Interviewed: Tim and Mike from Drop In
Drop In is a show that needs little introduction. If you’re reading this article, chances are you’ve already caught a glimpse of Dylan and the boys tearing up the singletrack, dirt jumps and street scene all over western Canada in either the 13-episode first season or the first few episodes of season 2. But few know the men behind the scenes or how the highly successful show got it’s start.
That’s where Mike Johansen and Tim Bieber come in.The two producers of the show were “working their way up the corporate ladder” in 2001 and realizing neither one of them were happy doing what they were doing. Johansen, working in the Calgary film industry, and Bieber, working in computer software, had had enough of their respective corporate scenes, so they took a trip out to BC in the summer of 2001 that changed their lives.
Today, Drop In is SportsNET’s most successful third-party produced show and is seen by more than 100,000 viewers a week in Canada. The show has also been picked up by a massive cable channel Extreme UK in Europe, which will get it into 55 countries and producers Johansen and Bieber are hard at work trying to get it into the US market.
We took a few minutes out of Johansen’s busy schedule to ask him about the show’s start, first season and the transition into the second season. Over the new few weeks, we’ll bring you profiles on all five of the season 2 riders. You won’t want to miss what they have to say about the show, riding and life in general.
Pinkbike: First off, where did the idea for the show originally come from?
Mike Johansen: “Tim and I both come from a skiing background. We started Drop In because we eventually wanted to move into skiing with it. Our off-seasons were always on mountain bikes so it just seemed logical to start with a summer activity like mountain biking.
Seeing the surge in the industry it was just obvious. If we tried to learn all the trials and tribulations in the winter time (with a ski show) we couldn’t have done it because there are so many variables.
We went to BC to do some riding and filming for a holiday and we ended up meeting Dylan and Shawn in Nelson. Those two kind of inspired the idea of getting to know the riders’ lifestyle. It was basically Dylan’s idea. He said we should make a Road Fools type video only with mountain bikes. I didn’t really like the idea of copying anything but I knew that people who don’t know that lifestyle would be intrigued so TV was the obvious choice. He didn’t really believe that we would do it but when we want to do something we just do it. We got back to Calgary and starting working on it.”
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PB: Where did the Drop In name come from?
MJ: “It applies to a wide range of sports. We didn’t want to pigeon-hole ourselves into just one catch phrase. You can kind of apply the Drop In concept to pretty much every action adventure sport.”
PB: How did you manage to get it on SportsNET?
MJ: “We used the footage we shot in BC to make a 14-minute pilot and we sent it out to quite a few networks in Canada. We just sent them out to everybody. The hard part is getting people to watch it because they’re so busy. The head of SportsNET watched it and said it was good, but said she wanted to see more off-bike stuff like guys going to the hospital after getting hurt, interviews etc. We got the okay from the network in January (2002) and starting shooting July 15 after a 1 ½ month delay while we scrambled to find cash.”
PB: How difficult is it to decide what footage to use for each episode?
MJ: “It’s really difficult, especially when you hit a really epic day or an epic location. You get like six hours of footage in one day of amazing stuff and that can only fit in a 6-minute segment. Then, for example, dirt jumping - everyone might be hurt or it’s raining and you only get 20 minutes of usable footage and you’re like ‘How am I going to get a segment out of the dirt jumps.’”
PB: The show comes across as being very spontaneous. Is it as loosely-planned as it looks?
MJ: “I call myself a director but I don’t direct them when we’re out shooting. I direct the interviews and ask the questions, but the only thing we plan is when we start shooting, which was June 1st in Victoria (for season 2), where the guest riders should meet us and when we change episodes. I don’t even know where we’re going to stay. We usually roll into town and try to find an RV park and can’t find one so we have to stay in people’s backyards. It’s full on shoot from the hip and I don’t think it will ever change because we plan on visiting new places every year and there’s always going to be that element of surprise.
PB: How much did you guys learn from that first season?
MJ: “We didn’t have much of a budget at all so we just blasted through it. That was the trial season and we’ll never do that fast of a shoot again because it was hardcore. It was even busier than it looked.”
![photo]()
PB: Was there any question that you guys would continue the show after the first season?
MJ: “Both Tim and I knew this was fulfilling. It was actually something we were interested in doing and we were pretty stoked on doing another season. Through the trial and error of the first season we knew right away what we needed to do to make it better.”
PB: How did you guys deal with the pressure of trying to repeat the success of season 1?
