Big Christmas & New Years Post!

First off I'd like to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
2010 has been a crazy year for me. I've travelled over 8,000 miles, filmed some amazing riders and events, and met some quality people who have really helped me get my name out in this competitive industry.
There's definitely been a few low points, namely, forgetting to turn on my microphone at the first National, but there has been way more high points.
I was thinking back to this time last year where I didn't even have a single edit I was proud to say was mine, and to think how far I feel I've progressed this year is astounding.
As I said, I've got some amazing memories from this year. Llangollen was a great round for me, as was the National Champs at Ae Forest. So I thought it was only fair they got a few more clips in my 2010 Showreel.
For my showreel I wanted to make an edit that summed up my year. Not just my best shots are the quickest riders, but my best memories and the best moments I'd captured on film. I also wanted to put them to a song that I'd continuously played on repeat all year and never got tired of. It may not appeal to everyone in the MTB industry, but the amount of time it spent in the charts it certainly appeals to most people.

So here it is!



Also, another reminder to join me on Facebook to keep up to date with everything!


And now, here's a few videos from the World of Vimeo that everyone should check out. Pure Epicness!

Wideopen Magazine!?

Issue 14 of Wideopen Magazine is out. Wideopen is without a doubt THE best free thing on the web. So check it out.

This is issue 14, so if you've not heard of it before, that means there's 13 great issues for you to catch up on. Result! You can find them all at

Open publication - Free publishing - More 4x

New Logo

So I made a logo today. I was fed up of not having something proper so I knocked this up.

I didn't want anything too distracting and I didn't want anything too much or tacky.

So this is what I made, simple and to the point, also means people can see my website address!

I'd love some feedback, and tell me what you think I should change. Also, if anyone is willing to knock me up something on Photoshop I'll love you forever!

It's been a while!

It's been ages since my last post. I've done a bit since then, but haven't posted anything. Need to work on some content for the off-season.

So,in the last month and a bit I've pretty much: got a new camera, started on a full length (non-biking) movie, done a few assignments at college, got a job, and planned a few more things for 2011 and this winter.

So first off, new camera. It seems everyone is now shooting with a DSLR, I love their image quality and the type of shots they give you. I really think it gives a great feel to a video and I think mixed in with a specific Video Camera they can make a real good image.
So I just bought a 550d. Pretty much Canons consumer HD SLR. I bought it Body Only off eBay as I already had lenses. I then bought a Sigma 24-70 off Keith Valentine (Phunkt.com). What a great lens that is! Really impressed with it.
Anyway, me and a few mates went up onto the Moors a few days after I got it for a quick test shoot. Pleased with how it came out.
I'm also using Vimeo a lot more now, getting into putting videos in groups etc and getting more views on there, so add me as a contact or subscribe to my videos or likes or whatever!

Haytor at Dusk from Southside Productions on Vimeo.

So next up is the full length movie I'm planning with a couple of friends. Can't give away too many details apart from that it'll be a horror movie, runtime of about 1 hour 10, and it'll be screening late July next year. Look out for a Facebook page and Trailer around June 2011 time. Might post a few updates when we have storylines, scripts and other things sorted.

I've done a few assignments at college too. Music video and Corporate video are currently going on at the moment. Should have them online within the New Year but don't expect anything special, Music videos are definitely not my strong point I've now realized!

I'm also now a Sainsburys colleague! Yay. Hopefully will be using the money from that to make my 2011 plans come to fruition.

Finally is my plans for this winter and 2011. I'm going to be releasing a series of "Wintersodes" featuring riders from the South West at riding spots across the South West. Riders featured will include: Olly Hooper, Adam Price, Lee Huskinson, Ben Deakin, Will Soffe, Rich Thomas, Isaac & Joel Anderson, Adam Lock, Jay Williamson and a few more! Gonna film these at various riding spots across the South West, some you will recognise, some you wont. But look out for these dropping on various websites including Dirt.
Plans for 2011 are to get to all the Euro World Cups and World Champs. Should be great fun and me and another videog are possibly planning a cool idea for a good film for next year! Watch this space.

JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK!

I set up a facebook page about 2 months ago now and it's a great way of keeping you guys up to date with what's going on. Currently at 248 fans and rising every day!
Don't forget to help me out and invite all your friends too. The more the merrier.

Also, I've been working on plans for winter projects too. I don't want to hype it up too much but they should be awesome and really give a good idea of the talent from the South West featuring Current World Cup riders an Future ones too!

Instead of doing a full length this winter I've decided to leave that to Milky, and not call mine Locals 2, and in fact make a series of webisodes. I'll be sure to post up here once I'm done shooting.

In the meantime. Take a look at these two awesome videos from Vimeo!

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

Pixel's Revenge timelapse showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Last round of the BDS!

