The owner and creator of Richter Studios, Jeremy Richter, is working to create a film on Kickstarter that looks at sports in a whole new way. Stadium of Mind goes past the realms of the average sports film, and uses the concept of mental imagery, which can help aspiring athletes who weren’t born with the title, “gifted athlete.”
Richter Studios is the production company behind Ben Swann’s Truth in Media videos. Richter gained experience in crowdfunding while working with Swann on a Kickstarter campaign in 2012.
“It’s pretty neat to see the psychology that goes into these campaigns,” said Richter. “If there is anything that is a good representation of free market capitalism right now, it’s crowdfunding, because people are voting with their dollars.”
Richter’s current project, an independent film titled Stadium of Mind, tells the true story of athlete David McLaren, who won the 1994 NCAA National title in the track and field event, shot put.
Despite the fact that McLaren was not favored to win the event, he overcame the odds using the concept of mental imagery. Richter tells Benswann.com that he was drawn to McLaren’s story, because McLaren was a good friend of his. “I was kind of the fly on the wall that saw the whole thing happen 20 years ago in real time,” Richter said.
Richter explained that he was introduced to the concept of determining the odds, based on statistical formulas, by one of his teachers in 1992. The teacher explained that by using a “regression analysis,” to put different weights on different variables, he could determine the outcome of an event, within a 3% margin of error.
As a student, Richter wanted to know if there was a formula that showed how he could become a national champion. When his teacher said that there was, Richter began to look into the necessary variables. One of those variables was mental imagery.
“Mental imagery is basically the way you train your mind,” said Richter, who went on to explain that it involves a meditation program of relaxation, positive affirmation, and recall experiences. These come together to create a rehearsal, in which athletes create the future sports performances in their heads.
“I wanted to make a film about the power of the human imagination, and how it is much more powerful than people realize.”
Richter first came up with the idea for the title “Stadium of Mind” in 2012, when he was making campaign videos for Ron Paul.
After making the short film Elektable, Richter was looking to do a follow-up, when he came up with the phrase “Stadium of Mind.”
“At that time, I wanted to show how Ron Paul’s ideas were so appealing that he could build the biggest stadium on Earth, and fill it, because most people agree with what he has to say,” said Richter. “It was just that the media that wasn’t giving him a platform for people to hear it.”
“If everybody is thinking the same, nobody is thinking,” said Richter, who explained that he admires people like Ron Paul, and Ben Swann, due to the fact that while they might not be right all the time, they are willing to think differently.
Although today’s version of Stadium of Mind has adopted a different script, Richter tells Benswann.com that it is still a “thinking man’s movie.”
“This film is a thinking man’s film, in that it’s not just another sports film where the guy trains hard, and has to break through obstacles, and then throws the winning pass, or makes the winning shot,” said Richter. “That has been done a million times, and I wanted to make something that makes people realize that success doesn’t have to happen in a weight room, and it doesn’t have to come from a bottle.“
Richter explained that while a lot of people are not necessarily born to be successful, they can learn how to use their minds to achieve the goals they set for themselves. “Those who learn how to use their mind creatively can find an answer for just about anything,” said Richter. “I think that applies to life, in general. It can apply to sports, and it certainly can apply to politics.”
“Stadium of Mind is what I think is sorely needed for athletes,” said Richter, who went on to say that sports have become a lot like the two-party system, due to the fact that in America we have created a sports system that nearly every athlete is a victim of, which consists of three main pillars.
Richter tells Benswann.com that the first pillar is the question parents ask themselves when their son or daughter is born: “Was my child born a gifted athlete?”
However, due to the fact that “only one child out of a thousand” is born a gifted athlete, the parents who are still committed to their children excelling in sports, send them to sports camps to work with specialists.
Richter explained that this second pillar of the sports system “requires the parents spend thousands of dollars every single year, if they want their child to get a little closer to being a gifted athlete,” and it is “out of reach for most people, unless they have a large discretionary income for their son or daughter to play a little better in sports.”
The third and final pillar occurs further down the road, when an aspiring athlete realizes that everything they have tried has not led to them becoming a gifted athlete, so they decide to start taking performance-enhancing drugs. “You see high schoolers doing it now, and you certainly see tons of college kids doing it,” said Richter. “From steroids to hormones to experimental stuff, it’s a sad road to go down.”
Richter tells Benswann.com that he believes there is a fourth pillar that no one talks about: Mental imagery.
“You can train your mind to do things that will go way beyond what you have ever done before,” said Richter. “The greatest thing about mental imagery is that it’s free, and all you need is your mind, and your imagination.”
Stadium of Mind’s Kickstarter page is open now, and will be accepting backers until December 27, 2014. Watch the trailer for Stadium of Mind below:
