My MTB Life - Video

This is a video I created of two friends, Ryan and Hugo, enjoying life on the trails. It is my entry for the “My MTB Life” video competition presented by Shimano and AMB. This is the story behind the team on screen (Ryan Walsh, Ben Morrison, and Hugo the Viszla) and the challenges faced by myself as the videographer.



Our first day of shooting gave us high hopes for the project with a nice warm June day and not a cloud in the sky. The three friends who are familiar with riding with each other, showed blind trust hitting each section over and over, then laughing and barking when taking each other out.




After reviewing the footage and photos it became apparent that the #lightbro that’s good for photos is not always so easy to work with for filming. One of the biggest challenges we faced after this was teeing up another day when we could get together to get better light. As we were running out of time to hit post production, we set a new date hoping the weather would play the game. Unfortunately, the stars would not align and at the 11th hour the sale of Ben’s bike would count him out for more filming… enter panic mode!!!

With no way of having Ben suddenly leave the video, we decided to sleep on it and hope the sale would fall though. 5:00am rolls around Ben texts to say the sale was still going ahead that day, and he would come out with coffees and muffins to make it up to us. At this point Ryan and I decide to re-film the whole movie, all in one day.

Go time after being woken by Ben’s text, I awaited Ryan and Hugo’s arrival before headed to the site for what was to be an epic day.

5:45am:
Nice and chilly in the Nation's capital and (probably -2 degrees let's say -4). As we headed up the hill with Hugo running around not concerned with the cold in the slightest.


6:10am:
Kicked off the filming with Ryan showing his expertise in the comforts of MTBing, sipping tea to a beautiful sunrise... because there was no coffee or muffins yet.


6:30am-5:30pm:
Working as a team to carry equipment: cameras in bags and then on backs as we moved down the hill, to get each section of the trail… still no coffee and muffins. “Back up again!” would become a refrain that even Hugo would learn throughout the day.

Throughout this experience, it was the bond between Hugo and Ryan that stood out, and I really saw why dogs are called 'man’s best friend', no words just actions and the odd pat on the head was all the communication I saw between the two until we called it a day on the filming.


As we were sitting watching the fire crackle, beer in hand, and recounting the days adventures, Hugo’s ears are still pricked alert for any rustle or movement out in the dark around us. We travelled down the hill, picking up gear we had abandoned on the way, and talked about what we hoped for the footage to look like. For me, all that was left was to fit a day of shooting into 120 seconds of video, exactly.

…Never got the coffee and muffins.



Follow more of our adventures on Instagram at The Roaming (@the.roaming)

And more personal adventures:
Ryan Walsh: @ryan.rides
Ben Morrison: @moshman
Oliver Armstrong: @oliver.armstrong
Hugo Vizsla: @hugo.vizsla