When I think about Life Cycles and the footage we have captured, the word contrast comes to mind. I feel the shots we have accumulated cover a big spectrum of everything related to mountain biking...
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Words By Ryan Gibb
When I think about Life Cycles and the footage we have captured, the word contrast comes to mind. I feel the shots we have accumulated cover a big spectrum of everything related to mountain biking, hence why we decided to shoot in the city for our opening title sequence.
Many mountain bikers live in the city and it has a big influence on their lives. As we are trying to tell the story of the mountain bike, a character like the city could not be ignored. Shooting this film, so much of our time has been out in nature dedicated to capturing surreal shots. The reality though is the majority of people live in metropolis centers and with this in mind, it gave us the perfect starting point for our film. Why not begin with the journey that so many of us embark on every time we want to ride?
As we left for Vancouver in true Life Cycles fashion there were still a lot of unanswered questions. We had a lot of shots scripted and a strong idea of what we wanted out of the section, but there were still some details that werent figured out. One of those details was that we didnt have a truck as a prop. Now for us not any truck would do. Something too modern didnt work because it would feel like a sell out and anything from the 80s and 90s really just didnt have any character. We needed a truck that stood out, was a little different, and had some personality. After a month of searching the date for us to go to Vancouver came up and we still didnt have a truck. No matter what we did we couldnt find a truck that fit the profile. The decision was made to leave and hope that by some miracle something would work out.
Entering Vancouver everyone was on prowl, it was something reminiscent of punch buggy minus the reward of assaulting a sibling with your ninja fast reflects. Day two came and nothing was looking up, we had scoured every used car lot in the city and no one expected it to be so hard to find an older truck in such a big city. As the story always goes, things were looking bleak and as dramatic as I make it sound, all it took was a left turn onto Hastings Street. Not even two blocks down Hastings and everyones head in the truck simultaneously turned to the left. There she was, a beautiful 72 orange GMC pick up. I had never been so excited to see a truck. Just like 2 AM at a bar we were desperate and desperate times called for desperate measures. We were at the point of asking random people if we could rent their truck. Luckily for us this random person happened to be a guy named Mike. Mike was easy and thats what we like. All it took was a handshake, a small sum of cash, and we had a truck for three days.
Shots from the Utah and Saskatchewan shoots also serving as banger Shimano advertisements.
With this last piece of the puzzle figured out we were ready to hammer out the city section of the film. Not having a Hollywood budget or being able to close streets, guerrilla style became our motto. Basson Steady Systems was kind enough to send us one of their Steady Cams. Basically a steady cam is a camera mount system which isolates the operators movement from the camera, allowing for a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface. In Hollywood a steady cam is a key tool and for our film it has helped us up our production value. You can check out more on steady cams here.
The Basson Steady Cam set up.
We ended up with our full 5 dude crew which was key to making a shoot in the depths of a city especially the dark corners that people don't like to see success. You've gotta have someone watching your back when sketchy is the word.
For 5 people that live in a town of 3500, going to the city was sensory overload in a good way. The opportunities for shots were completely different from what we have in nature and finding unique angles was easier. There are so many vantage points in a city, it's like having a ladder on every tree in the woods!
All in all, things came together, nobody got shanked, and we completed another section for the film. As we go into the editing bay, it is fun to look back on all the footage we have captured and I am excited for the day in the near future when we can let you in on this project and show our take on the sport we love so much.
Ryan Gibb.
Life Cycles Film
Enjoy the second Story of Life Cycles installment!
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