This has been nagging at me for far too long so I decided it was finally time to jot my thoughts down. If you dont want to read all of it just skip to the last part.
This is my honest view on NWD6. You can agree, disagree, whatever, but if your'e going to comment do it constructively, and no flat out slagging on other people unless you have a good respectful reason. What follows is a detailed view into the movie. If you dont feel like reading that, skip to the last bit.
Movie starts out with a helicopter shot chasing Darren B. (who incidently screams out the most hideously cheap hollywood line I've ever seen. Not gonna say it, you'll have to see this classic for yourself). Definate sick Mountain Bike Parachuting though.
From the intro it cuts into Darren B. riding to typical nwd rocker music. Pretty much everything is shot in slow motion with typical NWD style zoomed-into-rider filming. It's a pity because the first few shots of him tailwhipping and super-seatering the jump at Utah are beatufiul, but he goes -incredibly- high. Zoomed so far into Darren, you can barely tell how big he's actually going. Pick up a copy of Dirt (with Chase on the cover) to see John Gibson's photo of Darren doing the sseater to see what I mean. It's pretty confusing to watch as well because we're treated to Darren doing the most styled out airs and biggest gaps, then a shot of him doing a non-clicked no footer to bar turn off a drop, and an ugly sseater off a drop into a horrible tuck no hander (nowhere near tucked).
If a shot's no good, why dont you just cut it, instead of including it in the video and bringing the overall quality of the scene down? If I was Darren and at his level of riding, I'd be pretty pissed off at having a no footer to bar turn included in my part that has 360s over road gaps and 3 tables over 10 foot spines.
Dunne's section is done in slow motion to typical nwd rock music. Pretty much no tricking at all, just really, really, big hits. I respect this because he is right, there will always be a place in mtn. biking for going big, and if he does that, and does it well, then it makes for a good section.
John Cowan is an amazing rider. Backflips over rivers? What the hell? Nothing really new in terms of the tricks he's pulling (except that corked flip thing), but it's really cool to see him take gnarly tricks back to the mountains instead of the same old backflip x-up in his backyard.
Wayne goss is incredibly surprising- I never expected his part to be so good. He takes things one step further than most bikers in the movie, whne you expect him to 3 tap a van, he 5 taps it. When you expect an x-up or something, he pulls a clean barspin. Definately one of the most promising newer riders of the year for me.
Richie Schley's section is like... every other Schley section. Lots of trails and hucks and barturns. He used to have a smooth as baby's butt style but it seems like he's been losing it lately. Pressure from younger 'uns forcing him to try new tricks?
Dave Watson, see Richie Schley. I dont see the point of watching guys bar turn the same drops and gaps all day when there are other young rippers who can hit these drops with more style, and even trick them. This is just my honest opinion, as a consumer and viewer.
Wade Simmons hasnt lost much over these years. Even if he doesnt trick as much, it's cool to see that he still retains the old smooth style that's fun to watch and easy on the eyes. There's something about Simmons that will always remain timeless.
Cam Mccaul. Oh my Lord. Log/stump rides to tailwhips? What is this? One of my favourite sections in the movie for sure. Probably one of the guys to do actual good looking inverts instead of half assed tables. Rocking the deraileur and vertical dropouts, it's cool to see someone staying true to mountain biking.
Cedric Gracia. EPIC. That's pretty much it. Cedric's always loved for his personality. The most beautiful shots in the most beautiful places, and FINALLY a song to match the riding and mood of a section. Also, finally someone that holds his manuals!! Truth be told, some of this footage looks a tad sped up. His power wheelies look unnatural, and I've seen him power wheelie in real life. It doesnt look like that. It's quite unnerving going from slowed down like crazy shots to possibly sped up ones. Why doesnt freeride ent. play stuff like it is in real life?
Cam Zink and Kyle Strait. Sick lines, amazing tricks, Strait no handering a 40 ft. gap. These are guys who are young, have a ton of potential, and they're going to be around for a long time because they respect theyre place and dont **** talk every second they get to.
Geoff Gullevich. Local ripper. Sick riding. Super Seaters on pinner jumps on A-Line, but why not show it's A-line? Better filming and more consideration of the skills that go into the riding in this section could've made it so much better. Not everyone knows it's a small 6 ft table, but if the filmers had made that obvious, it'd be a better testament into the skills of the rider. Right after showing a sseater on a 6 ft table, we get treated to an ugly table on a 20 footer. How does that make any sense at all? Show us how good this kid is and cut his outtakes. If it's a bad shot, DONT SHOW IT. Gully's WAY better than that.
