Strength in Numbers: The Anthill Interview
Anthill Films is indisputably a heavy-hitter in the mountain bike film world. Their catalogue consists of five seminal masterpieces in the history of our sport: The Collective, Roam, Seasons, Follow Me, and now Strength in Numbers (I'm counting their work as the Collective here) rank as some of the best action sport movies ever. But they haven't relied on reputation alone and coasted from project to project. They've witnessed the decline of DVD sales and adapted to this brave new world of digital media; Darwinism at its finest - evolve or die. Strength in Numbers is the culmination of two years, thousands of kilometres, and the combined creativity of Darcy Wittenburg, Darren McCullough, Colin Jones, Jonathan Schramm, Ian Dunn, and Sterling Lorence. And that's not to mention the combined efforts of riders, builders, friends, and family along the way. The Anthill moniker couldn't be more apt. It takes a collective effort to make something great.
Tell us a bit about yourself:
We make mountain bike movies.
When did you start shooting?
It’s tough to say exactly when everyone started shooting. All of us were drawn to cameras when we were kids… then it just developed from there. Darren actually went to film school – the rest of us are self-taught. Darren and Schramm first made a ski movie with Jamie Houssain back in 1998 called The Disciples. The first film Darcy did professionally was working with Jorli Ricker on Ride to the Hills. That same year he and CJ started shooting snowboard movies with a good buddy, Carlo Wein, who now owns Alterna Films.
What’s Jamie doing these days? Is there any chance of a Collective reunion?
Jamie has been busy working at Elemental Energy, which focuses on sustainable energy and has a family to keep him busy as well these days. We did work closely with Jamie in helping him put together the Collective Anthology that came out last year. Right now everyone’s got a lot on the go so it’s hard to picture a Collective reunion at this point, but you never know what the future holds!
You’ve had Sterling Lorence heavily involved as photographer on most of your movie shoots. Is it good having a photographer’s eye at shoots?
Everyone on the crew has known Sterl for over decade and he’s been a large part of everything we’ve ever done. He’s a natural fit into our company and is always contributing ideas, angles and concepts into the mix. We definitely collaborate on angles practically for every shot. Discussing angles is one of the most exciting parts of shooting so it’s important to work with people that share a similar vision of how mountain biking should be portrayed.
Do you ride? How does this affect your shooting?
Everyone at Anthill rides. None of us would be doing this if we didn’t. It’s pretty important to be passionate about a sport if you’re dedicating your life to capturing it. It’s almost impossible to be at the forefront of shooting any sport without having an intimate knowledge of what that sport feels like and being engrossed in the culture.
Do you shoot anything besides mountain biking?
Biking is our bread and butter but as we’re growing the commercial side of our business we’ve had the opportunity to a whole range of things. Also living in the Coast Mountains we’re all into winter sports. Everyone in the crew has a history shooting snowboarding and skiing so we always try to keep a foot in the door in that world.
How does it feel to have influenced a younger generation who’ve grown up watching Collective/Anthill films?
For people to say our films have influenced them is one of the biggest compliments we can receive and it’s very humbling. It makes it important for us to continue to produce content that is authentic.
What/who influences you?
Influences can come from all directions and are often from the most unlikely places so it’s important to be open. Other core sports like all the board sports are also very influential. Just spending time on our bikes is huge for us. There is no better inspiration than that.
Where did the idea for Strength in Numbers come from?
It really developed over a long time. We had a few stories in mind after Follow Me and we were originally talking about them as separate projects. Then we realized that all the stories had a common thread – and things started falling into place. Strength in Numbers tries to show how all communities within mountain biking are connected. If you look at all of our films, from The Collective through to Strength in Numbers, they all are trying to do this in some way. Mountain biking is so diverse; we want our films to be inclusive.
You streamed Strength in Numbers for free prior to shipping DVD’s, why was this? Was the experiment a success?
There were number of reasons we decided to stream the film for free. The most important reason was to make a statement that reflected the overall concept for the movie. What better way to show how mountain bikers are all connected than allow our film to be shared with the whole mountain bike community and beyond? People have been sharing and downloading our movies for free for years any way – they just never had our permission to do it. This is the reality of our new digital world. We’d rather embrace this as an opportunity to bring our films to a wider audience then fight against it.