It feels like no time at all I was up in the woods at Rheola in the sun filming my first race and the first National of the year. In reality it was almost 6 months ago. So about 4000 miles, 20 tapes, 6 weekends and a whole lot of good memories later it's the end of the season.
Dave & Si have done a wicked job this year with the Nationals and the National Champs weren't too shabby either. I've met some wicked people and I'd like to think I've established myself better as a videographer and blogger in the UK Downhill Scene.
I've gotta say that out of all the rounds, Llangollen was definitely my favourite. The great weather, the awesome people I went up with, the fun car journey, the great riders, the awesome track, and the chilled out saturday night sat down by the river! Ae forest was a pretty good event too, although the conditions were a little challenging, it made for great footage and I think that was easily my best video of the year so far!
Anyway, this weekend!
I'd never been to Caersws before, and I feel like the only one who hasn't. It's been a race venue for years and holds tonnes of races each year yet I've never been. Anyway, with a race this late in the year I knew it was probably going to be pretty cold. And that it was. We left early on saturday morning and got there for the start of practice. I stupidly decided to walk the course with Dom and Olly Hooper and by the time we got down to the bottom it was almost 11 and sign in was almost closed. I went up the hill and despite some big time hold ups from someone nailing themself on a tree stump, and some weapon knocking himself out and forgetting his name.
Sunday was pretty standard and as usual consisted of lots of waiting around and chilling with the media posse and listening to Mono scream at Milky for selling his bars. (haha)
Anyway, my college timetable is changed now which meant I couldn't edit on the Monday, so Tuesday it was. I had to export it twice (annoyingly) because the first time for some random reason I had no sound. Then I had to upload it twice as out plumber took the plug out of my hard drive mid-upload.

Anyway, it's up now and here it is!


BDS Round 5, Caersws >>



I'm also doing a few more Behind the Lens interviews on Pinkbike to post up soon, and hopefully doing some stuff for Wideopen too which I'm excited about. Anyway, until the next time!

Timelapses

I've gotten really into timelapses recently. I think they can add a lot to a video if you use them in the right place, and use decent ones.
I've been experimenting with a few, but only out of my front window, obviously no-where near as epic as these two I'm about to post. It really does suck living in a small place like Exeter. There's not much interesting stuff to timelapse, and not many big hills to get out onto. Hopefully I'll be able to get some much better ones next year when I'm travelling.

Anyway, I follow John Reynolds 'likes' on Vimeo, and he liked these two stunning Timelapse videos. I find that Vimeo is a great tool not just for uploading videos, but for watching. I 'follow' a lot of great videographers on there so I can see their likes and it enables me to see some awesome videos that otherwise I wouldn't see.

Anyway, first off this one. I'm going to try and film something similar to this at some point, as stars aren't hard to come across, you just need somewhere with hardly any light pollution, and obviously, no clouds. But oviously minus all of the meteors!

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

I'd reccomend following the link and watching it in HD on Vimeo. Also, look out at 31 seconds in the bottom left for a meteor actually burning up and turning into dust.

Second is probably my favourite timelapse video of the year, or in fact, ever. You don't realise what clouds actually do when you look at them from below. The name of "The Unseen Sea" is really appropriate. This is why somewhere like San Francisco is so much better to film than somewhere like Exeter.
Again, follow the link to watch in HD.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

Last of the Summer, and a few experiemental timelapses.

I keep saying to myself that I'm going to update this more, but I never think that I have anything interesting to say. So I'm gonna do some more interesting things with my time!

Anyway, first up I've realized that my National 4X Champs video didn't post. Whoops. So here it is!


Right. A few weeks ago now Adam "Pinner" Price mailed me asking if I wanted to go up to his local out at East Hill and do a little video with him and some mates. So I went out and made one! Wasn't the greatest days filming and didn't get heaps of footage but got a lot of good stuff which made for a pretty cool edit. I'd been wanting to make a chill edit for quite a while now, so that's what I did. A few people have said that the music isn't good. But personally I love it and think it fits cool. Would have liked to have had more shots though, but nevermind!


MPORA Action Sports >>


Now I've recently started using Vimeo a lot more for uploading and watching videos. One popular videographer who's work I've bumped into is Phillip Bloom. Not only does he get some stunning shots but he also does some absolutely amazing timelapses.
Timelapses are a thing I've always liked in videos as they break it up a little, but mine have always been a little bland and not that creative. They've been of the clouds or something. I also used to always shoot them on my video camera. So I set it running, then sped it up in post. But that takes ages, and it takes up tape space. So I wanted to learn how to do it with my photo camera.
The first one I did was at night. I set the camera up just outside my bedroom window on a tripod (I live in a bungalow). I had a stopwatch, and I set it to 2 minutes. Every 2 minutes, I got up from my desk, went to the camera and pressed the shutter. then taking a 30 second exposure. I did this for about an hour thinking that would be enough. I then followed Phillip Blooms instructions on how to make the timelapses, and got them into QT Player 7 and created the timelapses. The first timelapse I did (shown below) was the one I did for an hour. And it's only 3 seconds long.


I wanted to obviously make it longer, but not have to get up all the time. So I went and bought a remote shutter so I could sit at my desk and do it from there.

So I tried one in my front room looking out towards the hills and the sunset. This is the first one I did. It's a little jumpy as I did one every 10 seconds. If I missed that 10 seconds it would appear faster, if I did it too soon it appears slower. It's pretty hard to do. Anyway, here it is.



