loaded the gear and talked through the plan for the day: a workout, three interviews, a family visit, an evening training session, and as much of Pella as we could fit in between.
Summer is when much of this season is really built. There are no crowds and no timing systems in July. There is just the work, done early, done together and done again the next day.
We wanted to be there for it.
Circles on the Grass
The morning session moved to Caldwell Park for a fartlek workout. Everyone ran the same looping route across the grass, pushing the pace and easing off, again and again, for up to 48 minutes.
For a film crew, a loop is a gift.
On a long run, a runner passes the camera once and is gone. On a loop, the group keeps coming back. That gave us time to find a spot, watch the team pass, adjust and get ready for the next lap.
The pond at Caldwell Park gave us one of our favorite images of the morning: the runners on the far bank, doubled in the still water below them.
Conversations Across Town
When the workout wrapped, we stayed at the park and sat down with Sam Keller under the Caldwell shelter.
Then we packed up and headed across town to the KNIA KRLS office to interview Andrew Schneider, Pella’s local sports radio voice. Andrew will help narrate the film, guiding viewers through the season the way he guides listeners through a race. We set up near a window and let it backlight the shot, a quieter setting than the open park we had just left.
From there, it was back to the high school, where we found Coach Doug Cutler shooting free throws. Our conversation with him was informal on purpose. Some of the most honest answers come when the person being interviewed has something else to do with their hands.
Before the midday break, we spent time downtown filming Pella itself: the streets, storefronts and rooftops that surround this team, including a few shots from the drone. The program does not exist apart from its town, and we want the film to show that.
Home
In the afternoon, we visited the Brenneman home.
It was a very different kind of filming. There was baking in the kitchen, a guitar, a room full of trophies and time on the front porch. We also sat down for an interview with Elsie.
As on our first production day, time with a family showed us a side of the season that rarely appears on a results sheet. Trophy rooms tell you what a program has won. Kitchens and porches tell you who is carrying it.
Back Where the Work Happens
The evening brought us back to the high school for strength and conditioning.
Afterward, we filmed a few runners on their own: stretching outside the school, then running the side streets nearby.
There was no full team around them and no race ahead of them. It was simply a few runners getting in the work, the kind of moment that happens thousands of times in a season and almost never gets seen.
By the time we packed up and drove back, we had filmed for nearly thirteen hours.
Building the Season
A day like this rarely produces a single dramatic scene. What it produces is texture: the loops at Caldwell Park, the conversations across town, a family kitchen and a quiet evening run.
Months later, those pieces matter.
When the state meet arrives and the pressure is at its highest, the film has to show what came before it. This was part of what came before it.
Drive for Five: Chasing History is presented by Ulrich Ford and produced in partnership with Good Era Film and FilmNorth.