Скачать или смотреть Blackout - Featuring Ross Kew

Armed with a single 200W LED, a generator and 2 Nanlite Pavo Tubes, Ross, his dad Keith, Aaron, Angus and myself descended into the darkness at Giba Gorge to see if we could make a low budget Mountain bike film in the dark.

Being in an environment that you are so familiar with, but so unfamiliar at the same time was special. We’d setup the first shot just before it got dark, while Keith went off to find a Steers for some late night sustenance. The one night we’d just been dropped off and while setting up the first shot a thunder storm hit us with such fury and rage I thought we were all going to die. The lightening we witnessed and the force of the rain which soon turned to hail was like something I’ve never seen before.

Filming at night had a whole set of new challenges, while we needed to get the best possible looking shots, we also needed to light the trail so Ross could see where he was going and have the confidence to do it with speed. We realised the backlight was Ross’s friend and after a few tweaks we started getting into our groove. Aaron and Keith would man the 200w backlight and generator and I’d place the Pavo Tubes and get the camera into position. I decided long before filming that this was going to be a tripod/handheld job only, we just didn’t have the hands or the time to move the camera or get too technical.

Eventually we got bored covering a single berm or a jump and progressed to longer shots with more coverage in the shot. The lighting quota however didn’t change, instead there were now pools of light spaced even further apart. Hearing the shrieks as Ross rode through these shadows made for some good laughs.

In the end we went out there to make something different, we learnt heaps along the way, nearly died a few times but all in all we had such a great time making this film. What more could you ask for? I say it was we succeeded!

Athlete Ross Kew
DOP Dane Maxwell
Catering Keith Kew
Genie Op Aaron Chipeta
Greensman Angus Copeland
Location Giba Gorge