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>> Oh, we're at Elkhorn, Wisconsin at the Van Nationals. >> We're at the Van Nats, which is the best truck-in of the year, usually. >> 40th Van Nationals. I'm here. Woo-hoo! >> Forty years of the Nationals. National is where we all get together once a year from all parts of the country and converge to one place. >> It's a yearly event held in a different state every year. >> Just nothing but vans. Nothing but vanners, van clubs, independent people. It's a great time. >> Hi, welcome to Director's Cut. I'm Pete Schwaba, and that was a clip from Vannin', a bitchin' documentary about van enthusiasts and the vehicles they love. I'm joined today by the film's co-directors, Nick Nummerdor and Andrew Morgan. Guys, welcome to Director's Cut. >> Thanks for having us. >> Yeah, thanks. >> Our pleasure. So, tell us how you found this project because this is a culture I never knew existed, and you guys obviously stumbled upon it somehow. Talk about that process. >> Ah, boy, it could be a long story, but we'll save it. >> This isn't a miniseries. >> Right, right. In about 2011, I bought a '73 Dodge van, like an old custom van. It was customized from the '70s. Our buddy also had one at the time, and I purchased one and that's sort of what led us into kind of finding the culture just through looking on the Internet for parts and different ways to customize the van, things like that. So it sort of naturally, organically led us right into the culture of all the custom van people. >> I'm not sure I should ask this, but why were you looking for a '73 van at your age? >> You know, our friend, our buddy, Brent, had like a great-- his is a '77. We were just having a ton of fun in it, going around Northern Michigan, going camping in it just as a group of friends. >> Sure. >> And I think that's the beauty of it. You can haul a bunch of friends and go have a great time in it. And I was like, well, I want to make sure I can do this all the time. So I started scouring the Internet and through Craigslist found one. >> Yeah, you do your Labor Day weekend trip in a custom '70s van. It feels a little different. >> Right. And it's a quiet way to store bodies if things get out of control. So, that's great. This film is... I just got such a kick out of it because the partying, I mean, is it more about the party or more about the vans? Or is a combination? >> I'd say it's about the family nature of it. These people, it's like a high school reunion, all these truck-ins that they have all summer. Some people, they retire and they'll hit a truck-in every weekend through a whole summer. >> So they have them every weekend, or they could find one if they wanted to? >> Yeah. >> Oh, no kidding. Huh. >> So all these clubs all over the US host their own truck-ins, and it's publicized to the people that know or are in the vannin' community. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I think it started initially to be about the custom van, and then I think over time it became exactly what Nick's saying about the reunion of it all. When they were young, it was all about tricking out their vans and making them look awesome, and I think they all grew up, got older, had kids, and then it became like this bonding thing for them. >> And they also party. >> Yeah, obviously. So, were they receptive to you guys when you said what you were doing? Did they want to share this culture, or were they sort of like,"Who are these outsiders?" >> Yeah, and I think that that's, you're touching on a point that's really important when talking about that culture is just how open and welcoming that they are. I think it helped because we had a natural interest in vans and custom vans and their culture and everything, me owning one and my friend owning one, so that helped, but they're just really welcoming to just about anybody who's going to go in and give them respect and the time of day. >> I think they were waiting around for it, too. They wanted some coverage. >> Finally. >> I think they had been kind of swept under the rug for enough years. I think our film's literally the first film in over 30 years to kind of document what they were doing. It's a very do-it-yourself kind of work ethic kind of thing. >> Yeah. >> They make their own events and T-shirts and everything. They've kept working at this for 40 years, and to get to that 40th truck-in that we filmed, that's 40 years of people staying up late, working on it. >> Right. >> It's a big event to throw. >> Probably helped that you pulled up in a van of your own, too, I would imagine. >> Yeah. >> Let's take another look at a clip from Vannin'. >> This is van show day. There's about 130 vans in the field over here, and we'll be judging them all day today. They're classified in different classes for the competition, and at the end of the day, tomorrow night we give out trophies. There'll be a 'Best in Show' and a lot of trophies given away. It's a beautiful day. Stay hydrated. >> Anything else? >> No. That's what we do.

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>> It's a true story all the way except for the accident. That never happened. Never got in an accident. But that's a story from Jack Daniels all the way from one side, how it's developed, and then how it's delivered all the way to your bars and your restaurants. And then there's some secret codes, like in the smokestacks and stuff. >> Ah. >> Secret messages.