Our hope with this digital experiment is that more people will see the movie and a good number of them will recognize the value and want to buy a copy they can watch again and again. It’s tough to say if this is actually what’s happening yet because we are just at the beginning. But we had over 150,000 unique viewers from all over the world watch the online premiere of Strength in Numbers – so from the idea of bringing together the global mountain bike community that was a huge success!
Has the internet made it more difficult to sell long-term feature film projects? Is there a future for DVD’s/BluRays?
Yeah it has for sure. You only have to look across all action sports and see how many films are being made today compared to even just five years ago. There are only a handful of producers left in each sport now doing full-length films. But you either adapt or die. We love doing short web edits as well, but we believe that films still have an important role to play in the culture of our sport.
DVDs have a future but the number of people buying them gets smaller every year. You still can’t beat the quality of BluRay if want to be able to see these films as they were really intended to be. It comes down to the idea of adapting to new realities. Five years ago you paid $30 and all you got was a DVD – now with Strength in Numbers it’s a 3-in-1 combo pack for the same price.
What kind of camera(s) do you use?
We have a variety of cameras in our arsenal but right now our kit is based around the Red Epic. For Strength in Numbers we shot with the Red, Phantom, Cineflex, SI2K, Sony F3 and Contour’s when it made sense. The quality and level of detail that these cameras can capture is pretty amazing. If people only see the online streaming version of the film they are definitely missing out on part of the experience.
Is it difficult shooting with the Phantom in the backcountry?
There are definitely a few challenges, as it’s not really meant to be slogged around on mountainsides in all kinds of weather. The key is just to work as a team to make it happen.
How did you decide on which quotes to use for SIN?
We just looked for quotes that had a connection to the concept of each segment.
What happened to Danny Macaskill’s section?
Danny came to Vancouver for 5 weeks last summer to shoot for the film. After weeks of scoping and planning we were ready to shoot and unfortunately Danny hurt his knee pretty bad on the first day of filming. We tried to line it up again at the end of the winter but his body still wasn’t up to riding at the level he expects from himself for a film segment. Definitely a bummer, Danny is a rad dude and we were stoked to shoot with him. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity in the future.
What was the most time consuming section in the movie to shoot? What was the fastest/smoothest?
The most time consuming segment was Brandon’s segment, which also included the building of the Full Nelson trail in Squamish. We filmed this over the winter so we had constant challenges with snow, rain, sun, darkness you name it. Brandon’s work ethic is relentless and it was extremely impressive to witness him power through some of the toughest filming conditions anywhere. He’s obviously a talented dude but it’s clear that his determination alone is enough to put him at the top of our sport.
The smoothest segment to shoot was probably Switzerland. Chris Winter from Big Mountain Bike Adventures helped us line up a lot of the logistics for the shoot, and being in Switzerland the access to high alpine trails is unreal. We also were lucky with light and weather so it all felt like it came together on point.
You’ve traveled all over the world shooting. Where haven’t you shot that’s on the bucket list?
It’s probably easier to come up with places we don’t want to go – there are endless opportunities out there. Anywhere with big mountains would be interesting; definitely would love to get to South America one day. Also traveling to places where mountain biking is just immerging, like going to Nepal for Strength in Numbers. It was an amazing life experience to go to such a place and connect with the local mountain bike culture.
Where do you want the sport to go? X-Games? Downhill in the Olympics? All mountain? More women riding?
We don’t really have specific direction we’d like to see the sport go in terms of competition. That’s best left up to the riders who live the racing or slopestyle scene day in day out to decide. Overall, we think the most important thing is to see it continue to grow so cyclists have more influence globally. If more people from all levels of society start riding it will open more doors for the whole riding scene. Not to mention the benefits for our world as a whole, in terms of overall health and reducing emissions. More women riding is definitely a big step in the right direction. For any sport to gain a foothold in our greater culture there has to be a healthy amount and men and women participating to hit that critical mass.
What are Anthill’s plans for the future?
This summer we’re focusing on developing the commercial side of our business and working on some shorter projects. It ‘s good to have diversity in our work; keeps it fresh and allows new ideas for future projects to develop. We’re also going to be working with the Coastal Crew on the follow up film to From the Inside Out.
Favourite beer?
You really can’t go wrong with a good IPA.