And now, finally. The one I figured it out. Someone then told me I had an 'intervelometer' on my computer with the software that came with my photo camera. So I loaded it up, and there it was. An Intervelometer is something which tells the camera to shoot a photo every so many seconds. You type in how many photos you want it to take, and how long apart, connect your camera to your laptop, and leave it, and it does the whole process for you. The sunset isn't so great in this one, but at least I know how to do it now and I can go out and get some better ones!



Until next time!

Last month recap!

Wow, I've been really slacking with keeping this up to date. My bad. Anyway, here's a massive post of pretty much everything from the last month, or at least since National Champs.

First off, I'll start with the "Through the Lens" I've been doing for Pinkbike. Jordan from Pinkbike contacted me saying they wanted some interviews done for the main page with some top Photographers and Videographers and I jumped at the chance. First off, Jordan asked me to do one with Steve Lloyd, a photographer from Utah in American who won the Saint Deep Summer contest and won a chance to compete against the top photogs such as Sterling Lorence and Sven Martin at Crankworx.
Steve Lloyd Interview
After that one, I wanted to get one done with a videographer. I've always been a massive fan of the Yeti Podcasts ever since Clay started doing them a few years ago. So who better to contact then the current Yeti videographer, John Reynolds. John was really excited about doing it, but was real busy (understandably) with shooting World Cups, but he managed to fit in a few minutes to answer a few questions so I could get the blog out!
John Reynolds Interview

Now, some local pinners contacted me a while back asking if I wanted to make some promo vids for them for a competition in MBUK to win a place on the Steve Peat Syndicate. So I headed up to Triscombe and made a little video of each of them to send in. I'm fairly pleased with these, but the boys seem happy with them, so here they are!

Jay Williamson

Adam Lock

Tom Coles


Next up was the National at Moelfre in Wales. We headed up on the Friday night but a little later than we did for Llangollen as Dom had to finish work. It was Dom, Milky, my Dad and I in the car on the way up which obviously meant a few arguments, but we got there at around 10.30 and pitched up our tent in the main driveway between the pits. We were woken up on the Saturday from people asking us to move our tent so that we did.
Dom got out on the hill and so did Milky. I didn't want to go right up to the top straight away and I didn't really see much point in going out at all until a little later as no-one really gets up to speed straight away. I headed up at about 10am to the 4X jumps at the bottom. After about 10 minutes of being there the rain came, and it lashed down. The track turned into a river and I was soaked. Having looked at the weather beforehand I knew it was going to be cloudy but it didn't forecast any rain, so I didn't bother with any wet weather gear for either myself or my camera. Big mistake.
The rain continued until about 1, then eased off. I was getting a little worried now about the amount of shots I had. I headed up to the top, but with most people not bothering with many more runs as their clothes and bikes were caked in mud good shots and elite riders were very few and far between. I did get a few good shots as it became sunny later in the day, but I didn't worry too much as usually you're guaranteed at least 3 shots on the Sunday, from Elite practice, Seeding, and race runs.
Saturday night it kicked off with a high jump contest, big whip contest, and this weird gladiator setup! I took and early night wanted to get up early in the morning to get some shots.
In the morning I got up and went up the hill but not many riders were going up for runs. I wanted to do a stationary shot of the bottom berm through most of practice, but didn't get any good stuff, so I waited for Elite practice.
Unfortunately, some kid nailed himself up top, and a tractor turned over. Resulting in an air ambulance, and a course closure. This meant that all the Elite riders came down at once, meaning I could only get about half of them. Not to worry, still seeding and race runs.
I headed up to the bottom 4X jumps again ready to get some Elite seeding shots. I waited there for about 2 hours, only to find out that another kid nailed himself up top and had to be airlifted away. Thanks to the massive delay they had to cancel all seeing after Juniors. So no seeding shots of the Elites. Now I was getting real worried as I only had a couple shots max of the Elite riders and a few other good shots. Definitely not enough for a good 6 minute edit.
Finals came around and I positioned myself where I could get the longest shot possible. I managed to get the top guys, then I got some interview with Beaumont, Bryceland, and Peaty after their podiums.
We headed off and were home by 10 so the editing commenced. I was pretty annoyed with myself as I had been lazy all weekend, and didn't get as much good stuff as I wanted. I know now for the next race to be prepared, with wet gear even if they predict sun. I also know to get as many shots as you can and don't use the mindset of "that'll do" as it always results in a poor video in the end.
My video turned out pretty poor and I'm really not that happy with it. It didn't get run on Dirt and it's only had a handful of views in comparison to my Nat champs vid which has had over 20k now.

MPORA Action Sports >>

Now another cool bit of news is that Transition and UK imported Surf Sales have agreed to put their logo on my videos. It won't be long until the 5 second logo is replaced with a proper ad of a TR450. But it'll do for now.

Also, I saw that Pinkbike were doing a competition for a new film out called 'Life Cycles'. It's a recut competition where you download the raw footage, shot by the guys at Life Cycles, and edit it into your own form. I don't really need to talk much about this other than to say here's my entry!


Last weekend I went up to South West Extreme in Bideford in North Devon for the UK National 4X Champs. I'd never shot 4X before and it was really weird but nice, to be at an event where you didn't know anyone. It was hard to know who to shoot, but I figured it out through the day. I've now figured out some good settings for my camera to get good slow-mo and film qualities, thanks to Sean Anderson who brought out a sick trailer recently for a film called Sync. I've also figured out some really good exporting figures now so I can get good quality videos with a small file size!
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with this video considering it's my first time shooting 4X!