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lights, bumper, tail-light. >> Basically, what a classification does is so that the guys are competing in the same class so that you're not getting someone that has all these full modifications, this one will be in a full class, competing against someone that is stock or a street class. And then what we do is we get them in a classification and then we start judging them van against van, and we use a point system that makes us look at everything. It's about as fair as we can get. >> The amount of male nipples in this movie is staggering.

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These vans are so outrageous. And this is a competition. Like, how do they even go about grading them? >> Lots of classification. >> It's got to be, and it's got to be all inside stuff that no one else would understand, I would assume, unless you're... >> They're actually so welcoming in the sense that there's so many classifications that, like, there's a pretty good chance that you could get a national award if you just bring your something that you customized there. >> Is the national award a shirt? >> I don't know. >> So what do they give out? >> Trophies. >> Okay. >> Pride. >> Yeah. >> It's like I don't know the exact classifications or the point system or anything like that, but I do know that the award ceremony at the National Truck-In goes on for about four hours. >> Wow. >> So there are tons of like

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Dodge, Chevy, Ford, things like that. And how much you've customized it is relative to what category thing you're in and all those kinds of things. >> Whether it's a stock van or if it's a radical custom. >> Okay. >> Like a radical custom would be that 'Death Star' van, for example. >> That was cool. >> Where it's got the dual or the tandem van. >> Yeah, the double axles. >> Was that the one that was pulling the other piece that looked just like it? >> The Star Wars one. >> Okay. So I would imagine these people don't even really care. You said pride. I guess they would care if they win. But it's not really about that. The competition is more about just kicking back and having fun, I would imagine. >> Yeah. And like some of the first things we talked about with people is how much different it is from like your standard car culture. Like hot rod guys and the guys with the old Chevelles and Camaros and Corvettes and all that, they like to say that they're a lot more welcoming and open to, you know, because part of it is just hanging out and having a good time. >> Yeah. >> The vans, I think, this day and age, have become sort of secondary to the whole experience. >> I think the know the answer to this next question already, but how were they, were they, you said they were welcoming, but talk about your characters. There's no shortage of characters at this thing or in this community. >> Right. Many of them are friends with us now. >> Yeah, we see them, we've returned time and time again. We've been to the last two national truck-ins since we filmed this. We went to Canada's National Truck-In. >> Wow. >> Which is called Van Fest. And you see a lot of familiar faces. I'll have random people come up to me, and they'll be like, "I'm in the movie at 38 minutes." >> Funny. Wow. >> As far as specific characters, Howard, who's kind of, you know, I like to say, "Our unofficial guide through the whole vanning experience," who you saw in that clip. >> Yeah. >> He's just a great guy. Really gregarious and outgoing. We met him initially out at a bar and had a couple beers with him and got talking vannin' and he brought out all of his old books and he was just a natural immediately and wanted to go through the history. Was just super enthusiastic to share the history of vanning. And I think that still going to remain true as long as Howard is alive, I think. >> Yeah. Well, I don't think that guy's going anywhere, it seems like as long as there's truck-ins. When you befriended him, was that easier to get interviews with all these other people? Because you got a couple guys in there that didn't look like they necessarily would have talked, necessarily. >> Yeah, absolutely. There's a segment in the film about 'puppy truckers', and that's essentially what we were while we were filming this. So this is kind of our P-O-V through the vanning weekend. So if we hadn't met Howard beforehand, a lot of these people probably wouldn't have been as eager to talk to us right off the bat. Because I know there was a lot of, over the years they had other film crews come in and film or start things and nothing panned out. So they're willing to give us the benefit of the doubt, and we're happy we pulled through. >> Yeah, well, us too. Let's take another look at a clip from Vannin' >> My name's Howard. I'm a member of Midwest Vans Limited out of Chicago. Joined in March of 1974. The club was two years old. I actually joined at the second anniversary party. As I said earlier, in 1972 the editor of Hot Rod magazine had this idea to have a national truck-in. He got together with a club out of Denver, Colorado, called Rocky Mountain Vans to host it at a place called Tiger Run in Breckenridge, Colorado. >> Well, it started back in California and the West Coast. Back then it was hippies and going surfing, a bunch of surfers, and the best vehicle to haul your surfboard around was a van. And you camp in it. You can do just practically everything in it. >> I'm George Cattell. I'm with Midwest Vans Limited. I've been in the club since 1972. I wouldn't know, we started in California, I'm sure. And when I was in the Army, when I get out of the Army I wanted to see this country. There's three things I wanted to

