Ships and giggles!

Have you ever been to the Isle of Arran?

It's quite an extraordinary place and once described to me in my youth as "Scotland in miniature" It's not a bad metaphor actually as with it's highlands in the north, lowlands in the south and it's thriving central belt it does feel instantly familiar if you've done your locational research beforehand.

This is probably why the mountain bike component company Gamut USA wanted it's UK distributor to make a short edit of a point-to-point ride featuring their products as ridden by Andy Dodds one of their training guys. As i have just made some investment in getting back into making some AV content I offered my services as an "elbow in the water" and a low stake equipment test.

In my experience it's a bit of a truism that most americans have a view of Scotland that suggests wilderness, remoteness and a general "roughness" that simply has to be experienced if you want to have stories to tell. As a young Munro bagger, the "Yanks" we used to meet had mostly one phrase they used to roll out. It came in many forms but the basic gist was "It's SO GREEN up here"

Yeah, it's green because it rains...a LOT! The day we chose to get the ferry to Arran was no exception. 7mm of rain forecast with 50-70mph gusts on the hills, and yes it was very accurate on this occasion. We got it all.

Troopers both. Andy and Chris endured some serious weather to earn these smiles.

That in mind, here was the remit: A short 2-3 minute movie featuring a local rider that would be proven to be "Scottish island enough" through the following visuals.

A ferry ride.
A mountain.
A bothy.
A cup of tea AT a Bothy.
A hike-a-bike section.
A view of the sea.
Shit weather.

Truth is that we did catch all of these at some point in the day, but there was a problem. The final edit was almost 5 minutes long. The problem was we only had 5 hours to film due to the ferry times and the irony is that the more footage you get, the shorter you can make the video, but also, telling a "there and back again" story is difficult to do in such a short space of time. (it took Tolkien three books!)

So yeah, it's a bit over-cooked and I didn't really want shorten it as I didn't really know how to tell the story in a shorter fashion. They did ask me, but I made the case for something different from the 2 minute "style-up" movies that have preceded their "at home" series of rider made movies. They took it on board and ran with it, so as my first attempt in years with software that I learned enough to use in a day I think I'm OK with it.

"Icebike" is one of the cycle trade's biggest shows of the year. the company that hosts the event (Madison) is also the UK distributor for Gamut USA and the guys were over from the US to promote their equipment at the event and also rolling the film in the background for the trade to see. I'm unsure what the reaction was in the sterile trade only environment, but I've not heard any negative feedback yet so I'll take it that it was at least a neutral response, which is fine by me for a short, barely prepared foray back into film.

Anyway, i hope you enjoy the video of Andy "At home" let me know what you think in the comments or back on facebook if you came from there?

Cheers.