I've also got a Facebook group on the go now for people to join. So go to:
http://www.facebook.com/southsideproductions

National Champs. AE!

So it came to that time in the year again where everyone flocks to (usually Scotland) for the National Champs. This year it was at Ae Forest in Scotland. Not so bad, only 6 or so hours from me, at least it's not Fort William.
I took up Milky and Dom again, so we left at 11 on Friday, and obviously got stuck in endless traffic jams along the M6 for about 3 hours. Anyway, got to Ae at about 7.30 and walked the track. It looked pretty simple, it was a hardpack top section, hardpack middle section, a little bit of a new bottom section and hardpack bottom bottom section.
We then pitched up the tent and ventured into Dumfries for food, got to KFC and it was closed, then some drunk Scottish guy (what a lad) told us to go to "Jumping Jacks", when we asked him how to get to Burger King. Jumping Jacks turned out to be Dumfreis' biggest night club. So we drove around for another 20 minutes then eventually found a Dominos Pizza.
Got back to Ae at about 11 and pretty much went straight to sleep.
Woke up Saturday morning to pissing rain and no-one felt very pumped to get up the Hill. We waited for a while and it stopped, so me and Milky headed up on the third coach with Rich Thomas, Danny Hart and Scotty Mears.
Got to the top and ran down the hill to get them coming down.
The top section was pretty cool, open and through the heather so some slow-mo "Clay Porter-esque" shots were in order. I met Sam Oakes up there who has walked up (what a weapon!) and we made out way down. I wanted to get most of my shots done on Saturday as I knew that the rain was supposed to come in heavy on Sunday. The weather was alright on Saturday, some heavy rain showers in the morning (which made for some of the raddest shots I've taken!) resulted in out ghetto waterproofing coming out. I went for the plastic bag approach, where Sam went for a plastic shed type idea. Both did the job, not well though.
Saturday night was a ball of laughs. Went up to the freeride section and some of the lad did some big whips and hucks, Joel Anderson was killing it with bigger whips than anyone else. Then we came back and watched a few DVD's in the tent while Jamie from Wideopen got drunk and tripped over his laptop.
We stood around the Andersons 'pits' for a good hour or so and chatted and watched Chaz from Juice Lubes demonstrate how good Brake Juice is at aiding a fire (don't try this at home).
Woke up sunday morning to more pissing rain, and this time it didn't stop. Me and Dom both managed to miss all of the Sunday practice, which meant his first practice run on Sunday was his seeding, and the only shots I got on sunday was seeding and finals. Peaty managed to crash just up from me, meaning he went past me real slow, great, one less shot of the winner. Al Bond stopped in front of me after crashing at the rock garden then getting red flagged when Brayton binned it.
Went up to a similar place for finals as I was for seeding, and again, some spectators thought it'd be a good idea to stand right in front of me, great, another shot ruined of eventually the winner. Current shots of Peaty: 3. The crowd were going mental though, loads of crashes and they were loving it.
Gee went down and everyone had forgotten about Peaty as he qualified pretty much last. We then heard through the radio that Peaty had won by 3 seconds. 3 seconds on a 2.15 is a lot of time to pull out of the ex-World Champion. Needless to say Gee was upset, but Peaty was over the moon. Stoked he put it together in the end, and great to see him on form.
Champery is this weekend and it's going to be absolutely mental.
I'm up at Triscombe shooting with Jay Williamson, Tom Coles and Adam Lock this weekend so look out for a video for that next week!

Oh, and here's the video!

More Mountain Biking Videos >>

Llangollen BDS!

Well, last weekend was round 3 of the Halo BDS in Llangollen, in Wales. The weekend started off at around 4 on Friday, when I picked up Chaz (from Juice Lubes, check out their site at www.juicelubes.co.uk) and Jacob Gibbins (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk). It was awesome weather, and we packed up the car and headed over to pick up Dom. Thinking we'd have plenty of room in the boot for everything, it ended up spilling out into the back seats. No biggie, just a little bottom out of the rear suspension over every bump.