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this country, Frank Zappa, and The Doors. Now, they had drinking age was 18 at that time, so one of the guys said, "We're going to go up to the bar, you want to go with us?" So we went with him. We were the old guys in the crew, and they had a van. Halfway up there, I looked around this van, says, "This is just what I need right here." >> That retro footage is so cool. I don't know how on Earth did you find that stuff? Was it hard to find that stuff? >> That was another thing through Howard and a club called Midwest Vans Limited kind of based in the Chicago/ Northwest Indiana area. This was a bag of 8mm footage that I don't think that they had laid eyes on since like maybe the '80s or something like that. The president of that club just handed us this shopping bag full of stuff, and we had it transferred. So it was a mystery to us, too, until we got the transfer back and looked at and went, "Oh, wow." >> Yeah, right. How much was it? Was it hard to go through all of it, or was there enough of it? >> Maybe there was 60 minutes or something of the 8mm stuff. And then we had the BF Goodrich film. >> Okay, so talk a little bit about, I mean, it must be nice from a filmmaker's standpoint, most of this was outdoor, how much stress does that alleviate when you don't have to worry about lighting and makeup and all that kind of stuff? >> Yeah. I think that's just the nature of documentary, too, is that you know how accessible it can be. Just pick up a camera and go do it, rain or shine. So, yeah. I mean, it was, yeah. >> It was hot.

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We filmed about 10 or 12 hours a day. We'd wake up in the sun just like you're at a music festival or something in a tent or a van, and we'd go out. The events start right away and they carry on through the night and we just had to be troopers and stick with it. >> How do these people do that? I mean, a lot of these people are pretty old, not pretty old but to keep a pace like that, like almost it sounds like a college kid pace. How do they do it? Do they take a lot of naps? >> They're pros. >> They're doing it enough. >> You can see people have different ways of going about things to keep themselves entertained. >> Sustain themselves. >> You'll see one of the things I initially saw early on was people were sticking air conditioners in the window of their van and plugging it in. >> Okay. >> They literally had an air conditioner. >> Nice. >> I think the short answer is years and years of practice. >> Yeah. >> They figure it out. >> Sounds exhausting. So talk a little bit about the relationship between the older vanners and the newer generation because it seems like it still kind of skews heavily towards the older generation, but there were some pretty young enthusiasts, and now you guys, too. Cohesiveness there? >> Yeah, I think, like, generally speaking, the younger generation tends to be the sons and daughters, or even in some cases grandsons and granddaughters, of the vanners. It's kind of a tradition that's being passed down generation by generation with the exception of people like us every now and then coming in from the outskirts and enjoying it. But as far as, I think that the mentality is the same both ways. Everybody is there to have a great time. One thing that you always hear time and time again, especially when you first go to one, is how safe the event is. There's never any fights, you know. >> Yeah. >> In the 40 years that, say, Howard's been doing it, he's never seen a fight before, whether that be between young or older generations of vanners. >> Which is amazing considering the drinking going on and partying and stuff. You'd think people would butt heads. >> And over 40 years accidentally you'd think there'd be a-- even if it's not about the vans or whatever. >> It's a very safe, friendly bunch of people. >> Yeah. I mean, at the national truck-in where we filmed, I left the keys in the ignition of my van unlocked all weekend. Not to mention all the film gear that we had. >> Wow. >> And nothing ever got messed with. >> That's great. Well, let's see another clip from Vannin'. >> My first experience with an enclosed vehicle was a panel truck that my grandfather had for his business. We were moving furniture around and I'm sitting in the back of this panel truck on a couch thinking, man, this is really cool to have a vehicle like this out on the road, as opposed to just an ordinary car. I could have been maybe eight years old, I guess. >> Oh, boy. Many years ago, actually, I met some guys that had vans, and I was 17 at the time. And they said, "Hey, we're going to a party this weekend, you want to go?" It's at a bar. It's all vanners. I said, "Sure, why not?" Went to the party and I started hearing all these guys talking about their vans and talking about going to a truck-in, and I'm like, "Wow, that really sounds like a lot of fun. How do I got to do it?" And he says, "All you need is a van." I said, "I have one of those." >> Immediately, the first weekend I was there, there must have been 14-15 vans. And then we met the next Sunday. By about the fourth Sunday we had 50-70 vans. >> 1972, the event was hugely successful. And they decided that they would have another one in '73. >> They wanted to do it again because the concept was for travel, to travel around the country.

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Excuse me. So in '73 we went to Bonner Springs, Kansas. Great event. I don't remember how many vans were there, but it was hugely successful. >> You think, "Oh, my God!" This is midnight. We get there and we're looking around and there's this field full of, I swear to God, vans as far as you can see. You got to understand, back then we're 19, 20 years old. The world's at our fingertips, and you pull into the place with nothing but...

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Oh my God! And you're talking mud pits. You're talking parties. You're talking... I was hooked. I was hooked from that point on. >> Some of these vans are incredible. I mean, the paint jobs and the creativity. Would you say, let's talk about your characters in the film. Are they creative people by nature, or is this just an outlet for them? Talk a little bit about their backgrounds. What walks of life or careers did these people have? >> Definitely they're hobbyists, and a lot of them are tradesmen that we did meet. >> Okay. >> They are carpenters or plumbers or they actually work on cars for a living. A lot of professional pinstripers, like Greg, who introduced this clip. He's an amazing artist who was trained by... >> Ed Roth. Yeah. >> So he's a people of "Big Daddy." >> Huh. >> Yeah, they come from all walks of life, but as far as expression of creativity through their vans, I think that you get to see a really awesome wide range... >> It's kind of insane. >> Yeah. Definitely. >> It's like it's crazy. You get to see a really, really, really wide range of creativity through people's vans. I mean, and that's part of the driving force behind, I think, some of the vanning culture is that they accept everything, like we kind of keep going back to, but one van might not be for you, but it's something that someone's poured 30 years of their life into. >> Yeah. >> It's applauded by everyone just off of the merit of the creativity and the work that went into it. But as Nick said, you know, it's a lot of, I think that you find in the vanning culture, it's a lot of blue collar people, not exclusively or anything like that. >> Right. >> But carpenters, plumbers, garage door installation people, and so on and so forth. >> Filmmakers. >> Yeah. >> Right. Okay, I got to ask you, talk about Kong. Is this Spicoli 30 years later? >> Yeah. >> Talk a little bit about this. >> Yeah, the amazing thing about Kong is that we've never seen him again and no one, a lot of people, some people knew who he was and then other people had no idea who the guy was. I've got to be fair here, the vanners, like some of them really just like the fact that he's in the film and can be the face of the film a little bit. >> Oh, really? >> Of course, you know, our audiences, the few that we've gotten to see the film with in theaters and things like that, absolutely love him. But he's sort of a mystery, long story short. >> Have you seen him since the filming? >> No. He was the first person we met on camera and the first interview, and that interview went on for like 90 minutes or something. >> Oh, my gosh. >> It was like all these stories. There's tons of stuff that we didn't use. He was a character. >> You got to take his name away from being over the title. Starring Kong. What other unique sort of cultures do you think are out there like this, if any? Because, like I said, I didn't even know that this culture existed. It's kind of fascinating. Are there other cultures, like, I don't know, people that are really into tents or whatever? >> Sure. Yeah. >> That you guys can make movies about, too. >> Studying documentary over the years and stuff, I always found myself gravitating towards the subculture films. >> Yeah. >> Like The Decline of Western Civilization Part II about the 'heavy metal years.' >> Right. >> Just like the LA Strip scene. It's unlike anywhere else where everyone just goes there to be in a band and hand out their flyers and become famous. Or there's a great film called Okie Noodling where it's all about catching catfish with your hands in, like, Oklahoma. And you just dive into these subcultures, and there could be a film on "Tetris" or people that collect certain types of action figures or whatever. So, for sure, yeah. >> You want a film on "Tetris," talk to me first before you take this to anybody. >> It's been made, actually. It's pretty good. >> Oh, great. I missed it. Well, let's take another look at a clip from Vannin'. >> Okay, this is a 1977 Dodge Tradesman 200. >> Early 1972 Ford Van. >> '76 Econoline van. >> 1989 Chevy van. >> It was an empty cargo van. >> Started out life as a long bed. >> It was in a parking lot. >> When you come home, I've got this van to show you! >> It had no brakes. >> Yee-haw! >> I got a van for under $10 bucks. >> He's missing all his teeth, and he's sitting here like this, "Oh, you're going to buy that piece of ####?" Yeah, sure. >> And he just saw a future. I saw a disaster. >> $900 later, I could actually drive it on the street. >> Super charged, injected, and runs on E85. >> It's way over 400 horsepower. >> Anywhere between 900 and a thousand horsepower. >> The foot-pounds of torque is just ridiculous. It is completely street legal. It's just not real affordable to drive around. >> My first mural was on it. The Steve Miller Band "Book of Dreams" horse was on the left side and 'Flying Guy'

