With no premiere hype in the air to dilute criticism and new projects on the horizon it is a good time for reflection on one of our favorite films from last season - Anthill's Follow Me.
Check out what some of the riders in ‘Follow Me’ have to say about the film recently and of course let the makers know what you think as well!
One of the goals for ‘Follow Me’ was to create a MTB film that can be used as a tool to get people stoked to go riding. To achieve this Anthill packed a lot of detail into a fast paced film. For example ‘Follow Me’ is the same running time as the previous Collective films yet when it is first viewed it can seem to be shorter in length. The more you watch ‘Follow Me’ the more details you will discover in the footage. Take a look at what some of the riders in ‘Follow Me’ have had to say about the film recently and of course let Anthill know what you think too!
When and where was the last time you watched ‘Follow Me’ or saw it playing?Yesterday on a Panasonic commercial; and before that was in Sushi Village [famous restaurant in Whistler Village]. -
Brandon SemenukOn the TV in our local trails centre in Wales -
Gee Atherton The last time I saw Follow Me it was playing at the Shimano party in Las Vegas -
Thomas Vanderham At my house with some relatives about 3 weeks ago! They don't know what I do.... they do now! -
Geoff Gulevich It was playin’ at some Interbike booths and I stared blankly at the screens during a Vegas induced stoopers. -
Cam McCaul Probably at my mate's house on a mellow night in on the sauce. -
Brendan Fairclough I see it playing in the bike shop, the Bicycle cafe in Kamloops. -
Matt Hunter What comes to mind when you think about ‘Follow Me’ these days? Mountain bikes. And the rainy coast. -
Brandon Semenuk How rad the trip was to film the segment [New Zealand] and people's reaction when they see it for the first time. -
Gee Atherton I think Follow Me was a fun project to work on. The two-rider format provided a new challenge for us. As riders, we are our own biggest critics so I look at things I want to improve. -
Thomas Vanderham Upping the Bar for filming and riding in new locations....boom! -
Geoff Gulevich We brought a couple dudes from a moto background to the premiere (no real MTB experience) and they left with their jaws on the floor. I thought that was pretty cool. I get the most stoked when people from other sports are amped on our stuff because we are so ignored by mainstream action sports coverage and it pisses me off. When we present our sport in a good way, I know it’s just as badass as anything else out there.... Sooo, good job presenting it in the right way folks. -
Cam McCaul Sick days riding up in the mountains of Whistler. Also some amazing riding and Matt hucking the wall ride with all the roost busting up when he lands. So sick. -
Brendan Fairclough Thinking about Follow Me really just gets me thinking about the getting started on the next movie now! But my overall feeling of that movie is that it was really fun times when we were making it. -
Matt Hunter Steve Smith Profile from Follow Me:What is something that someone has said to you about ‘Follow Me’ that has stuck in your mind? “Your section was f*cking sick, why was it not 20 minutes longer?” Ha ha no joke. Ummm, “Music was good,” and “Where do I buy it?” -
Brendan Fairclough “This is a true mountain bike film.” -
Brandon Semenuk How well the guys work together, with each of them having their own strengths and knowing who films what type of shot. -
Gee Atherton It's always great to hear from people that Follow Me made them want to go ride, that’s the best compliment we can get. -
Thomas Vanderham People always tell me that their little kids watch the movie all the time. So it's pretty sweet that we are brainwashing kids... -
Matt Hunter Any other comments or stories? People always seemed impressed by how well mixing different genres of riders worked. I think that was a cool concept and definitely separated the movie from the others in the same field-
Gee Atherton Nothing but positive feedback.... I’m quite impressed actually! There are always haters! -
Geoff Gulevich I get the most comments about the night time footage at Windells with the colored shirts. People liked that. -
Cam McCaul Not much to say really. I would be stoked to film with the guys again, I had a sick time. -
Brendan Fairclough Overall the feedback for Follow Me has been great. I have heard great feedback about the riding we did in Whistler. Matt's air to wall ride was a highlight for me, I don't get tired of seeing that shot. -
Thomas Vanderham
Send your personal answers to the questions, or comments on the answers the riders gave to the Anthill crew. Send your answers and comments to:
feedback@anthillfilms.comBuy Anthill's Follow Me Now!
"soo eerr you follow me and see ya at the bottom"
"lol 'follow me!' haha!"
"yeh, followww meeeeee!!!!"
Well an extremely over hyped movie that barely delivered. There was more filler than actual riding in the 40-60min of viewing (it felt ridiculously short). Also that crappy rap sound track to Sam Hill's segment, i'm sorry but it killed it. My favourite part of Follow Me was (mental blank's) massive gap to wall ride & the NZ segment with Steve & Gee. Other than that all i can relate to 'Follow Me' is F'ing Letdown. Don't get me wrong, there was some amazing footage but the OVERALL package fell far too short!
