NAMING RIGHTS - The Story Behind 321 ACTION ACTION’s Moniker
Updated: Sep 18
On a Gymkhana set, Brian Scotto has held many roles but one that's been consistent since the third film, was that he was the voice in Ken Block’s head…literally! Scotto would relay important information back and forth while filming. This could be simply be an instruction to warm the tires up, or more importantly how many inches away Block was from putting the car into Lake Erie. In the early days the comms used weren’t the best, and Block often couldn’t hear much over the rumble of the rally car, so Scotto would often repeat import commands, such as “READY READY” or “ACTION ACTION.”
Later on, as the quality of the walkie talkies improved, the repetition just stuck. And eventually became a system Scotto would use to time tricks that had multiple vehicles, by having different moments in the 3 - 2 - 1 - ACTION - ACTION trigger different parts of a complicated scene.
To the crew, this didn’t seem unique, as the use of 3-2-1-ACTION is as old as Hollywood, but when Amazon Prime’s docu-series Gymkhana Files released, the audience gravitated to the action call.
Scotto, had long set the name aside to be the title of a book he wanted to one-day write about his friend and partner Ken Block called 321 ACTION ACTION - MY LIFE AND TIMES ON THE KEN BLOCK SHOW, but after Block’s tragic passing, and Scotto exiting Hoonigan, the name seemed more apt to kick off the next chapter, with the piece of the past.
321 ACTION ACTION is a full service idea factory. Officially open for business.