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Led Zeppelin on the right with two castles in the cloud. The band was called Flying High.

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>> He pressed a button on his remote, and the gullwing door opened up. >> Fireplace, refrigerator. >> A granite floor. Lots of stereo system. >> Press another button on his remote and the bed starts spinning in the back. >> He put a third axle on it and make a tandem bed out of it. >> I found some columns and I cut them down. >> A TV folded down from the ceiling with fur on the backside, and I was like... >> It had a couch in it that folded out three times, and the ceiling was completely mirrored.

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>> This van is probably, let's see, my sixth van. >> Okay, well, I have eight vans. I have five or six of them right now. >> I have one right here, and I have one over there. >> I don't want to make assumptions, but, I mean, these people in the movie, they don't look like one-percenters, I guess. How do they afford this? It looks really expensive. One woman said she's had six vans. These aren't old Chevy vans with nothing in them. Is it an expensive hobby? >> I think the do-it-yourself nature of it can make it affordable, especially if you're resourceful. And I think that a lot of the people that do this really are resourceful. Some of the nicer customized vans, these guys are all doing the work themselves, you know, outside of the paint job, and some of them I think even have the skills to do that. >> Yeah. Okay, yeah, good point. When you guys are making a film, you worked together as co-directors. Talk about the editing process. Obviously, you had hours and hours of footage. Is it easier, I mean as a writer I find when I work with a partner, it's easier to chop through stuff quicker if you have someone to... Is that true of that way with the editing process? >> Yeah. You can force each other, like you said a meeting and then we both have to go to that meeting. So it's not like one of us can like put it off that night or whatever. >> Yeah. >> So that was a lot of ordering pizza after work. >> Right. >> Just rocking through until we got a good point to stop. Our editor, Chris, was amazing. Put up with two co-directors and people that were really passionate about it and stuff. He went from being hired to make a 20-minute film and then we ended up with a 60-minute film. I got to say, I thought the length was perfect too. >> Thanks. >> I mean, you don't see many documentaries, at least I don't on this show, that are an hour. But I thought that was like just perfect. What was, we just have a few seconds left, what was the biggest challenge making the film? >> Oh, boy. That's a great question. >> Just doing it ourselves, I think probably. >> Yeah. >> Just the nature of like, you know, it's just the two of us working in our home office, and now we're here on this television show. >> Yeah. >> So you can go a long way, if you really stick at it. >> Right. And what's the next project? Another documentary, I would assume. >> Kind of along the same lines of the whole subculture idea. We're working on a couple of things right now. A few different topics are in the works. You know, kind of something, we have an idea about taking a bunch of subcultures and putting them together into a film of a lot of vignettes that all sort of share a same theme. >> Oh, nice. So, well, be sure and come back and show us that one when you're done, too. It was great. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, we loved the film. Great job, guys. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> And thanks a lot for being here. It was excellent. And thank you for watching Director's Cut. For more information on Vannin', please go to

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and click on Director's Cut. While you're there, send us an email or find out how to submit a film, and, also, don't forget to "like" WPT on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. I'm Pete Schwaba, and I say, "Whether it's rocking or not, just don't knock." We'll see you next time on Director's Cut. >> People a lot younger than me now have this concept of the shaggin' wagon, creeper van, whatever, which is kind of not at all what it's about to us, but it is what it's about to them. >> Hot rodders kind of look down on vans and stuff. You can't hot rod a van, you can't do much with that, and we're proving them wrong. >> We're almost kind of a laughing stock. It's like, "Oh, Jeez, the damn vans," but to us, it's our life.