The journey up was awesome. Plenty of banter and some interesting (or boring, depending on how interested you are in every single detail about the wheel) stories, and some funny jokes about an Indian Restaurant that was coming soon (does that mean they're on their way over from India?). We got to the track at about 7.30 ish, and because I thought we were special enough (well, we did have a Team manager, World Cup photographer, a sponsored rider and err... me) we parked up in the pit field, under a nice big tree. Awesome, lots of shade in the day so I thought! We pitched up the tent, and headed out on a track walk. The first part of the awesome weekend! That track was nuts even before it started getting mashed out!
Headed back down and met Adam Price and his mate Joe Taylor. Sat down and watched Follow me, where Adam and Joe consistently went on about how 'they'd been there' every time some North American bike park came on ;)
Then, the decision of pitching up under a tree came back and bit me when we realized that the bumpy ground with all the tree roots wasn't especially comfy to sleep on.
Saturday morning rolls around and I was up early to get on an uplift and head up to the top. The uplift was the right idea. Just a bit poorly executed on the saturday. It was awesome weather all day, and I got some pretty cool shots. Seeing Brendan and Gee and the top dogs on that sort of track really blows you away.
Saturday evening me and Dom headed in to Llangollen and got some food, then went down to the river for a little wash. Really nice place when you're in the town center! Got back and watched some Travis Pastrana DVD's, and went to bed about 11.30 ready for racing the next day.
Sunday I headed up on the hill as early as possible to try and get the pro's on the spot I hadn't shot all weekend and got an awesome shot of Brendan that I was stoked on!
Then back down to the Juice Lubes tent for the start of qualifying, then up to the last few corners for the Senior/Expert/Elite qualifying.
Back down to the Juice Lubes for a massive media quids and riders chillout. That place was where all the action was going down with Rich Thomas coming over for a long chat along with a load of other guys. A bad crash on the last step down meant everything was delayed for an hour so we just chilled in the sun!
Up to the final step-downs for race runs, and Brendan took the win by a second after being 4 seconds down in quali. Results of the weekend go to Al Bond in 5th and Rich Thomas in 6th. Wicked rides from both of them! Also massive props to Brayton coming into 8th after smashing up two fingers in half on the saturday and riding Michael Jackson style on the Sunday!
Best weekend of the year so far, and another funny drive home hearing all Chaz's funny stories from the Royal Mail.
Anyway, here's the vidder!

Halo BDS Rd 3 - Llangollen >>

Lots of new happenings.

It's been a while since I posted on here, which is pretty bad (or is it? Not sure if anyone even reads this!) but I've been doing loads of cool stuff recently.

The most significant of which was a shoot with Will Soffe and Greg Hampton for a piece of college work for which I had to produce a short documentary. Obviously I chose downhill, as I've got pretty easy access to some really quick guys, so I thought I'd really be able to show what it's all about to some people who don't know really know what downhill is. The plan was (or so I thought) to shoot Will, and Ash Mullane (who is now back on a bike! Great news for the south west.) at Tavi woodlands. But after a little misunderstanding, I ended up going to Swansea to shoot just Will and his friend Greg instead.
The forecast wasn't looking great at all with torrential rain forecast all day. Anyway, got there at about 10 in the morning, met Will and Greg and headed up to Kilvey. Then, after about an hour, the sun came out and we had an awesome day of weather and shooting.
In my opinion this is easily my best video to date, and I'm super happy with it.
(Photo's courtesy of Sam Davies)

And then of course, here's the video!

Will Soffe Bio - Kilvey >>


Also, the weekend before this, was the Southern champs. I haven't ridden for ages, and I haven't raced for even longer so it was really cool to see everyone again and just have a nice day out. Track was awesome and I had two shocking runs and smashed up my shifter leaving a lovely single-speed race runs. Anyway, Will Soffe won, over World Cup racer Harry Molloy making him Southern Champion!

Llangollen is next weekend and I'm so excited to see that place, and see the World Champion and a load of other top guys kill it on it.

I've also had a look at next years WC schedule and decided I'm gonna try and get out to all the Euro rounds including the World Champs!

Next update will include the video from Llangollen to keep posted for that!

Summer's here?

So first off, I'd like to say thanks to the people that gave me their thoughts on the Fort William video, I'm really happy with the amount of views it's had and I'm starting to feel like my work is getting out there a bit more. I'm really looking forward to the next round of the BDS at Llangollen.

Right, so last weekend I headed down to Gawton in Devon with my mate Dom (who rides for www.bikeactive.com) for a day of filming. It was hot (really hot) and really dry. We got down there and found Jacob Gibbins shooting a piece for Dirt on the new 1.04 which should be in the shops pretty soon but no doubt he'll put a bit up on his site (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk) when it's on sale. He was there with all the really quick locals including Ash Mullane who's now back on the bike after a long time off through knee injuries and he's looking real quick, so look out for him at races soon.
Me and Dom were making our way down the hill when Aaron Bartlett made a rare appearance on his bike, cool to see some more locals back riding again!
I'm not that happy with this edit really. The colours are pretty poor after trying to lighten/darken them in post production as the light was really hard to deal with in the dark woods with the light seeping through. I was being really lazy all day wasn't too happy with the sort of shots I got, but hey ho.
No doubt we'll do another shoot down there soon so keep looking back for that.


MPORA Action Sports >>


Next filming stop is Llangollen BDS, unless I decide to head up to Fort William again for the World Cup next week (which is looking unlikely) so if you're around, say Hi!

It's the Southern Champs this weekend and I'm going up on Saturday night for the 'Unofficial Southern Pumptrack Champs' at Torico which Ben is holding as a sendoff Party for some friends who are off on their travels so I might end up making an edit from that which will be funny! Hopefully the weather stays dry for racing on Sunday and Adam Price and Will Soffe are both back on the bike and looking for that Southern Champs title!

FORT WILLIAM!!!

Another national over and finished with. What a cracker it was. Someone told me that Fort William is the wettest place in the UK. Hah! It was probably the only place that saw some sun over the last weekend.

