Mountain Bike Documentary: Help needed!

Lolage

Hi guys

I'm planning a short Mountain Bike Documentary film. It's a student project to start with, but depending on how well it is received I'll consider making a feature length version. I have all the relevant kit including a DSLR, various lenses, tripods, sliders, steady cam and a Go Pro 3 Black edition. I'm also looking into a DIY cable cam system.

I know I want to make it a factual film(documentary), just unsure on what angle to look at it! I've thought about doing a documentary on the growth of Mountain Biking. Also thought about basing it around the bad publicity that Mountain Bikers may get, while trying to put across the message that they could be seen even to help the environment/countryside.

Any other ideas on what my main "story" can be? Or perhaps any opinions on my current ideas? Would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers.

cooldad

You can do my life story, as long as I get a trailer, my every whim catered for, and hot groupies.

Lolage

Thanks for your kind offer but I'd appreciate any serious suggestions!

hopper1

Lolage wrote:

Thanks for your kind offer but I'd appreciate any serious suggestions!

Ahem!... He was being serious

Lolage

hopper1 wrote:

Lolage wrote:

Thanks for your kind offer but I'd appreciate any serious suggestions!

Ahem!... He was being serious

In that case I can't offer his requirements!

cooldad

OK then, a six pack and Sheepsteeths mum for an hour - she lives in Rhyl I believe. That should cost about a fiver tops.

hopper1

cooldad wrote:

OK then, a six pack and Sheepsteeths mum for an hour - she lives in Rhyl I believe. That should cost about a fiver tops.

That's a hell of a come down... You give up too easy
You should have asked for 2 six packs, so you had something to do in the 55 minutes useless minutes with Sheepsteeths Mum!

Lolage

:x.

steve_muzzy

One I keep thinking about is the diversification of Scottish ski resorts, opening up mtb centres to help increase revenue glencoe, Glenshee, aviemore and of course fort bill all now have tracks

You may find you get some funding from visit scotland to help?

Plus it's some of the best riding in the uk !

bluechair84

Do you actually mean a documentary? Or just a riding film with an angle? Because if you're actually doing a documentary, you'll need to find a location or character worth studying. Talk with local talented riders or trail builders who can point you in the direction of something local to you. Personally, the relationship that my local spot has with the FC is really positive and probably a model for others to follow. I know the builders at Stainburn have to build to pretty strict guidelines that we seem not to. Or Chicsands that was recently told to tear down the woodwork and by all accounts now is a load of crapola because of this. Without further development, the place is probably in danger of being abandoned by people who once travelled a good distance to be there. Colin Huston I think is a guy that builds and is involved in the Macavalanche stuff up at Glencoe, and his son is a mean rider. The pair of them might be interested to chat to. I did a report on the development of new trail centres at all the ski resorts, met and interviewed the owners etc - I learnt a shed load in my couple of weeks researching. There's shed loads out there, but you need to talk to local people to find the story. Or come up with a good idea yourself you can chase down.
If you mean you just want to do a ride video, you could take an angle that focuses on the bike itself and the changes that a rider makes to it for different conditions or tracks, then get loads of shots of the rider shredding.

If all of the above fails, take up Cooldad on his offer and just film him having a go on Sheeps' mum. I mean, you'd probably need a sick bucket but I'm sure there's a market in Germany who'd pay to watch that messed up night...

bluechair84

steve_muzzy wrote:

One I keep thinking about is the diversification of Scottish ski resorts, opening up mtb centres to help increase revenue glencoe, Glenshee, aviemore and of course fort bill all now have tracks

You may find you get some funding from visit scotland to help?

Plus it's some of the best riding in the uk !

Ah beat me to it... kind of. See here.

trailpuppet

All depends on where you live?

Who or what will be your target audience/customer?

Find a family or newbie and show how they get started, found info re bikes, trails etc. Then find an "experienced" rider to contrast this followed by a racer.