Good to see Gatzka and Brooks getting the exposure after UFC and proving it by hitting big lines. Would've been nice to see more tricks than straight airs though.
Vanderham. See Schley and Watson.
Voreis hits some gnarly lines (and his 3 crash is just crazy). I find it ironic how Freeride ent. would dedicate 10 seconds of slowed down footage to him doing a table off a rock, but play off Kirt pulling a SUPER corked 3 to a massive no foot can like it's nothing.
Chase's section is typically chase, something new (backflip to fakie's on a pinner dirt quarter), BIG hurricanes, smooth style. His consistency is probably one of things that make him a big favourite rider of mine. Too bad he got stuck with a teaser song though.
Lenosky's section starts with him signing boops. It's good to see Freeride ent. making an effort to bring back some respect to prob. one of the best bikers in biking. I dont think I've ever seen a Lenosky section where he doesnt do something new and just bewildering. Hititing up rails at speed and 180ing off, barspinning rail gaps. It's cool to see the contrast between Chase and Lenosky too, with Chase bringing street tricks to the dirt, and Lenosky exclusively hitting street lines with street tricks. Unfortunately the reoccuring theme of everything being in slow motion is here again. It doesnt let you into how fast and how gnarly some of this stuff is.
Bourdon learns to backflip!! Although a lot of guys (including me) dont like watching Robbie ride, when I sat down to think about it, this guy is small and doesnt have as much bike control as most riders. So while we can sit here and slag at him doing bar turns all day, I think it's more impressive to watch him bar turn all day to watching a bigger more-in-control rider bar turn all day. All said and done though, if given the chance, I'd rather not watch a bar turn.
Paul B. Probably the only other section in the movie with a song to match the mood of the riding. This kid goes big, he tailwhips, backflips, and 3s everything, combines them (3 whips), and does a 7 better than I've seen some bmxers do it. Have you guys ever ridden a kona ht? They're huge and get in your way. Watching him 7 a Kona is THE most impressive thing in the movie, and probably the biggest thing to go down in mtn. biking this year. Personally I wouldnt mind watching a 2 song part of Paul.
---------
So what's my opinion? The riding was good at parts, boring at parts, but a bigger issue is what freeride ent. is doing to the industry. They're taking in all the biggest sponsers and pretty much demolishing the movie budget for most of them. What we end up with is a biking industry that has one big budget movie a year, and a lot of little ones that pretty much receive no funding at all. This gives up and coming film makers with potentially more talent less ability to show us a better film because it wasnt shot in 16mm with helicopter footage and rope lines.
NWD films are glamerous, filmed in the most incredible of places, and everything is shot in high quality film. Which means that riders sometimes dont want to go all out with a new revolutionary trick because, with more takes to land, it would mean more money spent. This also means Freeride ent.'s going to include all the bad parts that shouldnt be making a movie (Darren B's no footer to bar turn) because they dont want to waste precious footage. So to make up for the riding, these guys find the most scenic places all over the world and shoot everything with expensive as hell helicopters. The riders dont want to get injured so they end up doing bar turns all day. As a result, the viewer ends up sitting at home watching bar turns all day. Who wants that?
Slow Motion's usually used to emphasize the size of a trick. An ugly table off a rock does NOT deserve slow motion. Please show us stuff the way it should be. Also, is freeride ent. going to include riding noises anytime soon ? Something isnt right watching a film about mountain biking and not hearing gears churning or tyres gripping dirt.
I know music's a personal thing, but when most people hate the music in a movie, you think the filmakers would take heed and notice. I'm sick of great riding being butchered by kiddy punk rock that makes no attempt at matching the riding and overall mood of a section. Also, if a rider's going to do a super seater on a 6 ft. table, show how gnarly the trick is. That's the difference between the collective and nwd films. The collective communicated with the riders and it shows in the film, people do see the difficulties behind a big huck or trick, instead of a random super seater in the middle of nowhere.
And finally, this is taken from Jeremy Jones in the new snowboarding film 91 words for snow. He's considered the undisputed king of freeride snowboarding, and I'm pretty sure 99% of snowboarders (no exaggeration) would say he's the best freeride snowboarder out there. He's almost 30 years old.
"Where I get a lot of my energy is when I get in the heli for a day of filming it's like there's so many people in this world who would love to be in that seat and if you're not giving it everything you've got, then.. you're taking up space"
That's my 2 cents. Damn that was waayyy longer than I intended it to be.
