Behind the Scenes | Filming an E-Bike Video
When Heybike reached out about a video for their new e-bike with front and rear suspension, knobby off-road tires, and a speed of 30mph, we of course had to say yes! They shipped us the bikes and let us handle all of the creative and the video above gives you a look at how it all went down. Hopefully through all of the humor and shenanigans, you can learn a thing or two and below I’ll go into a detailed breakdown of several key components that make a run-and-gun shoot like this successful.
The Prep
It all begins with rock solid preparation. This means thinking through every scene down to the second, how you’ll compose each shot, frame rates, lenses, camera movements, gimbal vs. handheld, etc. As the director, you need to be able to visualize the entire video in your head before you ever pick up the camera. It also helps to choose your music track in advance and listen to it dozens of times to better understand the cadence of the video.
After that comes location scouting. For this project we broke it down into 5 scenes that all needed to be scouted in advance to help dial in the shot list and understand our lighting situations throughout different parts of the day. The five scenes were as follows: City, Neighborhood, Mountain Bike Trail, Fly Fishing, Camping. I spent an entire day driving around Colorado to potential locations crossing many off the list and locking in our best choices. After confirming each spot with the client, we were able to finalize locations and build out the production schedule around that.
Now is when we’d usually bring in a producer for bigger budget projects to help with scheduling, models, travel logistics, etc. But since we didn’t have the bandwidth for all of that on this project, I chose to produce, direct, and shoot this one myself. That’s usually a recipe for stress, but I hadn’t shot a bike video in a long time and wanted to be behind the camera for this.
Finally with talent booked and our schedule locked in, the final stage of prep comes down to your equipment. The day before, I rigged up the cameras, charged all my batteries, and triple checked my list of necessary camera gear and props to carry out the shoot.
The Team
If there’s one piece of business advice I picked up from my dad over the years, it’s that “people like working with people they like.” Having lived and worked in the same area for the past 5 years, I have been fortunate to build up a strong network of talented creatives in the industry, but even more important than their talent is their personality. I always try to select individuals that I have worked with, met with, or at least communicated with previously and can guarantee that they will bring a positive attitude to set on production day.
A Good Attitude
The single thing that can bring an entire production crashing down is negativity. We already know it’s going to be a long day. For this project specifically, we shot sunrise to sunset and with travel and breaks it was around an 18 hour day. We’re also shooting outside all day so there are the elements to deal with; hot sun, bugs, scattered rain storms, plenty of things to kill the vibe. So on days like this, it’s more important than ever to work with a crew that you know will be in good spirits, no matter what gets thrown our way.
I have to give huge props to our team on this project for absolutely crushing this aspect. This was the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time!
Time Management & Flexibility
So you have your shot list and your detailed production schedule for the day, but what happens when 3 separate rain fronts move through putting the shoot on hold? Hopefully you’ve built in plenty of buffer on either end of each scene to allow for changes and delays so when shit inevitably hits the fan, you can just put your head down and power through.
I would always recommend hiring a skilled producer when the budget allows. The role of a producer is invaluable! They are frequently keeping track of the shot list and letting you know how much time we have left to get the shot before we absolutely need to move on to the next scene. They are pros at time management!
We certainly rolled with the punches on this project. The river was running incredibly high with the spring run-off so we spent a lot of extra time trying to get a fish on with no luck. Then at the trail location we had to pack everything into the cars several times as rain moved through. All of these minor delays meant that our final scene around the campfire got seriously rushed since we had to move quickly before it was too dark to shoot. That being said, everyone on set continued working efficiently with a smile on their face until the sun was down for good.
In summary, I believe any project can be achieved in this industry with a good team and a positive attitude. Huge thanks to our client Heybike for trusting us to carry out this video concept and another thank you to our crew and talent on this one, you all killed it!
We’d love some feedback on the Behind The Scenes video if you have a few minutes! Should we do this again in the future? Did you learn anything? Is there anything you wanted to see that we didn’t cover?
BTS Video: Jill Coats, One Forty Films
Still Photography: Ian Glass Media
