Interviewed - the Creators of RISE

I first met Big Red Ted at the first Red Bull Freezride 2 years ago. Of the large crew assembled for course construction, none possessed the work ethic or vision of the tall, skinny man from Squamish. Among his more famous projects, are Helltrack II and the mammoth 14-foot loop ridden by John Cowan (and Cory Leclerc at the Freezride). What's surprising, Ted doesn't do it for the glory, he's doing it for a genuine love of the sport. Warwick's no different. I've ridden with Ted on many occasions. He's always the first to pick up a shovel or rake to shape or repair, regardless of who's trail it is. I caught up to Ted and his partner in the production of RISE, Warwick Patterson recently while they were sifting through the mounds of footage they've shot over the last few months. Here's what they had to say...

Pinkbike: Alright boys, introduce yourselves!

BRT: I’m Ted Tempany, Co-Producer of MTB_Films
WP: And I’m Warwick Patterson, also Co-Producer at MTB Films and together we’re the creators of RISE

PB: Obviously, that’s what we’re here about. Tell us about RISE, what is RISE?

BRT: Mountain bikers all share a common bond that transcends…
WP: Wait, he’s reading off the back of the box (laughs)
BRT: RISE is about riding your bike every day
WP: and living your life so that you can ride your bike more.

PB: So it goes beyond the adrenaline-fueled-hucking-yourself-off-the-biggest-thing-you-can-find… it’s more about the lifestyle?

BRT: Exactly
WP: It about how everybody gets something different out of mountain biking. How everybody does it for different, reasons, and I think RISE will appeal to a lot of riders, a lot of different disciplines will relate to it. There’s some stuff in there that’s… it’s not all just bike porn and glamorous, sunny days or watching big gaps and stuff. It’s a lot of people just riding and feeling the flow.
BRT: And we’re just trying to show how versatile the mountain bike is and just two wheels in general. Biking is a lot of things to a lot of different people and it’s been tough to convey that, but we’re trying.

PB: Cool, well let’s get to the action, what locations have you been filming?

WP: Well, a lot of our shooting has been on the BC coast, places like Squamish, Whistler, Vancouver. There’s Calgary, Kamloops and we’ve recently come back from an interior road trip, stopping in Rossland, Castlegar, Nelson, Golden and Kelowna.
BRT : Yeah, Kelowna was a great stop. We also have a tiny bit of competition footage since that’s a big aspect of the sport. We’ve filmed at the Red Bull Freezride, a South African segment, some New Zealand in there, Borneo, California…
WP: Fort William in Scotland from this year’s World Cup and tons of wicked dirt jumping in England…
BRT: The BEST dirt jump trails ever in England.

PB: What about riders? Who can we expect to see in RISE?

WP: We have a whole range of riders from all aspects of the sport. World Cup riders like Cedric Gracia, Anne-Caroline Chausson, Dustin Adams and Kirt Vories to some of the more local riders like the Squamish Kids (consisting of Freezride Winner Aaron Kempf, Kyle "Hercules" Ritchie, Travis Penrose and Daryl Leduke) who’ll hopefully turn out to be the next big names.

PB: I coldn't agree more. I can see those kids being known real soon.

WP: We’ve got Stacey Kohut in his downhill wheelchair…
BRT: Ripping it up!!
WP: But not just on the trail, we’ve also got him stocking shelves where he works at Nestor’s Market, on the sit ski in the winter.
BRT: We’re also featuring the Oryx freeride team, the Be-One freeride team and Doug Fink. We’ve also hooked up with a lot of local builders who showed us their handiwork. We were impressed everywhere we went, whether they were building dirt-jumps, Ewok Villages or just some of the guys wanting to show us their local skateparks, there’s a lot of guys getting into that too.

PB: Ted, I know you’re a bit fanatical about building, I’ve seen you with a shovel at least as much as on a bike. On your Nelson stop you spent a lot of time building in Witches. Was this an isolated incident, or is it par for the course on your travels?

BRT: Well… we always try to leave each location just a little better than we found it, whether that’s physically building a new jump or talking to some of the kids about riding and what it means to them…
WP: Or something as simple as fixing the lips of the local dirt jumps…things like that.
BRT: Just stuff we do when we’re out riding our bikes, giving back you know...

PB: Warwick, this is your second go-around with making a film, most people know you as the creator of the Circus, (a World Cup race video) a somewhat one-dimensional film and what you’re trying to convey in RISE is very different. Have you found it more or less difficult with this project?

WP: Definitely different challenges. Racing footage is easier to get and capture on film just because everybody is coming by on the same trail. You have 40 riders go by and you can pick out the best footage, whereas freeriding you have to go out and either build a trail, or find a trail and make it look how it does in real life. It’s also sometimes a little harder to motivate riders to come out and shoot with you for freeriding. Because you’ve either got to climb or hike or whatever it is.

PB: And session the same thing over and over again trying to get that right shot.

WP: Exactly. When they’re racing you’re just shooting them while they do their job.

PB: Ted, any highlites of the shooting that stand out in your mind?

BRTHighlight of all my film experiences has got to be the bikers amazing ability to adapt to the surrounding at any given spot. There are no limitations except those one puts oneself. The mountain bike is an amazing tool. It is used very well by some... You'll see what I mean.

PB: Sponsors? Any you’d like to thank?

BRT: Oryx Bikes
WP: BeOne bikes, Whistler-Blackcomb, Viosport Helmet cams, Flow Magazine, Launch Magazine, Pinkbike obviously, and a couple of local bike shops, Evolution and Tantalus
BRT: And Pryme gear…

PB: When can we expect to see this flick?

WP: Premiere’s on July 16th in Whistler

PB: Sweet, that’s my birthday…

WP: We’ve got the premiere on the Wednesday before Nationals during the Whistler Gravity Fest. The DVD should be ready by July 24th so that when we head out into the interior (like Nelson on the 29th) and Alberta we’ll have copies to sell.

PB: DVD’s, what can we expect to see in the bonus footage?

WP: There’s over 60 hours of footage we’ve amassed that will be condensed into just 40 minutes or so, so you can be sure we’ll have lots of out-takes, music videos, a couple promos for our major sponsors, some interviews… there’s enormous potential with DVD and nobody really works it to its limits. Maybe in the future…

PB: Speaking of music, I know you’re soundtrack won’t be exclusively hard hitting, punk. You’ve got some interesting bands lined up, care to mention them here?

WP: Definitely, we’re looking to get a different vibe for this, we want it to be a movie you can chill out to while you watch it, but we’ve also got some driving tunes that make you want to go ride. We’ve got Swollen Members, Blackpool, Lexicon and Styles of Beyond, and Siobhan DuVall among others.

PB: I’m looking forward to seeing the premiere in Whistler and also hosting it here in Nelson, from what I’ve seen this is going to be one hell of a biking lifestyle flick! Good Luck!

WP and BRT: Thanks Mike!

View the RISE Teaser at www.mtbfilms.com.