M-SERIES: A MOUNTAIN BIKE FILM

ENVE M-SERIES: A MOUNTAIN BIKE FILM

ENVE M-SERIES is a Mountain Bike Film produced to launch a revolutionary new line of carbon bike

AWARDS:

Banff Mountain Film Festival: World Tour Selection

Telly Awards: Best cinematography

Pinkbike: Best Cinematography of the year

Adventure Outdoor Festival: Direction

ABOUT:

Journey with us into four countries and across three continents as we weave together unimagined riding and world class cinematography. You will find heroic feats of athleticism and then the suffering required to achieve those feats. There comes a defining moment within every athlete (and business) to get up and charge ahead or to lay down and fold. With a motto of 'For Riders, By Riders', ENVE is comprised of like-minded individuals who push their level of dedication, perfection and innovation in manufacturing as much as their athletes. Enjoy the ride!

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SHOT #1 - THE HANDLEBAR DRAG

Early in pre-production I had imagined capturing a handlebar drag as one our 'money' shots. It wasn't until our last trip to Portugal that we found the right location to allow our athlete, Josh Bryceland, to lay his bike insanely close to the ground. Josh nailed all four takes, pinning his bar just centimeters away from the protruding rock. The 240 frames per second capture allowed us to show that level of precision in Josh's riding and keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Here is a REAL-TIME perspective for a sense of the speed carried through this corner

SHOT #2 - THE DROPLETS

It was important to convey not only the experience of the riders ripping through the terrain in heroic fashion, but also the work involved for example, in building a perfect jump line in miserable conditions. During our British Columbia shoot, we experienced some harsh weather on the day this shot was created and we used that to our advantage as a story telling element.

This shot tells a story in just 2 seconds. The axe; the snow and the mud coming off the shoe all help to powerfully introduce and remind the audience of the sweat equity that goes into the fun these riders will have once they pull on their full face helmets. On the technical side, we are using an extremely shallow depth of field at (lens aperture of f/1.2) fixed on the mud droplets combined with a 240 frames per second capture.

SHOT #3 - THE FLYING DIRT

From the red dirt of Moab to the muddy North Shore terrain, each location offered a new space to play in of texture and color palate and helped draw distinction for each wheel; M50, M60, M70, M90. Putting the camera in a position to feel the terrain move toward the lens offered not only a visceral experience, but also a way to match between locations.

A piece of plexi glass was used to protect the lens and camera from flying debris

SHOT #4 - THE HORSE SHOT

While our original script would introduce the name of each wheel and the location we were shooting in, the boy and horse were completely serendipitous to this location.

Our initial script read like this: "We join our first riders on the bus [CHILE]. They’re wearing full gear. Around them, people dressed in clothing of another culture sit quietly. Some children stare at them. One reaches out shyly and touches one of their bikes. The boy puts his finger on the wheel and rubs the small white text, which reads “M60”."

Backstory: On our second to last day of shooting in the Andes mountains, we came upon a boy herding goats up the mountain by horseback. He seemed curious about the what we were doing and as he pulled up and in broken english, asked if he could "try" riding through the corner with the athletes. Thinking he wanted to try the bike like the 'professionals', we said sure. Next thing we knew, he jumped on the horse and with a few spurs had that horse flying through the corner of the trail nearly on two hooves and throwing dirt toward the camera just like the riders. We couldn't believe our eyes. We asked if he could do the same thing, but this time follow the riders and he said, of course. On cue, he jostled that horse right through the turn in perfect unison with the athletes. It was a thing of beauty!

I pulled off my Enve ball cap and crowned his head as the next sponsored Enve athlete. It also seemed that we had little subplot to work with; the young cowboy taking his horse to it's limit and in contrast this sort of futuristic carbon fiber wheel that transports the modern cowboy along his journey.

SHOT #5 - THE URBAN WHEELIE (POV)

We wanted to utilize POV, but to do so sparingly. We set-up a few POV angles for our run through the cobblestone streets of Monchique, Portugal, but after seeing what was coming out of our Canon 5D Mark III as compared to the GoPro we new we had something special from a POV perspective. We used the best tools for the job and in this case our DIY rigged 5D came out on top.

Checking our chest cam POV shot to confirm it's in the bag.

Photograph: Gustavo Figueiredo

SHOT #6 - THE CABLE CAM

This shot serves as a key transitional shot for the story. Our script read like this:

The music is gone. Now we’re left with just the ride, experienced by the audience the way the riders experience it, with all the pain and bumps, all the noise, the sharp turns, the speed, the hard climbs and long drops. The cuts are fast. The audience is never allowed to get comfortable. We’re always just keeping up. The film trades in the documentary feel of the previous section for something more fantastical. We’re no longer watching others ride. We’re on a bicycle amusement park ride, not necessarily or exclusively in a first person view, but we feel as if we’re inhabiting the rider’s bodies. We’re tired and overwhelmed and just trying to keep the bike upright. If we look away for just one moment, we’ll crash.

The cable cam allowed us to shoot roughly 300 meters in one continuous shot. It really heightens the experience of this section as we cut the music just prior and let the audience tune in to just the sounds of the rider and his machine working his way through the natural environment on the brink of calamity.

Photograph: Gustavo Figueiredo

SHOT #7 - THE CRASH

The crashes were not staged, but we also didn't shy away from capturing them. A crisis was paramount to telling the right story; heroes that don't reach the top unscathed. We utlized these moments to help connect the audience in a more tangible and approachable way to the athletes. As we feel their pain, we can then triumph with their victory. This also allowed us to set-up Enve as a company, like it's athletes that goes the the very edge of what is possible in the world of design and manufacturing in the carbon composite space and then to stand victoriously on top in our climax.

SOUND DESIGN

COLOR GRADE
The cinematography was captured across 5 different camera platforms so bringing a uniform look to the color was a chore to say the least. We worked in a log profile to capture as much latitude in dynamic range as possible and then color graded the final edit in Davinci Resolve.

4K RESOLUTION STILLS

Shooting much of the piece in 4k resolution provided flexibility to punch in on shots as well as capture still images for use in web and print collateral for the client.