Do you have any advice for aspiring videographers?
There is no substitute for time spent in the field.
To buy a copy and support the filmmakers Click Here
Videos by: Anthill Films
Anthill Films on Pinkbike.
Anthill Films' website: anthillfilms.com
Stills by: Sterling Lorence
Intro & Interview by: Scott Secco
Is Strength in Numbers their best film? What's your favourite individual segment they've ever done?
Tell us a bit about yourself: We make mountain bike movies.
When did you start shooting? It’s tough to say exactly when everyone started shooting. All of us were drawn to cameras when we were kids… then it just developed from there. Darren actually went to film school – the rest of us are self-taught. Darren and Schramm first made a ski movie with Jamie Houssain back in 1998 called The Disciples. The first film Darcy did professionally was working with Jorli Ricker on Ride to the Hills. That same year he and CJ started shooting snowboard movies with a good buddy, Carlo Wein, who now owns Alterna Films.
What’s Jamie doing these days? Is there any chance of a Collective reunion? Jamie has been busy working at Elemental Energy, which focuses on sustainable energy and has a family to keep him busy as well these days. We did work closely with Jamie in helping him put together the Collective Anthology that came out last year. Right now everyone’s got a lot on the go so it’s hard to picture a Collective reunion at this point, but you never know what the future holds!
You’ve had Sterling Lorence heavily involved as photographer on most of your movie shoots. Is it good having a photographer’s eye at shoots? Everyone on the crew has known Sterl for over decade and he’s been a large part of everything we’ve ever done. He’s a natural fit into our company and is always contributing ideas, angles and concepts into the mix. We definitely collaborate on angles practically for every shot. Discussing angles is one of the most exciting parts of shooting so it’s important to work with people that share a similar vision of how mountain biking should be portrayed.
 |
Do you ride? How does this affect your shooting? Everyone at Anthill rides. None of us would be doing this if we didn’t. It’s pretty important to be passionate about a sport if you’re dedicating your life to capturing it. It’s almost impossible to be at the forefront of shooting any sport without having an intimate knowledge of what that sport feels like and being engrossed in the culture.
Do you shoot anything besides mountain biking? Biking is our bread and butter but as we’re growing the commercial side of our business we’ve had the opportunity to a whole range of things. Also living in the Coast Mountains we’re all into winter sports. Everyone in the crew has a history shooting snowboarding and skiing so we always try to keep a foot in the door in that world.
How does it feel to have influenced a younger generation who’ve grown up watching Collective/Anthill films? For people to say our films have influenced them is one of the biggest compliments we can receive and it’s very humbling. It makes it important for us to continue to produce content that is authentic.
What/who influences you? Influences can come from all directions and are often from the most unlikely places so it’s important to be open. Other core sports like all the board sports are also very influential. Just spending time on our bikes is huge for us. There is no better inspiration than that.
Where did the idea for Strength in Numbers come from? It really developed over a long time. We had a few stories in mind after Follow Me and we were originally talking about them as separate projects. Then we realized that all the stories had a common thread – and things started falling into place. Strength in Numbers tries to show how all communities within mountain biking are connected. If you look at all of our films, from The Collective through to Strength in Numbers, they all are trying to do this in some way. Mountain biking is so diverse; we want our films to be inclusive.
You streamed Strength in Numbers for free prior to shipping DVD’s, why was this? Was the experiment a success? There were number of reasons we decided to stream the film for free. The most important reason was to make a statement that reflected the overall concept for the movie. What better way to show how mountain bikers are all connected than allow our film to be shared with the whole mountain bike community and beyond? People have been sharing and downloading our movies for free for years any way – they just never had our permission to do it. This is the reality of our new digital world. We’d rather embrace this as an opportunity to bring our films to a wider audience then fight against it.
Our hope with this digital experiment is that more people will see the movie and a good number of them will recognize the value and want to buy a copy they can watch again and again. It’s tough to say if this is actually what’s happening yet because we are just at the beginning. But we had over 150,000 unique viewers from all over the world watch the online premiere of Strength in Numbers – so from the idea of bringing together the global mountain bike community that was a huge success!
