KIngs of the Road: Making the film

Kings of the Road: The Story of the Portland Buckaroos is a film that went into production as of February the 4th. Together with a small team assembled from a previous production, Mania(a film about the Portland Trailblazers), we set out to create a film that encapsulated the history of the legendary hockey team known as the Portland Buckaroos.

The real origin of the film began a few years earlier while producing Mania. I thought of creating a segment about the Bucks in retelling the Trailblazers story. The Bucks preceded the Blazers and therefore were part of that story. I decided after reading through the history of the Bucks, that they deserved a film of there own. Certainly having won more games in that period than any professional hockey team made this a must.

During the filming of Mania I created a few questions for interviewees that related to the Bucks knowing that some day I would be able to include these segments to a Buckroos film. The interview with photographer Bill Zavin is one of those. Bill was already a huge Blazer fan and, through my interview, found that he was a dedicated Bucks fan before that.

During Bill's interview in the Memorial Coliseum, we needed some technical information and I was referred to staff at the Winterhawks. After getting the question answered I mentioned that I would also like to do a Buckaroos film, and they referred me to Scott Peterson who had just written a book about hockey in Portland. Scott and I agreed to meet and found that he was just about the biggest Buckaroos fan around!

About a year ago I started the preparation for a Kings of the Road by doing a second interview with Harry Glickman (founder of both the Buckaroos and Trailblazers). On a warm summer day my cameramen and I recorded what would be the core of the film. Since Harry had been there from the beginning he would lay out the story of the Bucks and how they got started.

During post production on Mania, I was able to record other interviews with former players like Andy Hebenton, Norm Johnson, and later several others at an event held by the Portland Winterhawks who had started hosting annual Buckaroos celebrations.

Production began on a shortened version of the film for the upcoming event being held on March 14th, but the outline had been created long ago and it was just a matter of putting the team together and editing like lighting! Together with Motion Graphics wizard Clayton Root, Sound and Music Editor Chris Barber, Composer Tom Barber(yes it's Chris's brother) and Director of Photography Ed Henry, the short version of the film was completed and will be shown on March 14th at the third year event celebrating the Portland Buckaroos!