We (Me, my dad and Dom) set off at around 6 on Friday, aiming to be at Glasgow by about 11.
11 arrives and we're about an hour off, not too bad, apart from getting lost in the center of Glasgow and having a sight-seeing trip for an hour. We ended up sleeping in a lay-by next to Loch Lomond for a few hours at 2.30.
We woke up and drove (through the AWESOME) scenery at about 6 and got to the Fort just before 8. Built the bike up and got signed on and headed up for a track walk just after 9. Dom cracked on down and I started filming in the lovely sunny weather.
Day one was sick. Plenty of pro's pinning it everywhere, and the weather was mint.
Went back to the B&B for the night and had a sweet pizza!
Day two we woke up just after 8 and headed over to the track. Got on the gondola nice and early and got up top for some sick shots.
Elite only practice is wicked for people like me, and to have so many Elites coming down in quick succession means you don't have to wait around in a certain area for ages just for two pro's to come through. So after Elite practice I waited around at the new section at the top for the Elites and Experts to come through on their seeding runs. Gee and the top guys absolutely killed it through there and it was set to be an awesome race.
I walked on down to the bottom of the track where the atmosphere was wild! Dave had sorted out a load of horns and Toby was topping everything off with some wicked commentating.
I headed up to the Tissot jump for the end of seniors but it seemed everywhere I stood I was either in someone's way (Sorry Paul Roberts!) or there were spectators standing in my way. Eventually for the top Elites I got a good place and Dan Atherton came down and did the biggest huck I've ever seen off the compression. Some awesome whips were being thrown over the Tissot and eventually Chris Kovarik came down and took the win by a few seconds.

All in all an awesome race despite spending almost 24 hours driving.


Halo British Downhill Series Round 2 - Fort William >>


Next up is the BDS at Llangollen. But I should have a few video's up before them.

Best wishes to Olly Hooper, Will Soffe, Adam Price from the SW Massive who are all out injured at the moment.

Also, Massive props to Luke Ball scoring 3rd in Senior and throwing a massive whip over the Tissot in front of my lens!

Rheola!

The past weekend saw the first round of the newly formed Halo British Downhill Series at Rheola. I woke up at 5, and went to pick up my mates. Drove up to Swansea and got to Rheola at about 7.30 to find it packed with cars and vans already.
We walked up to the pits area to find it packed with pro teams, the biggest and most extravagant being the Atherton racing pits, with their massive Lorry and tent.
Sign on was quick, and I went and picked up my media pass etc, and I was surprised to walk in and see Sam Dale bashing out a bit of xbox in the sign in area before he headed up for practice! How cool is that! An xbox to play on before you ride.

Anyway, cracked on up the course and about 20 minutes in I heard through the marshals radio that someone had crashed on the bottom section with suspected spinal injuries. The air ambulance was called and (so I heard) a stubborn farmer wouldn't let it land in his field. It turns out the dude broke his neck. So I wish him a speedy recovery and hope he's back on the bike soon.

Practice day was rad. The weather was awesome and the track was wicked. The pro's were bashing out a good few runs and I got some cool footage.

Sunday morning, practice started at 8.30, so I got some shots on the bottom section and witnessed a few riders taking a mega crazy line and Dan Atherton absoloutely killing his rim on a stump. Then for quali I headed up to the notorious Rheola 'star wars'. Some good action was had there through qualifying with a few riders killing it, but Gee without a doubt was the quickest.

Along with all the other photogs and videogs I filmed the triples at the bottom for race runs and it was going off down there! Loads of people on the sides of the track going mental and some crazy hucks over the river.

Great weekend Dave and Si. Props for pulling it off so smooth for your first event. Can't wait for Fort William now.

For people who don't already know the results they read like this.

Elite mens:
1. Gee Atherton
2. Dan Atherton
3. Matt Simmonds
4. Joe Smith
5. Marc Beaumont

Elite Womens:
1. Rachel Atherton
2. Aimee Dix
3. Manon Carpenter

Fort William see's team CRC/Intense in action as preparation for the World Cup, along with the usual British boys and The Atherton family once again.

Sorry for the lack of interviews. I had one with Gee, but I had a slight problem with forgetting to move the power switch to on on my microphone. Oops! Live and Learn I guess.

If you're after photos of the weekend, head over to www.JacobGibbins.co.uk

Anyway, here's my first BDS video of 2010! Enjoy.

Wasson guys!

Went up to Moelfre on the weekend for the Descent-Gear clipped in race. The field was completely bogged out, so when we got there we had to just park wherever our car slid too in the field. Track was fun as ever, nothing changed, but was still fast and mint.

Anyway, loads of people were eating shit so bad on the bottom compression, so I decided to sack off my second race run (I already did as good as I could first run) and make a video of the compression.

So here it is!

For some reason it uploaded in the wrong size. It is exported in 16:9 and is on my pc on 16:9. Not going to bother uploading again as it's not that important...



Rheola is next weekend and I cannot wait!

Laters!

Things are gooood!

It's been a while since I posted, but I've had stuff on, and very little to post as my camera has been away at Sony.

