Derby Time

For my final project in EPJ, I’d like to create an interactive story focused on the Missouri Demolition Derby circuit. The motion, the mud and the sound of mangled metal make these a great candidate for multimedia.

The season starts February 19^th with an indoor bout in Springfield, Mo., picks up speed into the summer months and continues through October. Due to the length of the season, there are only two derbies currently scheduled before the end of the spring semester—Springfield (February 19^th and 20^th) and Bloomsdale (April 17^th). As a result, a lot of what I do throughout the semester will be preliminary work for a longer piece I will continue to follow after the semester ends. The downfall is that there is very little time to find a story and shoot action.

I’ve made contact with Troy Jones—a mid-Missouri derby fanatic and head-honcho of the Midwest section of wecrash.com, the one-stop-shop for everything related to derby life—to gather information and suss out stories ideas and photo making opportunities. Some thoughts I have about focus include the serious driver, the new driver, and depicting the wide variety of derby classes.