Downhill Dream: Yamaha’s Soapbox Journey Captured in Award-Winning Film

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One of the highlights of the year at Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Company, as far as community involvement goes, is that they have received added exposure thanks to an award-winning short film created to showcase their annual Yamaha Downhill Dreams Academy.

The Yamaha Downhill Dreams Academy and Coweta Grand Prix took place the last two years in April in Newnan, brought together young contestants and Yamaha employees for an unforgettable experience. Leading up to the race, these young participants benefited greatly from the technical expertise and emotional support provided by Yamaha’s team. The program serves as an engaging way to involve at-risk students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities, with the hope of inspiring them to consider future careers in these fields.

Bob Brown, Vice President of Manufacturing, shared his vision for the initiative:

”It’s important that we get kids interested and engaged in STEM topics at an early age so that we have more great team members able to join us in the future to help us continue to grow and produce these amazing products.”

In 2023, Bleu Lion Media captured the journey of the Downhill Dream, from Yamaha’s Academy to the thrilling soapbox races at the Coweta Grand Prix. Their completed 11-minute film was later submitted for consideration for numerous Telly Awards, which honor excellence in video and television across all platforms.

The film won a total of seven Telly Awards – five silver and two bronze – in categories that included editing, videography, cinematography, branding, and social responsibility. The project was also honored with a Webby Award, which focuses on projects produced for the Internet.

Emily Breault, founder and CEO of Bleu Lion Media and film producer, came away with much more than just the satisfaction of winning a few awards.

“What I like about this story, and what we kind of pride ourselves on as a production company, is that we really take on projects that are stories people connect with and that move people,” she said. “We really like emotional storytelling. I think that the way we told this story really connected with a lot of people.”

Breault stressed that this was not a typical corporate branding film. It showed behind-the-scenes examples of how Yamaha employees connected with the young people above and beyond just building cars with them.

“We filmed each workshop and we saw the importance of community outreach for Yamaha, and what giving back means not just for the employees but also for the kids,” she said. “It was about giving them confidence and creating an opportunity to show them that they’re capable of so many things – careers that they might not have even thought of, giving them access to a whole new world.”

Breault noted that for the young people, getting to work with professionals in film production was an opportunity rarely received in their age group.

“Then there’s the sense of accomplishment,” she said. “I think what I love about what I do is that I see it all the time. We create videos, so we see it from start to finish, and the satisfaction of seeing a happy client because of the product we created and the story that we told. It’s the same for these kids, seeing their car designs come to life and being able to create them themselves and actually racing down a hill and saying that they had such a blast. It was just really cool to see.”

Virtually every scene involving Yamaha personnel showed how they were affected by working with the young people.

“You could really see their passion and their connection to helping these kids,” said Breault. “Seeing how moved they were really moved me. I really enjoyed seeing them work with the kids and letting them get hands-on.”

You can view the short film on the Yamaha Newnan’s website under “News”.

Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Company (YMMC) employs more than 2,200 metro Atlanta residents to design and build recreational vehicles at its Newnan manufacturing facilities. All of the world’s Yamaha golf cars, WaveRunners and Side-by-Sides, as well as most of its ATVs are manufactured at the plant in Coweta County, Georgia.