This is my honest view on NWD6. You can agree, disagree, whatever, but if your'e going to comment do it constructively, and no flat out slagging on other people unless you have a good respectful reason. What follows is a detailed view into the movie. If you dont feel like reading that, skip to the last bit.
Movie starts out with a helicopter shot chasing Darren B. (who incidently screams out the most hideously cheap hollywood line I've ever seen. Not gonna say it, you'll have to see this classic for yourself). Definate sick Mountain Bike Parachuting though.
From the intro it cuts into Darren B. riding to typical nwd rocker music. Pretty much everything is shot in slow motion with typical NWD style zoomed-into-rider filming. It's a pity because the first few shots of him tailwhipping and super-seatering the jump at Utah are beatufiul, but he goes -incredibly- high. Zoomed so far into Darren, you can barely tell how big he's actually going. Pick up a copy of Dirt (with Chase on the cover) to see John Gibson's photo of Darren doing the sseater to see what I mean. It's pretty confusing to watch as well because we're treated to Darren doing the most styled out airs and biggest gaps, then a shot of him doing a non-clicked no footer to bar turn off a drop, and an ugly sseater off a drop into a horrible tuck no hander (nowhere near tucked).
If a shot's no good, why dont you just cut it, instead of including it in the video and bringing the overall quality of the scene down? If I was Darren and at his level of riding, I'd be pretty pissed off at having a no footer to bar turn included in my part that has 360s over road gaps and 3 tables over 10 foot spines.
Dunne's section is done in slow motion to typical nwd rock music. Pretty much no tricking at all, just really, really, big hits. I respect this because he is right, there will always be a place in mtn. biking for going big, and if he does that, and does it well, then it makes for a good section.
John Cowan is an amazing rider. Backflips over rivers? What the hell? Nothing really new in terms of the tricks he's pulling (except that corked flip thing), but it's really cool to see him take gnarly tricks back to the mountains instead of the same old backflip x-up in his backyard.
Wayne goss is incredibly surprising- I never expected his part to be so good. He takes things one step further than most bikers in the movie, whne you expect him to 3 tap a van, he 5 taps it. When you expect an x-up or something, he pulls a clean barspin. Definately one of the most promising newer riders of the year for me.
Richie Schley's section is like... every other Schley section. Lots of trails and hucks and barturns. He used to have a smooth as baby's butt style but it seems like he's been losing it lately. Pressure from younger 'uns forcing him to try new tricks?
Dave Watson, see Richie Schley. I dont see the point of watching guys bar turn the same drops and gaps all day when there are other young rippers who can hit these drops with more style, and even trick them. This is just my honest opinion, as a consumer and viewer.
Wade Simmons hasnt lost much over these years. Even if he doesnt trick as much, it's cool to see that he still retains the old smooth style that's fun to watch and easy on the eyes. There's something about Simmons that will always remain timeless.
Cam Mccaul. Oh my Lord. Log/stump rides to tailwhips? What is this? One of my favourite sections in the movie for sure. Probably one of the guys to do actual good looking inverts instead of half assed tables. Rocking the deraileur and vertical dropouts, it's cool to see someone staying true to mountain biking.
Cedric Gracia. EPIC. That's pretty much it. Cedric's always loved for his personality. The most beautiful shots in the most beautiful places, and FINALLY a song to match the riding and mood of a section. Also, finally someone that holds his manuals!! Truth be told, some of this footage looks a tad sped up. His power wheelies look unnatural, and I've seen him power wheelie in real life. It doesnt look like that. It's quite unnerving going from slowed down like crazy shots to possibly sped up ones. Why doesnt freeride ent. play stuff like it is in real life?
Cam Zink and Kyle Strait. Sick lines, amazing tricks, Strait no handering a 40 ft. gap. These are guys who are young, have a ton of potential, and they're going to be around for a long time because they respect theyre place and dont **** talk every second they get to.
Geoff Gullevich. Local ripper. Sick riding. Super Seaters on pinner jumps on A-Line, but why not show it's A-line? Better filming and more consideration of the skills that go into the riding in this section could've made it so much better. Not everyone knows it's a small 6 ft table, but if the filmers had made that obvious, it'd be a better testament into the skills of the rider. Right after showing a sseater on a 6 ft table, we get treated to an ugly table on a 20 footer. How does that make any sense at all? Show us how good this kid is and cut his outtakes. If it's a bad shot, DONT SHOW IT. Gully's WAY better than that.
