I have spent a lot of time shooting with Freeride Entertainment over the last few years, its been a blast. Lately I have been helping them shoot their newest bike film “Where The Trail Ends”. The film has been shot in BC, China, Argentina, Nepal, and Utah. It’s going to be the biggest, baddest bike movie of all time, and I am really glad I got to be a part of the production.

Shooting was hectic, with tight deadlines, and tensions running high. Being in the middle of a desert and far, far away from home makes everyone a little edgy at times. Not to mention the toll it takes on gear. Dust, wind, rain….all enemies of electronics. My RED 17-50mm lens took quite a hit in China, getting completely dusted out while one of the athletes, Kurt Sorge, was throwing a huge scrub down a jump. it was one of those situations where you weigh the options. The shot could be really cool, or the dust could toast your lens…..in a situation like this you usually have a piece of lexan that you can throw in front of the camera, but in china that’s hard to come by. So I opted to risk it. The shot turned out great. the repair bill for the lens, not so much. was it worth it? yup.

Living in Iowa, the last thing I thought I would ever get to shoot again was biking. I have been extremely fortunate to not only be shooting biking, but be shooting biking with the best of the best. a great experience for sure.

The editors at Freeride have been working hard to meet the release date in September. They just launched the first teaser. They are holding the full length trailer back till it hits a million views, so watch it, love it, share it. Check it out below!

EDIT:

THE FULL LENGTH TRAILER CAN BE SEEN BELOW

Keeping true to form, if a new toy hits the market, we want to play with it. Well, this isn’t exactly NEW, its been out for a little bit now. While in China with Freeride Entertainment we were introduced to the Dolly Bros. dolly. A very simple, yet incredibly effective dolly system that can be packed up into a very small case (by dolly standards) and go with you just about anywhere.

Here is a shot of it in the field today on a shoot with one of our clients, Von Maur. It is perfect when you want to add a little motion to what can usually be a boring shot. The Dolly can be laid on the ground, like above, or mounted to a tripod or C stands with appropriate mounting hardware. If you want to get creative, you can do that too, just make sure you have the right rigging to keep it from taking a dive!

Rails are supplied and include hardware to keep the rails at the exact width needed for the dolly.

The dolly itself also comes apart which helps it pack away into tight spaces.

all in all, we are really impressed with this. We are currently packing it up and heading to minnesota to get fancy with it on the lake. check back soon for some new videos and pictures!

Lots of editing going on at 515 this past week, so its nice to get the camera assembled and go out to shoot just to keep the cobwebs off. Headed out with Dave Poyzer and shot some stock lightning bug video with the F3 using S-Log and the hyperdeck shuttle. Interesting to see how S-Log and prime lenses do when it is pitch black outside.

What’s not so fun is trying to figure out what the hell that noise was in the bushes when you are all alone in the woods. But in the end the video was worth it, and I am looking forward to shooting some more when the lightning bugs are in full swing.

515 Is going to be jamming on some more edits, then its back into shooting mode. I am going to be spending a lot of time trying to complete some fun projects in between gigs with clients. Last year we attempted to shoot an epic wakeboard video, but ran out of time and next thing we knew there was ice on the lake. With any luck we will get to that again this year. 515 is also teaming up with a special group to shoot a music video or two. keep your eyes open for that.

Till next time.