Mutiny Bikes has a long history of really putting on for the video media game. Walter Pierenger, Joe Cox, Richard Forne, Navaz, some of the biggest names in BMX videography found themselves working on a Mutiny Bikes project and all of them excellent in their own ways. I wanna say this appreciation for this forms stems from former Mutiny rider and owner, Joe Simon.
I really like Joe the rider but I think Joe the filmer is even better hence why I put up this particular section over his own riding section. There is no doubt he was the spearhead in moving away from the VX and into HD. Mutiny’s Stoked on Being Pumped in 2007 was the first Blu-Ray for BMX. Maybe somebody filmed an edit before but I’d definitely credit that feature as being the first real official one. Even though it hasn’t still caught on in our industry this was a really interesting moment in BMX. HD technology was relatively still new and expensive, the VX was just beginning to be a camera that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I remember there was a few interviews with Joe talking about his new Panasonic HVX200, the BMX world was definitely astounded. It was new to our industry, a natural move but being the first to do something is always something. I remember reading Joe Simon justifying it cause his work as wedding videographer can justify a purchase like that. Only in BMX and skateboarding do VX’s still really thrive. Even outside of the camera, Stoked on Being Pumped had some impressive green screen effects that wasn’t really prevalent in BMX. It was really boundary pushing.
With all that being said, “Stoked on Being Pumped” was just alright for me. There was something overall lacking, like it wanted to be more but it wasn’t quite there. Which will happen when you’re the first to do anything. There is no format or guidelines to follow. The first has to make them and break them which is an incredibly tough and tasking job. That’s why a lot of videos tend to look the same. Instagram edits have a formula. VX users tend to have a formula. As long as the formula is kept, it’s easy to navigate through proven grounds and make something watchable and just ok. Will it ever really be great, unless someone pushes it more in some direction. Editing/filming wise not really. Take something like Strangeways series by Clarky. He uses a VX/Super 8 formula. It’s pretty well established but he pushes it through his ultra close fisheye filming style and his keen selection process for editing sound and video with other b-roll. That’s what makes it memorable, a combination of all that. If it was just unwhite balanced VX with super 8 shot of a sunset, it wouldn’t be what it is.
But back to Joe Simon, I think what really had to happen was just a bit of time to really adjust and figure things out with this format that he’s still spearheading. I think what came out, which is ‘Let’s Get Mystical’ is nothing short of a BMX masterpiece. Before Stoked on Being Pumped, he tried to film the HVX200 like a VX. I think the biggest problem was that the VX 4:3 squarish ratio and HVX200 was 16:9 wide. With the fisheye which makes it even wider, it felt awkward to film it like that. It was trying to be emulate a look it absolutely couldn’t acheive. 16:9 HD filming had to be re-evaluated and I think Let’s Get Mystical is that re-evaluation. Glidecams and dollies replaced the riding shots of HVX in SOBP. He made full of use of the colors that can be achieved. Even though the shots were almost too well done for BMX, the b-rolls of the BMX experience is what grounded into not being a Nike commercial.
There is definitely intention behind something like this. It’s just too well crafted for it to not be. Take the Matt Roe line at 00:42. It takes full advantage of the extra wide format 16:9 provides and can make almost a still shot out of a whole skatepark line and not cut anything out. This definitely would not be able to be done on 4:3 of the VX. It’s using the new advantages provided by the new format and making most of it. There seems to be a preference for this type of shot that’s very well composed.
Another thing is the color and aesthetic involved. While ‘Stoked on Being Pumped’ celebrated the new in a way with it’s choreographed green effects and what not. ‘Let’s Get Mystical’ followed the formula VX/Super 8 without ever using either. The lens flare and purposefully downgraded to look Super 8 b-roll combined with the carefully color graded HVX gave it the vibe of older videos that used that formula but with a new twist. People always applaud the colors of the VX and dislike that shiny saturated footage that has to be come to be associated with the HD look. Joe graded it to not be that. It’s still entirely high definition but it creates a vibe that is more akin to videos of the past. When they’re riding the trails in the woods in this particular section I love the contrast of the shadows and the trails. The fast mixed with the slow-mo. ‘Let’s Get Mystical’ is a completely new age video that poses as something it’s not and it’s amazing for it. It mixes modern technology and techniques with old school look that keeps everything grounded and still very BMX.
This is probably Joe Simon’s last BMX video and it’s entirely a great way to end it at something the scope of this. It seems like he’s onto different types and levels of projects that’ll probably push him even more. Like I said earlier I think ‘Let’s Get Mystical’ is a BMX masterpiece. Like some video are just great cause the riding is that good. Others gives you a vibe that can’t be replicated but when it comes to the art of filmmaking in itself I think this is at the pinnacle of technical skills mixed in with a lot of creativity. Like this is could’ve just been ‘Stoked on Being Pumped’ 2 and that is almost probably what people probably expected but at some point there were key creative decisions that Joe Simon made, which were complete risks but the pay off was that he made one of the pinnacles of BMX filmmaking. Joe Simon is one of the dopest of dope.
I really wish I had this on Blu-Ray.
Mutiny Bikes - Let’s Get Mystical - England(2009)
Primary Colours by The Horror
Edited by Joe Simon
