NKTLDK/FILM ENTRY #1 PT.2
In the previous entry I talked a lot about using color correction to save the final work. It’s actually a technique I used before and that’s on a BMX edit. It was Russell Blake edit I filmed when I was living in LA.
To give context to this few year old now edit, I was living in LA cause I wanted to. The idea of pursuing narrative film wasn’t in my head so it wasn’t a trying to get closer to Hollywood, nor what is a get closer to the heart of the BMX industry either, some people seem to think that. Which isn’t to say BMX wasn’t a thought, it was definitely a major factor but my primary focus was escaping small town living. I like the idea of being left alone in a big city where everything is an option and LA is certainly one of those places.
One day I’ll write about my experiences in LA and they were definitely quite interesting to think about it now but in the end I like LA but it’s too far away from home. The constant weather ended up feeling like Groundhogs Day instead of paradise but during this time, almost every other night me and Russell would meet up and ride/film.
It was mostly him riding. I can’t combine riding with filming. I either go out and film or I ride but I can’t do both. If I ride then I usually end up missing something good that could’ve been filmed and I end up hating myself for it. I film, I don’t ride and I miss some opportunity to ride something different, I hate myself slightly less for this one too, which might predictive of me taking on more filming and less riding as I get older. This single mindedness it’s great sometimes, it’s awful quite often too. But to get back on track I always liked the fact, everything about this process was natural. Honestly the only conditions I like filming BMX. We rarely drove anywhere, we just rode the same segment of Los Angeles over and over and he brought something new each time. Russel, an LA kid, strangely had a really East Coast mentality amongst him when it came to riding. He definitely preferred the jib spots before it really blew into a thing. We rode a bunch of spots that aren’t blown up completely. Only two spots in this video are really recognizable but we can justify that by saying they were our local spots. Easily cruising distance so it’s cool. It’s also in LA, I realized how serious BMX can be and I did not like that. Some kid with a few hundred followers viewed BMX almost like a brand identity and that was pretty normal. You’ll hear people talk about it and it’s not something you really realize until you get here. I’d like to argue that BMX in the East Coast is definitely more casual, just for the sole fact that there is no money or West Coast mentality pushing it. It’s definitely more socially acceptable now but it’s not well understood lifestyle like it is in California.
So we’re filming and I’m uploading clips. It’s all night, which wasn’t a conscious decision, more like that’s the only time Russell and I really had time to ride. We predicted it was going to be all night footage and we liked it so we followed through with it. The problem was that it’s night footage and I didn’t really know what an exposure triangle was. For those who don’t know it’s how you make a camera work at night so everything isn’t completely dark. I knew I had to fiddle with the ISO, white balance, and aperture was whatever I had on the fisheye but I didn’t really know the science behind it, to this day it doesn’t come intuitively to me. Majority of the shots were too dark.
I only had a single crappy LED light that attaches to the camera. It’s hardly worth using sometimes. It’s alright for single tricks and extreme close ups with fisheye but the moment the rider is a few feet away it loses it’s intensity completely so I had a problem in hand. Too much of the footage is beyond acceptable dark and for that to happen in BMX, it was really dark. I kind of experimented in post. I realized I could push more information out of the picture by simply upping the exposure in post. The issue is that a lot of sharpness was lot and it ended up in the footage looking washed out and flat. But then I got to thinking. BMX even today still uses VX. The VX is not the sharpest camera. The colors are a bit unique, often times washed out and that’s the very thing that people love about it. It’s unique charm. I can say at the time I have never seen any HD/DSLR footage that did not try to make full of use of its technical capabilities. Even myself I was hoping for something sharp cause that’s the direction the world was moving. Away from the VX, we have handheld DSLR’s now that has a second video feature that pack a punch far more than any prosumer SD camera ever did. But I was stuck in a pickle so I did what I had to do. I downgraded all the footage, even the sharp well lit footage was downgraded a bit to keep a certain consistency in the look. This edit is probably one of my favorite out of everything. The production process was fun and easy. The post was challenging but a solution was found and I always think to myself that limitation is what really pushes creativity. Some industry guys were the first to see it, including I guess now very famous BMX Youtuber. They immediately noted the different look, which was style the arised from a reason not style for style sake. I don’t know what they thought about it though. I’m pretty sure there is an ImEugene head hidden somewhere in there, I don’t remember now where it was. I used to draw a hidden penis in every single artwork I did for school to keep art fun and interesting.