RUF Documentary

The Documentary was a snapshot into the eight-decade history of RUF with the family playing a central role. The RUF brand is about the people as much as it is about the cars. It’s about the Ruf family, the workers who build and maintain the cars, their friends, customers, and fans. RUF, more than most brands, is deeply personal and its reputation is based on a close, genuine relationship with the family whose name is on the car.

The work began with a storyboard – a vision of how we would tell the story, the key pieces of the puzzle, and the people we needed to help us tell it. The ensuing journey led us to coordinating interviews with Gran Tursimo creator Kazunori Yamauchi in Monterey, California; Bruce Meyer, Tim Pappas, and Ted Gushue in Los Angeles; and the RUF team in both Geneva, Switzerland and Pfaffenhausen, Germany. For interviews in German and Japanese, Kahn Media facilitated translations for captions. Filming was done in quiet offices, at outdoor car shows and, occasionally, at well over 125 mph on German country roads.

The editing process was equally challenging, gathering footage, photos and information from sources around the world and sometimes from decades in the past. Combined with the footage Kahn Media captured, we were able to add historical context to our clean, modern footage and edit.

The finished product was then uploaded to YouTube and distributed to select automotive, mainstream and luxury-lifestyle media, as well as to select social media influencers and through RUF’s social media accounts.