ACE Documentary Team Reveals Two New Projects at Coaster Con

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originally posted on 7/15/2022

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Attendees of the ACE business meeting at Coaster Con 44 were treated to quite the surprise at the end of the scheduled programming. After weeks of teaser posts online and years of planning, ACE’s all-volunteer documentary team pulled back the curtain on not one but two new films currently in production.

“Connected by Coasters” will showcase the complete history of ACE, from founding to the current day. “The Legacy of Schwarzkopf” — the sequel to ACE’s “Legacy of Arrow Development” — will focus on the rides and history of legendary ride engineer Anton Schwarzkopf and his company.

While “Connected by Coasters” is expected to debut in late 2025, “The Legacy of Schwarzkopf” is planned to premiere in late 2024, in order to celebrate what would have been Anton Schwarzkopf’s 100th birthday. To keep production costs down, both films will be captured simultaneously.

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To get to this point — of just being able to announce these two projects — took many hours of brainstorming and planning among so many volunteers within ACE. But it goes back much further and deeper than that.

After the debut of “The Legacy of Arrow Development” in early 2016, the production team was exhausted, as one can imagine. They had just completed the most comprehensive, challenging and rewarding project of their lives and were ready for a break.

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But deep down, Nicholas Laschkewitsch, Robert Ingle and Kris Rowberry had a hunch this would not be the last time they would collaborate on a project for ACE. Life made things more difficult, as Rowberry moved from the Bay Area to Texas to pursue a dream career while Laschkewitsch did the same, only in Southern California.

Despite this, Laschkewitsch and Ingle were able to bring a great team of volunteers together in Northern California, producing “The Path to Railblazer,” a wonderful documentary about the process of building the West Coast’s first single-rail coaster, from initial concept to construction and finally, grand opening.

Despite the distance between them, the team never stopped talking. After “The Path to Railblazer” was completed, the team wondered what might come next. There were several ideas bantered around, but eventually they settled on two: a look back at the history of ACE and a sequel to “The Legacy of Arrow Development.”

Aided by ACE Communications Director Elizabeth Ringas, they began to lay the foundations for the two films all the way back in late 2019. Everything was slowly starting to fall into place.

And then COVID hit. With it, came the evaporation of any semblance of travel and a very real risk to the industry we all love and admire. As parks began to close among a patchwork of regulations surrounding the virus, it made any chance of completing the films virtually impossible.

Despite this, the team was still able to make some progress. From the bulk of navigating pre-production work, making contacts and sketching out plans, they didn’t waste the downtime.

With the help of the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives, the filmmakers were able to visit the facility and photograph most of the Schwarzkopf train collection. Fun fact: those are the same photos used in the recent teaser campaign and the same style of photos used by the museum for all of its new acquisitions.

Big Bend. Photo: Courtesy National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives. View full-sized image.

To date, hundreds of contacts around the world for both films have been established and the team is just itching to get out there and start filming.

There’s already chatter online about what ACE’s next film should be after these two are completed. The filmmakers are not looking that far ahead just yet – after all, these two films are going to be quite the production.

Besides, what’s better than a sequel? Why, a trilogy, of course!

View the trailer for “The Legacy of Schwarzkopf” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv8L4Frfew

Want to be a part of the projects? Email the production team what you have that’s Schwarzkopf or ACE related to documentary@aceonline.org. ACE will pay to ship and digitize everything — and you’ll get it all back, too! But hurry, this offer lasts only until Labor Day!

— Kris Rowberry, filmmaker