Courier Journal Article

Saturday’s edition of the Courier Journal featured a great article in print and online about Red V. Blue. The story includes interviews with director Rory Owen Delaney and producer Wade Smith. Read all about it below!

Documentary captures universities of Kentucky and Louisville in title seasons
by Adam Himmelsbach

Rory Delaney is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker whose connection to his hometown of Louisville has endured despite the distance. He loves U of L basketball, detests UK, and feels at home when he meets someone with similar tastes.

So imagine his concern, then, when he was aboard a small prop plane in 2008, flying above swaths of contaminated wasteland for his documentary “Toxic Soup,” when he realized his pilot was a diehard Wildcats fan. He held on a little tighter and smiled a little harder, but ultimately he and Paintsville native Wade Smith forged a friendship that was hatched by the glaring polarity.

Smith, in addition to flying U of L fans over contamination zones, was also a film producer. The two stayed in touch, and each fall, as the annual U of L-UK basketball game approached, they’d fire off a flurry of text messages to each other, their jabs both playful and sharp.

In 2009, of course, first-year UK coach John Calipari started off a string of four consecutive wins against Cardinals coach Rick Pitino.

It was a crafty way to shift the focus from Louisville’s losses, but it was also a logical question. Delaney had tired of the incessant attention paid to the comparably sterile Duke-North Carolina rivalry, and he thought the nation deserved to know more about the Commonwealth’s simmering feud.

And so two years, two national championships, and too many barroom debates later, Delaney and Smith’s labor of love, “The Rivalry: Red V. Blue” is nearing completion.

To read the rest of the article, go here. To back our kickstarter campaign, click here.

11 o’clock WHAS 11 Nightly News Appearance

On Tuesday (July 2nd) Producer Wade Smith also made an appearance on the WHAS 11 eleven o’clock nightly news.

In this WHAS 11 segment, Wade Smith explains how The Rivalry: Red V. Blue kickstarter campaign works. Basically, unless the entire fundraising goal is met ($40,000) by the end of the 40 day crowdfunding campaign, every penny that was donated will be returned to our generous supporters.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing crowdfunding platform. If we do not meet or exceed our fundraising goal of $40,000 by the end of our campaign, we don’t keep a dollar. So far, we have raised $6,665, which is over 16% of our goal in  a week. That’s a great start; thank you so much for your generosity!

Now we need to maintain the momentum and power to 25% of our $40,000 kickstarter goal in order to get The Rivalry: Red V. Blue completed before Christmas. Don’t forget to share this one-of-a-kind documentary with your family and friends; and please remember to back this project!

Earlier that day, Wade made an appearance on WHAS 11’s morning show Great Day Live with the dueling barbers, promoting The Rivalry: Red V. Blue. Last week, Wade also appeared on Cn2, promoting the kickstarter campaign and the film. So far the response from the media and our supporters has been overwhelmingly positive.

Everyone is relieved that the story of college basketball’s most bitter rivalry is finally being told and thrilled that they can become a part of Kentucky film history!

Producer Wade Smith on Cn2 TV

Producer Wade Smith went on Cn2 TV in Louisville with our rival barbers Robert Boone and Robert Wagner to promote Red V. Blue.

Boone looked dapper in his shirt and tie; Wagner looked regal in his new Cardinals swag; and Wade looked devil-may-care in his button-up. Yeah, baby!

In case you missed it, you can check out the video below!

To back our kickstarter campaign, please click on the green “Back This Project” button (seen below) to the right of our video.

The next page will ask you to “enter your pledge amount” and ask you to “select a reward.”

Every donor is entitled to a reward. And there are a ton of great ones to choose from, including stickers, dvds, blu-rays, t-shirts, hoodies, fleece jackets, tickets to the premiere, and one-of-a-kind life experiences like playing H-O-R-S-E with a former UofL or UK basketball standout.

Remember that unless we hit or exceed our goal of $40,000, we will not collect a penny. If we raise $39,999, it all gets refunded to our kickstarter donors.

Shout-out to Cn2 for bringing us on their show to promote our documentary and kickstarter campaign. And kudos to everyone who has already joined the Red V. Blue kickstarter family. Together, we are going to get this movie done before Christmas!

Red V Blue Kickstarter is Live

The Red V Blue Kickstarter Campaign is live. It’s official. “The Rivalry: Red V. Blue” is the FIRST movie to document the Louisville-Kentucky basketball feud, college basketball’s most heated rivalry!

The documentary has been in production for over two and a half years and has been funded entirely out-of-pocket by the filmmakers. Now we need your help to finish “The Rivalry: Red V. Blue”!

We have completed 80 percent of the production, but there are a few more players, coaches, and personalities who need to be interviewed. Your Kickstarter dollars will cover the completion of principal photography as well as the post-production and distribution expenses of Red V. Blue. These costs include but are not limited to:

• Equipment rental
• Crew stipends
• Editing stipends
• Archival footage
• Animation / graphics
• Sound editing
• Sound design
• Licensing agreements
• Merchandise manufacturing

Below is the official video for the Red V Blue kickstarter campaign. If you like what we are doing and want to see Kentucky recognized for its excellence in college basketball, share “The Rivalry: Red V. Blue” with your family, friends, teammates and rivals alike!