I think an info style vid on where and how people can access info to bikes, types of bikes, set up, trail info etc could work. Something along the lines of a mate who knows nothing, take him along to bike shop, buy bike + all the gear, take to trail centre, explain what a trail centre is and how to find info, maybe get a tutor along to give some coaching, interview a trailbuilder or find a trail under construction or repair etc.........finish with cake & coffee :idea:

cooldad

Yawn.

cooldad

How long is short?
5 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour, an hour?
Think of something unique or different, and focus on a detail or two in depth.
All the generic general stuff has been done, from very badly to reasonably competently.
How about the random plethora of standards - improvement or marketing hype?

Or take me up on my offer.

Lolage

steve_muzzy wrote:

One I keep thinking about is the diversification of Scottish ski resorts, opening up mtb centres to help increase revenue glencoe, Glenshee, aviemore and of course fort bill all now have tracks

You may find you get some funding from visit scotland to help?

Plus it's some of the best riding in the uk !

This sounds very interesting but being a 6hour+ drive away from Scotland doesn't really make it feasible unfortunately. Definitely a story there though!

bluechair84 wrote:

Do you actually mean a documentary? Or just a riding film with an angle? Because if you're actually doing a documentary, you'll need to find a location or character worth studying. Talk with local talented riders or trail builders who can point you in the direction of something local to you. Personally, the relationship that my local spot has with the FC is really positive and probably a model for others to follow. I know the builders at Stainburn have to build to pretty strict guidelines that we seem not to. Or Chicsands that was recently told to tear down the woodwork and by all accounts now is a load of crapola because of this. Without further development, the place is probably in danger of being abandoned by people who once travelled a good distance to be there. Colin Huston I think is a guy that builds and is involved in the Macavalanche stuff up at Glencoe, and his son is a mean rider. The pair of them might be interested to chat to. I did a report on the development of new trail centres at all the ski resorts, met and interviewed the owners etc - I learnt a shed load in my couple of weeks researching. There's shed loads out there, but you need to talk to local people to find the story. Or come up with a good idea yourself you can chase down.
If you mean you just want to do a ride video, you could take an angle that focuses on the bike itself and the changes that a rider makes to it for different conditions or tracks, then get loads of shots of the rider shredding.

If all of the above fails, take up Cooldad on his offer and just film him having a go on Sheeps' mum. I mean, you'd probably need a sick bucket but I'm sure there's a market in Germany who'd pay to watch that messed up night...

I do mean a Documentary. I don't want it to be a boring MTB video, I want it to have all the action etc to keep the viewer interested but also give across a message and/or information.

Its for uni, and I have to make a Documentary so I thought I'd do it based around mountain biking as I know a bit about it to start with!

trailpuppet wrote:

All depends on where you live?

Who or what will be your target audience/customer?

Find a family or newbie and show how they get started, found info re bikes, trails etc. Then find an "experienced" rider to contrast this followed by a racer.

I think an info style vid on where and how people can access info to bikes, types of bikes, set up, trail info etc could work. Something along the lines of a mate who knows nothing, take him along to bike shop, buy bike + all the gear, take to trail centre, explain what a trail centre is and how to find info, maybe get a tutor along to give some coaching, interview a trailbuilder or find a trail under construction or repair etc.........finish with cake & coffee :idea:

I live in the West Midlands. Cannock Chase is pretty close, but I don't mind travelling to Llandegla and coed y brenin. I'm presuming the target audience will be other bikers, but this really depends on the message/story of the film. It could be a video trying to educate non-bikers that biking is actually a good thing and not a bad thing which some people may think.

cooldad wrote:

How long is short?
5 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour, an hour?
Think of something unique or different, and focus on a detail or two in depth.
All the generic general stuff has been done, from very badly to reasonably competently.
How about the random plethora of standards - improvement or marketing hype?

Or take me up on my offer.

Its going to be roughly 5 minutes, however I want enough information to make it a longer video when I've finished the 5 minute version. Would be looking to have enough to go at for a 30 minute video. The 30 minute version would obviously take a lot longer than the 5 minute version.

And I think you're right regarding thinking of something different/unique. This is where I was hoping you guys could help out.

hopper1

Lolage wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Or take me up on my offer.

Its going to be roughly 5 minutes.

That's you fecked, cooldad

Lolage wrote:

The 30 minute version would obviously take a lot longer than the 5 minute version.