MJ: “What really helps is just the interaction we have with Drop In fans on Pinkbike. We go through the forums and see what people are saying about the show. The pressure was there for sure. We knew we had to do a good job. It just helps when you’re not having a good day to go to the Pinkbike forum and there’s a kid on there who is just totally stoked.”
PB: How difficult was it to decide which riders would come back this year?
MJ: “Right away after the first season was done we knew who the most popular guys were on the show and it was Dylan and Shawn. So right away we said we wanted them back. (Shawn ended up having to pull out a couple of weeks before shooting because of other commitments – like life). Mike knew that he couldn’t come back right away because he had a hard time trying to make a movie during the show and Byron was getting married. Darren was still recovering and then he ended up separating his shoulder on one of his first rides.”
PB: Were you surprised that sponsors weren’t banging down the door after the first season’s success?
MJ: “We’re still struggling. We’re so far behind in our payments. It’s pretty tough. We’re able to scrounge a little bit up to pay the minimum payments on our credit cards, but that’s how we did it. We went into massive debt. But we’re getting there. Labbatt’s really helped us out. And then we got a little bit of money from Norco, a little bit from Hayes, a little bit from Race Face, and Nokian.”
PB: I know you’ve been trying to get the show into the US market. What is it that seems to be the problem with getting such a popular show picked up down there?
MJ: “They think mountain biking is spandex cross country racing and riding up a hill and then going down with your brakes on. Our distributor just talked to a network in the States and they said ‘Oh no we just cover skateboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, BMXing’…they had a list, but not mountain biking. We’re still facing that problem of people not watching the tape.”
PB: With that said, Drop-In is getting pretty international now right isn’t it?
MJ: “We’re going to be doing over a million people a week soon through TV. The show is in over 55 countries in the world right now on Extreme UK. (There are also ongoing talks with Global Television to get the show onto conventional TV in Canada).”
PB: Do you see yourself expanding outside of Western Canada?
MJ: “It depends on the correspondence I have with people. I don’t really know anything about where stuff is to ride except for around here. It’s all just about somebody from that area convincing me that there is enough to do there to film an episode. It doesn’t take much. All it takes is a couple of good trails, some good street, which every city has, and a good set of dirt jumps is always good. Something cool like bungee jumping is always cool for the lifestyle stuff.”
PB: Well Mike thanks for the time. And congratulations on the show’s success.
Show your support, buy the Drop In season 1 DVD or a T-shirt from the Pinkbike store at; DVD/T-shirts
If you are from the USA and would like to see Drop In on local TV please write to Spike TV's comment link at; Spike TV Comments
That’s where Mike Johansen and Tim Bieber come in.The two producers of the show were “working their way up the corporate ladder” in 2001 and realizing neither one of them were happy doing what they were doing. Johansen, working in the Calgary film industry, and Bieber, working in computer software, had had enough of their respective corporate scenes, so they took a trip out to BC in the summer of 2001 that changed their lives.
Today, Drop In is SportsNET’s most successful third-party produced show and is seen by more than 100,000 viewers a week in Canada. The show has also been picked up by a massive cable channel Extreme UK in Europe, which will get it into 55 countries and producers Johansen and Bieber are hard at work trying to get it into the US market.
We took a few minutes out of Johansen’s busy schedule to ask him about the show’s start, first season and the transition into the second season. Over the new few weeks, we’ll bring you profiles on all five of the season 2 riders. You won’t want to miss what they have to say about the show, riding and life in general.
Pinkbike: First off, where did the idea for the show originally come from?
Mike Johansen: “Tim and I both come from a skiing background. We started Drop In because we eventually wanted to move into skiing with it. Our off-seasons were always on mountain bikes so it just seemed logical to start with a summer activity like mountain biking.
Seeing the surge in the industry it was just obvious. If we tried to learn all the trials and tribulations in the winter time (with a ski show) we couldn’t have done it because there are so many variables.
We went to BC to do some riding and filming for a holiday and we ended up meeting Dylan and Shawn in Nelson. Those two kind of inspired the idea of getting to know the riders’ lifestyle. It was basically Dylan’s idea. He said we should make a Road Fools type video only with mountain bikes. I didn’t really like the idea of copying anything but I knew that people who don’t know that lifestyle would be intrigued so TV was the obvious choice. He didn’t really believe that we would do it but when we want to do something we just do it. We got back to Calgary and starting working on it.”
PB: Where did the Drop In name come from?
MJ: “It applies to a wide range of sports. We didn’t want to pigeon-hole ourselves into just one catch phrase. You can kind of apply the Drop In concept to pretty much every action adventure sport.”