"What comes to mind when you(i personally) think about 'Follow Me' these days?" Poorly Delivered Marketing Hype
nice footage but nothing special (except matt hunter)
But i think seasons got me much more motivated to ride that follow me did, maybe its because when i saw seasons i had only just started riding and didnt know much about mountain biking then.
Seasons just went into detail about mountain biking, talking to the riders more about what riding is to them etc.
I loved follow me, it had way better footage than seasons, but seasons just got me way more motivated to ride (esp Matt hunters segment).
sorry for the essay haha
Also, maybe a few less cablecams and some more shots that have different camera motion in them? Cablecams are cool but they're not just a fix-all for getting awesome shots...
Another thing, to me was, there was great hype, but in the wrong direction. For example. When I see a NWD teaser, what do you expect? Flipping sweet riding and camera work, nothing else, I buy the DVD and enjoy the living crap out of it on my loud sound system.
But with Follow Me, because of all the behind the scene footage that you guys were pumping out, showing some clips of riders talking before dropping in, a freaking airplane! I was really expecting that I was going to see more of that. Just scenes or segments that didn't have music, and got to maybe see some of the crew and the riders just dicking around.
Instead, it felt like a newer/fresher NWD film that featured two riders at a time instead of one.
Non the less I still watch it alot. It was just a shocker when I first watched it in the theater (Arlington DraftHouse) that it was something I wasn't mentally prepared for because of all the mini clips you guys were pumping out about each of the riders.
Follow Me covered everything. It was well shot, The riding pushed the limits of biking (not like the Rampage obviously) the tunes were good, the locations where nuts and the best riders in the world featured. Yes we would all like it to be a little longer but most MTB films are only 10 mins longer at a push.
In short I do not see how this could be over hyped. They claimed awesome and it delivered
An excellent piece of work
I'd really like to see less slow-motion in mtb films, whilst it does have a place, i feel it gets used far too much. It really detracts from the energy that can be packed into the more fast paced banger videos in the bmx and fmx worlds.
Also, I know you want to show the environment and set the scene for the documentary style of the film, but that technique filters down and the videos on here are getting to the stage where the first half is entirley taken up by just setting the scene and people pushing their bikes up a hill, in a 3 minute video i don't want to have to skip the first 90 seconds just to see some riding.
tl:dr - I just want to see some well shot riding and some boundaries being pushed, i'm not so keen on the extensive interviews and documentary style slow motion berm shots on every segment.
Best quote ever.
As a film it pales in comparison to their other works as it lacked depth. It felt like a trailer and left me wondering where was the rest of the film.
Incredibly, over-hyped and it's still going. This feels like nothing more than continued marketing just in time for the holiday season.
When I was watching life cycles, by the end all I was thinking of was "man this would be so much better if it actually had some more riding like from follow me." I never got the sense of speed from life cycles as everything was in slow motion. Though a visual feast, it got boring pretty quick. It just needed to keep what it had and add 1/3 more riding riding and fast flowy filming that made follow me so awesome.
With that, my advice to Anthill is to try to match the cinematic quality of Life Cycles (RED Camera, Post Production, etc) with the even better riding style, cable shoots, increase sense of speed that follow me brought and you'll have the greatest mountain bike film of all time.
A lot of people on here forget how good 'old' films like Cranked 5 were (section in Turkey), or even Tricks & Stunts by the Ashtons.
Earthed series all the way, often copied, never equaled.
What do you know about music?..your from Dunstable downer. Probably drink at the Saracens Head as well..
In essence Anthill is very similar to The Collective, so I expected more when I sat down and watched Follow me.
There wasn't as much narrative to the film, but the shots where good. The film seems to die away a little in the Middle, The Start is great, and the bike park segment it good, the film looses it a bit, and get's better as Stevie Smith come in, with the Section in NZ being the best. The editing seems a little off in the film, I think editing is often looked over, and the structure to the film seems a little strange.. For example in the Bike Park Seg, it goes through the bike parks into some Dirt Jumping, then goes back to a "round up" of all the bike parks, the shots are killer, so why not put them in with there respective sections of that segment. It seems they have stuck the teaser on the end of that Seg for no reason. All in all a good film, and as I sat in the Crystal Lounge watching it over and over, it grew on me more and more.
Follow Me has made for some cool Panasonic TV adds though.
C'mon... everyone has this already or wants it for christmas... we need more site content, not more ads.
And, as a side-note: "vegas induced stoopers" ??? How can you get that wrong?
i have a dvd copy and an itunes copy on my iphone.. i never leave home without it, everything rocks in the video.
Cause this is a Mountainbike Community and no "I`m full of hate and other shit site".