Has the internet made it more difficult to sell long-term feature film projects? Is there a future for DVD’s/BluRays? Yeah it has for sure. You only have to look across all action sports and see how many films are being made today compared to even just five years ago. There are only a handful of producers left in each sport now doing full-length films. But you either adapt or die. We love doing short web edits as well, but we believe that films still have an important role to play in the culture of our sport.
DVDs have a future but the number of people buying them gets smaller every year. You still can’t beat the quality of BluRay if want to be able to see these films as they were really intended to be. It comes down to the idea of adapting to new realities. Five years ago you paid $30 and all you got was a DVD – now with Strength in Numbers it’s a 3-in-1 combo pack for the same price.
What kind of camera(s) do you use? We have a variety of cameras in our arsenal but right now our kit is based around the Red Epic. For Strength in Numbers we shot with the Red, Phantom, Cineflex, SI2K, Sony F3 and Contour’s when it made sense. The quality and level of detail that these cameras can capture is pretty amazing. If people only see the online streaming version of the film they are definitely missing out on part of the experience.
Is it difficult shooting with the Phantom in the backcountry? There are definitely a few challenges, as it’s not really meant to be slogged around on mountainsides in all kinds of weather. The key is just to work as a team to make it happen.
Brandon Semenuk - Strength in Numbers High Speed from Anthill Films on Vimeo.
How did you decide on which quotes to use for SIN? We just looked for quotes that had a connection to the concept of each segment.
What happened to Danny Macaskill’s section? Danny came to Vancouver for 5 weeks last summer to shoot for the film. After weeks of scoping and planning we were ready to shoot and unfortunately Danny hurt his knee pretty bad on the first day of filming. We tried to line it up again at the end of the winter but his body still wasn’t up to riding at the level he expects from himself for a film segment. Definitely a bummer, Danny is a rad dude and we were stoked to shoot with him. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity in the future.
Full Nelson - Behind the Scenes from Anthill Films on Vimeo.
What was the most time consuming section in the movie to shoot? What was the fastest/smoothest? The most time consuming segment was Brandon’s segment, which also included the building of the Full Nelson trail in Squamish. We filmed this over the winter so we had constant challenges with snow, rain, sun, darkness you name it. Brandon’s work ethic is relentless and it was extremely impressive to witness him power through some of the toughest filming conditions anywhere. He’s obviously a talented dude but it’s clear that his determination alone is enough to put him at the top of our sport.
The smoothest segment to shoot was probably Switzerland. Chris Winter from Big Mountain Bike Adventures helped us line up a lot of the logistics for the shoot, and being in Switzerland the access to high alpine trails is unreal. We also were lucky with light and weather so it all felt like it came together on point.
 |
You’ve traveled all over the world shooting. Where haven’t you shot that’s on the bucket list? It’s probably easier to come up with places we don’t want to go – there are endless opportunities out there. Anywhere with big mountains would be interesting; definitely would love to get to South America one day. Also traveling to places where mountain biking is just immerging, like going to Nepal for Strength in Numbers. It was an amazing life experience to go to such a place and connect with the local mountain bike culture.
Where do you want the sport to go? X-Games? Downhill in the Olympics? All mountain? More women riding? We don’t really have specific direction we’d like to see the sport go in terms of competition. That’s best left up to the riders who live the racing or slopestyle scene day in day out to decide. Overall, we think the most important thing is to see it continue to grow so cyclists have more influence globally. If more people from all levels of society start riding it will open more doors for the whole riding scene. Not to mention the benefits for our world as a whole, in terms of overall health and reducing emissions. More women riding is definitely a big step in the right direction. For any sport to gain a foothold in our greater culture there has to be a healthy amount and men and women participating to hit that critical mass.
 |
What are Anthill’s plans for the future? This summer we’re focusing on developing the commercial side of our business and working on some shorter projects. It ‘s good to have diversity in our work; keeps it fresh and allows new ideas for future projects to develop. We’re also going to be working with the Coastal Crew on the follow up film to From the Inside Out.
Favourite beer? You really can’t go wrong with a good IPA.
Do you have any advice for aspiring videographers? There is no substitute for time spent in the field.
 |
Videos by: Anthill Films
Anthill Films on Pinkbike.
Anthill Films' website: anthillfilms.com
Stills by: Sterling Lorence
Intro & Interview by: Scott Secco
Author Info:
Squamish, BC, Canada
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