Anyway, last few weeks have been pretty sick. My birthday was literally, sick, and I had a great time with my mates and stuff! Got a bit of money which will go a long way to paying for this year and some more equipment and hopefully will go towards my plans for 2011.
The weekend before last(13th and 14th) was rad. Me and dad headed up to Taff Buggy for the first of the summer series. I was supposed to be taking my mate Dom, but he stupidly (haha) forgot he had to go to a wedding, so I swapped his entry with my friend George Croton and we headed up. It was awesome weather. The first real dry ride of 2010. The track was amazingly fast and dusty and I had a ball all through practice. There was a great turnout, with Brendan Fairclough and Rich Thomas turning up for the practice day and Josh Bryceland riding all weekend. I strapped my Go-Pro (for which I bodged a chest mount up for a fiver) to Expert Will Soffe and had him do a run with it. The first time I tried the chest mount it came out really bad, looking pretty much at the top tube, but with a few adjustments I had the angle perfect. Anyway, here's the end product of Will Soffe bashing out a run of Taff Buggy...

I had a real bad race run and I got really tired like 5 corners in then blew my feet off in the rock garden and did a 2.18. Bryceland won the Elites and got Fastest Time of the Day with a 1.48 or something quick. Highlight of the weekend has to be Seb Frost embarrassing himself in front of some kids mum! Here's a pic I took after racing of Miami Bryce railing it round the top turns.


Anyway, my camera also came back that weekend, while I was away. Sony have completey replace the lens and the focus and zoom rings, whilst also giving me a new warranty. So pretty happy with that.

I also ordered some stuff to pretty much complete my kit for 2010. I neeeded a bag for all my stuff and everything I could find was pretty small, or there was other stuff wrong with it. Anyway, I eventually found the Ogio TY 2. It's made for 2 prosumer video cameras but you can also use it like I do with the one video camera and a photo camera with lenses. It's pretty expensive with an RRP of £139.99 but I found it on CRC at £109. So I ordered that and it came on Monday. First impressions were that is was absoloutely massive. Big enough to fit a small child in. It's pretty heavy and with everything inside it weighs a bloody tonne.

I also ordered myself some triggers for my flash. I've wanted a remote flash setup since I started shooting but never got round to finding one that might actually work. I haven't shot out in the woods properly with it yet, just fired off a few shots in the kitchen and it works, so that's all good!
I also ordered myself a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime from Amazon. It came on Tuesday, the day I left to come over to Tenerife, so I've only been able to take tourist-y shots with it so far, but it's rad from what I can see!
So here's my kit (without the 50mm)


So I'm over in Tenerife at the moment sat on the balcony, bored shitless. Going home next thursday and can't wait! Going to go out and shoot a bit of video and take some pics over the Easter holidays. Maybe do a bit of film with a few quick riders.
Oh, I'm also riding at Moelfre for the Clipped-In race when I get back so if you're there say Hi. (thats if anyone actually reads this?)

Website!

I just bought a Domain name!

www.southside-productions.co.uk will soon be it's own webpage, but while I work out how to make myself a website it's going to re-direct you straight to here.

Hopefully my camera will be back from repair soon, but it's my birthday on the weekend so I'm looking forward to having a great weekend! I might buy myself a few new bits for my photo camera so that I can take that along to the shoots I do and get some cool shots!

Anyway, the site should be up in about a Month or so, but in the mean time keep checking back here :)
laters!

British MX Champs Round 1. Taking photos!?

My mate rang me bright and early this morning to tell me that the first round of the British Motocross Champs was at a track really local to me (3 miles away) so he came down to mine and we headed out to watch.

Expecting it to be really muddy I parked a fair walk away, luckily I parked on a road and didn't have to get pushed out like the majority of non-4WD cars did. The rain that we'd been forecast also didn't arrive so got some nice pics with some wicked natural light.

I'm really quite pleased with some of the pics I took. It was annoying though not being able to take pics that I wanted because I didn't have a media pass so had to stay behind the barriers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timlakephotography/sets/72157623527555226/

Broken Camera :(

I haven't updated for a while and there's a very annoying reason why!

Weekend before last I was down at Tavistock Woodlands shooting the Woodland Riders race when my focus motor jammed and stopped working. Basically my camera now is jammed on a set focus and makes a horrible noise. It's going to cost me £520 to get it fixed so while I'm getting the money for that there won't be any video's! I'm gutted but these things happen and I'm glad it wasn't at a National.

anyway, Kustom Bikes race at Combe Sydenham this weekend which should be great fun!

Joe Reed at Haldon.

Yesterday I went up to Haldon with Joe Reed for a quick little shoot on one of the DH tracks up there. Turned out to be a pretty good day, wasn't too cold, was dry and got some okay shots. Still got a lot to learn, at least I've got the exporting sorted now!

Anyway, here it is.

Joe Reed at Haldon from Southside Productions on Vimeo.

I suggest you click on the 'HD' button in the corner if you want to see if in a bigger size and in full quality. this will take you to the Vimeo website to watch it where the quality is better.

I'm off to Tavistock today to film the first Woodland Riders race of the Winter Series so that should be up by tomorrow.

Cheers!

So I went up to Dorchester on Saturday to pick up my camera from Mono. He was nice enough to give me a free copy of FOFO2 as well, wicked film. I suggest you all go out and buy it!

Anyway, Sunday I headed up to East Hill in Ottery St Mary to have a little practice shoot with Dom McCrae, Derek Pinkett and George Croton. After filming up there for about an hour, Adam Price came up for a play so that was sick to get a real fast rider to film too. Then Ryan Bruton from bikenutz came up for a session too.