Einstein moment :shock: ... 25 minutes, at a guess.

BigJimmyB

What about something on rights of way?

Include how we seem to be vilified to a greater or lesser extent by other areas of the 'outdoors' community?

Lolage

I think I want to concentrate on the location of Stiles Cop at Cannock Chase which has a load of downhill tracks. Just trying to think of the story. Its useful for me being so close, they have the shop I can talk to also I know that they have regular track building days on Sundays I think.

Could do it on the "Growth of Downhill Mountain Biking" ?

bluechair84

Or the lack of help at dig days, I think they are usually under-manned. It takes a lot of man hours to build and mantain a trail, especially when people are riding sections that aren't finished. They've had issues with that.

Lolage

bluechair84 wrote:

Or the lack of help at dig days, I think they are usually under-manned. It takes a lot of man hours to build and mantain a trail, especially when people are riding sections that aren't finished. They've had issues with that.

Could do, but is there really a story there strong enough for a 20 minute documentary?

elredso

if your around cannock how about a piece on the idiots that ride around it every weekend without a helmet on !

on my last 2 visits there I have seen 2 different guys with full body armour on , and no helmet

The Rookie

Yawn Yawn....

I would say a piece on trail building would be great, start with a new project, show how it's ridden now, show how they change it and how it's ridden afterwards, some snappy interviews on what they consider with interspersed shots of riders doing just that, showing chicken runs, different techniques and how the builder considered these - even mention if they got it wrong.

Oh and some crashes - compulsary you know.

Then for a laugh CD's 30 seconds of mature glory at the end, you'll need to pad the footage to make it last 30 seconds of course.

cooldad

The Beginner wrote:

Yawn Yawn....

Then for a laugh CD's 30 seconds of mature glory at the end, you'll need to pad the footage to make it last 30 seconds of course.

Never heard of slow motion? Idiot, obviously have no experience in the wrinkly porn business.

The Rookie

Like speeding up Batmans cars, slo-mo is a bit obvious, although I bow to your well researched knowledge of the granny banging industry.

benpinnick

Come to swinley, film our trail build. It's everything you want, politics, ecology, cool trails ... Pm me if you're interested.

benpinnick

Ps it is actually genuinely interesting I think. Shame you missed the meeting last night, 60+ riders met with crown estate to talk about it. Which is alot I think for a rider discussion with the powers that be. A little documentary work would be good for us too. I can get you access to the owners, builders and local riders. Probably could rustle some pros up for some really good riding too.

cooldad

And some rubbish riders as a comparison.
Then I might get my trailer and groupies...

benpinnick

Yeah, I reckon for an extra fiver we could get sheepsteeth's mum to come to crackhell

cooldad

Takes trail riding to a whole new level.

Lolage

Sounds great Ben, but Cannock is a lot more convenient for me only being 25 miles/50 minutes for me compared to 90 miles/1hr50!

Seeing as I'll need to make numerous visits Cannock would definitely be better for me!

bartimaeus

A trailbuilding documentary is a great idea. There's no one recipe for building trails, with some being million-pound professional projects and others like ours (shameless plug for QE trailbuilding) being done for nothing by volunteers.

But my guess is that all will have a story about selling an idea, winning over a landowner, convincing multiple stakeholders that you have a viable plan and then raising money, organising people and building enthusiasm for the project. If Swinley are doing all this right now then take benpinnick up on his offer... think 'Grand Designs' with bikes.

One of our collective created a documentary-style film for our QE trail launch as well as a riding film. The documentary is more about the 'history' than the trailbuilding - with archive footage, and interviews - but it also touches on the Park's perspective which I found very interesting, as well as on how we got people involved.

Riders can very often get frustrated with 'organisations' like the FC , the council, or even cycling organisations like the CTC, because we don't always take the time to understand the constraints which they have to manage... but once you start working with them, and begin to understand how to work with them, it can be very rewarding. So for example, in a mixed-use Park which caters for walkers and horseriders there is an obvious need for new well signed and clearly MTB only singletrack... to avoid conflict between riders and other park users

So for me there's a story in how it all comes together... and with luck you could create a film which will inspire others to do something similar.