Video: Behind the Scenes of Mark Matthews' 'Changing Seasons' Edit

When we set out to make a raw mountain bike film, we decided to build it around a series of long cable camera shots, that would take the viewer along for the ride. We love how this kind of footage shows a trail in a unique way that multiple shots on the ground just can’t do. However, cables are always time-consuming. It starts with finding a clear corridor in the forest, then determining the appropriate angle of descent to match the rider’s speed, and finally dialing in the right camera movements to best show off the riding. On top of that, Mark had to ride the line in a way he was happy with while Jarrett and I had to nail the camera release and remote gimbal operation to keep him in the frame. Everyone nailing it at the same time isn’t always easy. All of this meant that we would often go home with only 10-15 seconds of useable footage after a full day of work.



Once we had each cable camera shot in the bag, we rigged Mark’s bike with a microphone to capture high-quality audio that could be synced with the footage in post. To do this we gaff taped a Sennheiser MKE600 microphone with a beefy wind furry to his frame. This was routed into a Tascam DR-10X field recorder, which is small and could easily be mounted to his bike.



The final edit used a combination of audio captured from the bike-mounted rig, a trailside microphone for tighter, blow by shots, and an on-camera microphone for shots that were a bit wider. This variety of audio sources gave us options to work with in post to bring the footage to life. If you haven’t had a chance to watch ‘Changing Seasons’ yet, we hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy the raw mountain biking goodness.


"Changing Seasons"

Supported by: Marin Bikes
Director: Scott Bell and Mark Matthews
Cinematography and Post Production: Scott Bell
Photography: Jarrett Lindal

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