Good day out and got some okay footage. Nothing is brilliant at the moment as I really am not used to the camera. Using the Ring Zoom it taking a while to get used to as it using all of the W/B etc.

Then got home and on Monday, ordered a firewire cable, Tripod, and Final Cut Express off Amazon. Amazed to find it came yesterday morning, which considering I didn't pay for the fast delivery was pretty rad.

Edited it yesterday in College and then spent all night trying to find out how to export it into a high quality, small size file. Export quality still isn't great but I have an idea of how to do it next time now.

Should be off to Tavi Woodlands on Sunday to shoot the Woodland Riders race down there.

Anyway, I uploaded it to Mpora, Vimeo and Pinkbike and I think that Vimeo wins the quality war.

Enjoy!

Bike Active!

So as a few of you may know, a good friend of mine recently picked up a sponsorship with Bikeactive. They're a great shop from up near London. They stock pretty much everything! They have the new Mondraker stuff, Commencal Bikes, Orange, Morewood, Evil and a heap more. they're great guys too.
So pretty much, go to www.bikeactive.com and spend some money.
Also, watch out for Dom McCrae and Rich Simpson throughout the year on the bikeactive team!

What's appnin!

So, again, I haven't had much to post for a while. Heck, I don't even know if anyone reads this! I am guessing no-one does. Why would they? So now I feel like an idiot talking to myself.
So I am getting my camera from Aaron Bartlett next week. So expect some footage and some short videos after then.
Just want to say a massive thanks to TF Tuned. I sent away my shock on monday for a Custom Valve service & tune. When it got there they said the main body was cracked, and it would take at least a week to get the part and fix it. So I wasn't expecting to be riding this weekend. I got a text from my Dad today to say my shock had arrived back! So stoked. Bolted it up and it feels rad. So, off to Gawton tomorrow for a session with the boys. If anyone reads this, and you're there. Say Hi!
Oh, also, my road bike is up on eBay. If anyone wants it just search "Lemond Alpe D'Huez" and it'll come up.
Some bad news in the shape that the Kustom Bikes race at Bratton has been cancelled this weekend. I wasn't going to be racing but it always sucks when a race has to be cancelled due to low numbers. Maybe everyone was scared of pedalling again! (I know I was) But Don just put up the next race which should be a corker at Combe Sydenham. I had great fun last year so hopefully this year will be the same.
That's all until I have some more random crap to post.
Laters!

A couple of edits

Sorry this blog is a little thin on content at the moment, not much is going on and I'm waiting to buy my camera soon, but in the meantime I just edited a few things in iMovie to see what the most basic Apple programme is capable of, I'm pretty impressed if I'm honest. I found out after editing the first piece it had a 'reverse' feature which inspired me to make a little video of stuff that would look cool in reverse. So anyway, here's what I made.

The first piece is just a few clips of stuff I had on my camera from 2009, I filmed two parts (the last clip and clip of the guy in the gold suit crashing) and my dad filmed the rest.

Then this was something I made on Thursday night after two days of being bored off college.

R-R-Reverse from Southside Productions on Vimeo.

So, the first post.

Well, if you're reading this, you're probably wondering what Southside Productions is, so I'll explain!

My name is Tim Lake, and around 4 years ago, I bought my first MBUK (that's pretty much the way we all got interested in mountain bikes!). Ever since, I've been hooked on the most expensive hobby in the world, or so it seems. In the past year or two I've been really interested in the photo and video side of the sport, I watch hundreds of video's all across the web and look at thousands of photos. So I decided to get involved myself. About 4 years ago my dad bought my a camcorder so I could video my mates and I going off 1 foot drops we found in the industrial estate near my house, and since then I've been taking photos and filming various trips and rides.

About 4 months ago I started a new course at Exeter College doing a BTEC in Media, which got me wondering how I could mix the two together. I've always been inspired by the top guys such as Clay Porter, Sven Martin, The Parkin's, Alex Rankin, and more recently, Mono, and Jacob Gibbins. Those final two inspired me more than any of the others because just like me they live in the West Country. After I saw Foot Out Flat Out I really wanted to try and do the same thing myself. So I set about planning a full length film, documenting a season of Downhill in Britain, following the riders that live around me, from the West Country. Now you might think, "well what pro's have the West Country produced?" The answer is.. not many. Alex Evans is a well known name in the South West and he's probably our biggest claim to fame, racing a few world cups over the years. I hear you ask "So if there isn't many pro's then why bother following the riders?". The South West has some of the best Young riders in the country, we've got Adam Price who, after a summer in Whistler won the Canadian Open and finished 3rd in the Garbanzo, then there's Olly Hooper, who finished 3rd in Senior last year in the NPS, then, there's Derek Pinkett, who needs really no introduction. We've got all the lads from Tavi, Jay Williamson and his crew from East Devon, Don and the gang from Kustom Bikes in Somerset, then a few other big names dotted around.

So, this year, I'm going to produce a web video, free to watch, following these guys around their season. In the mean time, keep an eye on this blog for loads of other ramblings I'll be getting up to during the year.

Tim.