Vision Statement from the Director
MAIN STORY POINTS TO EXPLORE
- The beauty of nostalgia. we… How games like these take us back to specific times in our lives.
- Recreating classic seasons and contests as a way to provide context and connect us to the history of the past.
- The bonding as the games are passed down from parent to child.
- Friendships created. The rivalries. The new story lines.
- The human need to hear and tell stories.
- The weirdly unique obsessions of the hobby. All the plastic stadiums and decals and logos… The mods. Everything that enhances the experience.
- The ability for even the smallest and simplest of sims can give immense pleasure.
AESTHETIC TONE OF THE DOCUMENTARY
- Funny, quirky but highly informative
- Irreverent use of animation (70s style School House Rock maybe?) to explain some of the technical aspects of the hobby .
- A narrator who can lean into the humor of the hobby and present in a regular guy way- think Anthony Bourdain or Alton Brown
- Use of contemporary filming and editing techniques
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH
- First comprehensive, feature length documentary to cover a hobby that’s nearly 100 years old.
- Will include as much archival sports footage and photos as licensing will allow.
- Will be filmed using high end camera framed and lit and sound equipment, beautifully to ensure the final project will look and sound amazing.
- Use of retro flashbacks incorporating professional actors to help reinforce the story and its nostalgia.
- Will employ high resolution graphics, soundtrack music and professional narration to enhance the storytelling.
- Focuses on the human stories of fascinating people whose passion for sports and this hobby are inherently interesting.
VISION STATEMENT FROM DIRECTOR MARC UNGER
“ It’s 1973 and I still have a n incredibly vivid memory of being seven years old and my dad pulling out a yellow legal pad, a pair of red dice copy of the New York Daily News. We sat on the shag carpeted floor of our living room, and he taught me of our a dice baseball game he and a friend had created while in high school in the mid fifties. A 1-1 was a ground out. A 2-1 was a fly out, 3-1 was a single and so on. Then he thumbed through the newspaper until he found the sports section and wrote down the starting lineups from the box score of the previous night’s Pirates-Mets game. I was the Mets and Jerry Koosman was my starting pitcher. He managed the Pirates with Nelson Briles on the mound . I still remember! Nelson Briles! He took the two dice, shook them up in his hand and tossed… and I’ve been hooked on sports sim games ever since.”
“This is a film about reflecting on the power of those memories and creating new ones. It’s about moments in life so precious you want to return to them again and again. As I grew up, my collection of sports games grew as well. I became an actor and a national headlining comedian and, often, brought games on the road. It helped pass the time between gigs. I mean, you can only hit the local mall so often, right? Point is, I’ve been firmly entrenched in the hobby for over 50 years and look forward to using my experience as a filmmaker, writer, director and, yes, even comedian to present the story of this incredibly fun hobby and its place in people’s lives. Using humor, contemporary filming techniques, strong visuals and a compelling soundtrack, our hope is to lift the hobby out of its small niche and reach a much wider audience. In particular, we want to showcase that this is not a hobby relegated to the past but rather a vibrant, ongoing passion that can be passed down to future generations who, up until now, may have not been exposed to the hobby of sports sim gaming except through video games and, therefore, have not had a chance to see the beauty behind the “math” found on the cards and charts of the various games. We hope to highlight and share our passion, our camaraderie, the thrill of table top competition and the way games like these allow us to travel backwards and forward in time. It’s an incredibly creative hobby built on storytelling and passion for our sports heroes. That’s the story the whole team wants to tell.