Good to see Gatzka and Brooks getting the exposure after UFC and proving it by hitting big lines. Would've been nice to see more tricks than straight airs though.
Vanderham. See Schley and Watson.
Voreis hits some gnarly lines (and his 3 crash is just crazy). I find it ironic how Freeride ent. would dedicate 10 seconds of slowed down footage to him doing a table off a rock, but play off Kirt pulling a SUPER corked 3 to a massive no foot can like it's nothing.
Chase's section is typically chase, something new (backflip to fakie's on a pinner dirt quarter), BIG hurricanes, smooth style. His consistency is probably one of things that make him a big favourite rider of mine. Too bad he got stuck with a teaser song though.
Lenosky's section starts with him signing boops. It's good to see Freeride ent. making an effort to bring back some respect to prob. one of the best bikers in biking. I dont think I've ever seen a Lenosky section where he doesnt do something new and just bewildering. Hititing up rails at speed and 180ing off, barspinning rail gaps. It's cool to see the contrast between Chase and Lenosky too, with Chase bringing street tricks to the dirt, and Lenosky exclusively hitting street lines with street tricks. Unfortunately the reoccuring theme of everything being in slow motion is here again. It doesnt let you into how fast and how gnarly some of this stuff is.
Bourdon learns to backflip!! Although a lot of guys (including me) dont like watching Robbie ride, when I sat down to think about it, this guy is small and doesnt have as much bike control as most riders. So while we can sit here and slag at him doing bar turns all day, I think it's more impressive to watch him bar turn all day to watching a bigger more-in-control rider bar turn all day. All said and done though, if given the chance, I'd rather not watch a bar turn.
Paul B. Probably the only other section in the movie with a song to match the mood of the riding. This kid goes big, he tailwhips, backflips, and 3s everything, combines them (3 whips), and does a 7 better than I've seen some bmxers do it. Have you guys ever ridden a kona ht? They're huge and get in your way. Watching him 7 a Kona is THE most impressive thing in the movie, and probably the biggest thing to go down in mtn. biking this year. Personally I wouldnt mind watching a 2 song part of Paul.
---------
So what's my opinion? The riding was good at parts, boring at parts, but a bigger issue is what freeride ent. is doing to the industry. They're taking in all the biggest sponsers and pretty much demolishing the movie budget for most of them. What we end up with is a biking industry that has one big budget movie a year, and a lot of little ones that pretty much receive no funding at all. This gives up and coming film makers with potentially more talent less ability to show us a better film because it wasnt shot in 16mm with helicopter footage and rope lines.
NWD films are glamerous, filmed in the most incredible of places, and everything is shot in high quality film. Which means that riders sometimes dont want to go all out with a new revolutionary trick because, with more takes to land, it would mean more money spent. This also means Freeride ent.'s going to include all the bad parts that shouldnt be making a movie (Darren B's no footer to bar turn) because they dont want to waste precious footage. So to make up for the riding, these guys find the most scenic places all over the world and shoot everything with expensive as hell helicopters. The riders dont want to get injured so they end up doing bar turns all day. As a result, the viewer ends up sitting at home watching bar turns all day. Who wants that?
Slow Motion's usually used to emphasize the size of a trick. An ugly table off a rock does NOT deserve slow motion. Please show us stuff the way it should be. Also, is freeride ent. going to include riding noises anytime soon ? Something isnt right watching a film about mountain biking and not hearing gears churning or tyres gripping dirt.
I know music's a personal thing, but when most people hate the music in a movie, you think the filmakers would take heed and notice. I'm sick of great riding being butchered by kiddy punk rock that makes no attempt at matching the riding and overall mood of a section. Also, if a rider's going to do a super seater on a 6 ft. table, show how gnarly the trick is. That's the difference between the collective and nwd films. The collective communicated with the riders and it shows in the film, people do see the difficulties behind a big huck or trick, instead of a random super seater in the middle of nowhere.
And finally, this is taken from Jeremy Jones in the new snowboarding film 91 words for snow. He's considered the undisputed king of freeride snowboarding, and I'm pretty sure 99% of snowboarders (no exaggeration) would say he's the best freeride snowboarder out there. He's almost 30 years old.
"Where I get a lot of my energy is when I get in the heli for a day of filming it's like there's so many people in this world who would love to be in that seat and if you're not giving it everything you've got, then.. you're taking up space"
That's my 2 cents. Damn that was waayyy longer than I intended it to be.