The Drone Video of Bowling Alley won acclaim from Hollywood

A drone flew into a bar, swooping over an adjacent bowling alley and crashing into pegs.

The drone operator, who filmed an 87-second video in a Minneapolis bowling alley last week to rally support for the business, don’t expect it to be seen hundreds of thousands of times on the vehicle. social media or win high praise from Hollywood directors.

But it did and it did.

Bowling, like baseball, is something so many Americans can fall behind, even in times of intense political polarization. In that sense, the country could probably use a video like this at a time like this.

Video fans titled “Right Up Our Alley” were amazed at what they said was a remarkable cinematic achievement: continuous shooting, shooting at high speed, in tight spaces and ineffective. digital application. (Remember the famous long scenes from “Goodfellas” and “Touch of Evil”? It’s a bit like that, but faster and with bowling.)

“This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen” written by director Lee UnkrichHis 2017 film “Coco” won an Academy Award for Best Animation. “Jaws on the floor.”

It’s funny: People standing in the path of the drone can hear a quote from “The Big Lebowski”, supposedly – sorry, “Kingpin” – the best bowling movie of all time.

“My feet don’t cross the line,” a woman near the lane told her bowling partner. “Mark it eight, man.”

“This is a bowling game, there are rules,” replied her partner, a quote from “Lebowski”, the 1998 film. “I don’t count it.”

The bowling alley where the video was filmed, Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater, also has a restaurant, a variety theater and a bar that mixes “railroad cocktails”. It opened in 1936 in a garage that previously served Model T Fords.

“Right Up Our Alley,” says Brian Heimann, a producer at Rally Studios, a producer of Minneapolis, “Right Up Our Alley,” the company that produces it.

“This place is close and dear to our hearts,” he added. “So when we came up with the idea to the owner, she was completely up to it. It is a no-brainer. “

Coronavirus has been very brutal in the Midwest, including Minnesota, a state with less than six million people having reported nearly 500,000 cases. During its peak period in November, Minnesota recorded more than 6,000 new cases every day.

(The Minnesota bowling alleyways were allowed to reopen in January in limited numbers. Mr. Heimann said coronavirus protocols were followed during filming, although some people in the video do not appear to be wear a mask, except when eating or drinking.)

Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater is also located in the neighborhood that saw severe civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died last May after being handcuffed and pinned. land by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. The protests led to riots, and some buildings in the city were severely damaged.

Heimann said the video, directed by Anthony Jaska, was shot in a single shot with a racing drone – on its 10th test after nine shots. He said that the drone survived the dramatic crash at the end.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh my God, why are you capable of destroying such a device?’ ‘, He say. “But, no, these drones are quite durable.”

Travis Duede, a chef who works nightly at Lake Bryant and appears in the video, said the business was active or closed for the last year’s seasons and that he had not worked for 100 days during the period. Minnesota’s first segment was closed.

When he showed up at the drone shoot last week, he said he didn’t know what was going to happen. His boss previously just described it as “a guy who shoots video here on a drone”.

This week, Duede noticed that the video was popularized on a local Reddit page and received rave reviews from Hollywood’s A-listers, including the actor. Elijah Wood.

“Oh, this is a lot bigger than we thought,” he said as he thought back. “But it’s great because it’s our bar, restaurant and bowling alley that gets so much attention.”

In addition to Mr. Wood, video fans also include James Gunn, the creative force behind Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, who called it “greatIn a post on Twitter.

“This kind of great photographic innovation adds to the language and vocabulary of cinema,” Todd Vaziri wrote, a visual effects artist who has worked on the movies “Star Wars” and “The Carrier”. “Just beautiful.”