PB: How did you manage to get it on SportsNET?
MJ: “We used the footage we shot in BC to make a 14-minute pilot and we sent it out to quite a few networks in Canada. We just sent them out to everybody. The hard part is getting people to watch it because they’re so busy. The head of SportsNET watched it and said it was good, but said she wanted to see more off-bike stuff like guys going to the hospital after getting hurt, interviews etc. We got the okay from the network in January (2002) and starting shooting July 15 after a 1 ½ month delay while we scrambled to find cash.”
PB: How difficult is it to decide what footage to use for each episode?
MJ: “It’s really difficult, especially when you hit a really epic day or an epic location. You get like six hours of footage in one day of amazing stuff and that can only fit in a 6-minute segment. Then, for example, dirt jumping - everyone might be hurt or it’s raining and you only get 20 minutes of usable footage and you’re like ‘How am I going to get a segment out of the dirt jumps.’”
PB: The show comes across as being very spontaneous. Is it as loosely-planned as it looks?
MJ: “I call myself a director but I don’t direct them when we’re out shooting. I direct the interviews and ask the questions, but the only thing we plan is when we start shooting, which was June 1st in Victoria (for season 2), where the guest riders should meet us and when we change episodes. I don’t even know where we’re going to stay. We usually roll into town and try to find an RV park and can’t find one so we have to stay in people’s backyards. It’s full on shoot from the hip and I don’t think it will ever change because we plan on visiting new places every year and there’s always going to be that element of surprise.
PB: How much did you guys learn from that first season?
MJ: “We didn’t have much of a budget at all so we just blasted through it. That was the trial season and we’ll never do that fast of a shoot again because it was hardcore. It was even busier than it looked.”
MJ: “Both Tim and I knew this was fulfilling. It was actually something we were interested in doing and we were pretty stoked on doing another season. Through the trial and error of the first season we knew right away what we needed to do to make it better.”
PB: How did you guys deal with the pressure of trying to repeat the success of season 1?
MJ: “What really helps is just the interaction we have with Drop In fans on Pinkbike. We go through the forums and see what people are saying about the show. The pressure was there for sure. We knew we had to do a good job. It just helps when you’re not having a good day to go to the Pinkbike forum and there’s a kid on there who is just totally stoked.”
PB: How difficult was it to decide which riders would come back this year?
MJ: “Right away after the first season was done we knew who the most popular guys were on the show and it was Dylan and Shawn. So right away we said we wanted them back. (Shawn ended up having to pull out a couple of weeks before shooting because of other commitments – like life). Mike knew that he couldn’t come back right away because he had a hard time trying to make a movie during the show and Byron was getting married. Darren was still recovering and then he ended up separating his shoulder on one of his first rides.”
PB: Were you surprised that sponsors weren’t banging down the door after the first season’s success?
MJ: “We’re still struggling. We’re so far behind in our payments. It’s pretty tough. We’re able to scrounge a little bit up to pay the minimum payments on our credit cards, but that’s how we did it. We went into massive debt. But we’re getting there. Labbatt’s really helped us out. And then we got a little bit of money from Norco, a little bit from Hayes, a little bit from Race Face, and Nokian.”
PB: I know you’ve been trying to get the show into the US market. What is it that seems to be the problem with getting such a popular show picked up down there?
MJ: “They think mountain biking is spandex cross country racing and riding up a hill and then going down with your brakes on. Our distributor just talked to a network in the States and they said ‘Oh no we just cover skateboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, BMXing’…they had a list, but not mountain biking. We’re still facing that problem of people not watching the tape.”
PB: With that said, Drop-In is getting pretty international now right isn’t it?
MJ: “We’re going to be doing over a million people a week soon through TV. The show is in over 55 countries in the world right now on Extreme UK. (There are also ongoing talks with Global Television to get the show onto conventional TV in Canada).”
PB: Do you see yourself expanding outside of Western Canada?
MJ: “It depends on the correspondence I have with people. I don’t really know anything about where stuff is to ride except for around here. It’s all just about somebody from that area convincing me that there is enough to do there to film an episode. It doesn’t take much. All it takes is a couple of good trails, some good street, which every city has, and a good set of dirt jumps is always good. Something cool like bungee jumping is always cool for the lifestyle stuff.”
PB: Well Mike thanks for the time. And congratulations on the show’s success.
Show your support, buy the Drop In season 1 DVD or a T-shirt from the Pinkbike store at; DVD/T-shirts
If you are from the USA and would like to see Drop In on local TV please write to Spike TV's comment link at; Spike TV Comments
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