Blog moving yet again!

Sorry for the confusion, but I have moved my track documentary blog to, hopefully, its final destination:

new blog location linky

All future updates will be at this new location.

Much thanks to Daniel for the new blog setup!

btw, shameless plug for: pnwriders.com :]

cheers,

-barry

New idea...Episodes...

I was thinking about these short videos that I will be making throughout the track season as tests for the final documentary. These are great exercises in learning and experimenting, which will only make the final video stronger. But I've come to realize that even these test videos tell a story (well, I've done one so far) and as they will, in most cases, be published chronologically that perhaps I should treat them as mini episodic video diaries of how the season is going. The final video will share a lot of footage but will be re-edited (and most likely narrated) to give it a more cohesive feel and to fit into a tighter time frame.

Hmm, well I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I'm just sorta making this up as I go, haha! This project is definitely an unformed ball of potential and I'm just trying to get a handle on it and form it into something that doesn't suck.

So that means "New Corners" is basically Episode 1 of whatever I'm calling this documentary thingy. (note to self: come up with catchy title soon).

Episode 2 will be a short "travel" montage. I've done a number of 'actiony' videos now, so I'm looking forward to working on something calmer and more down tempo. I'm intending it to be a very peaceful, reflective piece.

Episode 1: New Corners

Wow, first video post of 2007. Never thought I'd get here, it seems like an eternity!!! Anyway, the goal is to post at least one vid a month.
So here it is, the fist video comprised of footage from Thunder Hill. The season has begun! Enjoy!!!!

Unfortunately, a rider died of injuries he sustained in a crash at Thunder Hill on April 8th. This is so tragic and ever so rare. Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Matt Labbe. R.I.P.

Thunder Hill was a success!!! What a great track. It was a lot more technical than I was expecting! Keigwins put on a great weekend.

I got some really good footage from this trip, however, I ran into some bugs with my new camera setup. Some of the camera mounting options I tried turned out to transmit too much vibration. I was also having some audio and video hiccups. I think the video issues were due to a loose power connection which I seemed to work out later in the weekend. But the audio burps have still not fully been worked out. A little disappointing I guess, I was hoping to hit the ground running with this new setup. All in all I still got a lot of usable video. The clouds that showed up for most of the weekend also conspired to mess with my exposure, but there's really nothing I can do about that. Ya work with what ya got!

Anyway, here are some pics of me trying to figure out the track (by GotBlueMilk).

I hope to have my first Thunder Hill practice video up in a week or so! Stay tuned.

Well, just dropped my bike off at Don's place (we're taking the bikes down in his enclosed trailer). Friday the 6th we head down to Thunder Hill for my first track day of the season. It will also technically be Don's first FULL track day but the sneaky bastard did get 3 sessions in at the March 30th Adrenaline Freaks day at Pacific Raceways. Deteriorating track and rain conspired to prevent him from finishing the day.
Dave was supposed to be joining us on this adventure but he went and detached his damn retina over the winter boredom!!! sigh. Damn you Dave! So no Dave/Green Machine (Kawasaki ZX-6RR). Oh well, Don tells me that we'll be pitting/hanging out with some locals that he and Dave know down in Northern Cali. So even minus Dave it should be an amazing trip. 11 hour drive tho, ack.

New equipemnet

Got these in a while ago just didn't have time to post:
Sony EX View 560 line bullet cam
Canon ZR700 for recording the bullet cam input



This setup will allow me to get some really creative shots on the bike. Each session I'll move the camera around for variety.

First track session is only a month away!!!! April 7th and 8th at Thunder hill in Northern California with the track day organization Keigwins. It's my first time at this track and the first track day of the season, it'll be pretty interesting... in a good way! We'll be trailering the bikes down so I will get a ton of traveling footage as well as 2 days of sweet track footage! The first of the season! I can't wait to actually shoot a damn shot for this video!!!! All this prep is killing me...

Tribute to Glen McIntosh

On Tuesday the 6th of February a truly great person and fellow rider died. Glen "Gleno" McIntosh was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle, he did not recover from his injuries. He was a popular member on our local forums up here in WA even though he lived in the Vegas area. He actually flew up here just to visit our local group for a couple days back in January. He will be missed.
I've spent the last week working on projects to celebrate his life. Here is a video photo montage I put together in his honor:

We had a local memorial ride for Gleno on the 10th. I will be creating a second video based on images from this ride.

Above is the video from the memorial ride.

Quick update: moving blog to new location...

Ok, so I've got my new blog location up to date with the old info regarding this project.

As far as new updates go: I'm actually making some headway with the music licensing. As I mentioned before, Asthmaboy is on board, and I've been talking with a second band that is eager to help out, but, of course, since I don't have any footage as of yet nor any proof that I know what the hell I'm doing, they're holding off final approval until they see some rough cuts. I don't blame them, I wouldn't trust me either. So the music for this project is actually coming along. I'm speaking with two other separate artists trying to get them involved, and there's one more band right now that I really want to get a hold of but have to to get any replies from them.

Oh, I also received some more camera gear in this week. I'll post up about that later.

Music licensing and DV cameras

(This was originally posted on January 25th 2007... all future blogs will now be posted at this location.)

Part I

Ya, so getting legal usage for the music I want for this film is a PITA. I knew this would be a very large brick wall that needed hurdling. However, that doesn't diminish the fact that when you hit that brick wall, even when you knew it was there, the impact still hurts. ouch.
When you're spending your own money to create a project like this and you don't have enough for industry standard licenses and there is no profit model at the end of the rainbow (this project will only lose money) you are kinda SOL. Hrrrrumph!
So I'm pretty much looking for bands with or without a label that are looking for the same thing I am: exposure and to be part of something hopefully much better than mediocre. :)
My first and currently only band 'signed' on with this project is Asthmaboy. These guys are great! Beautiful soft, down-tempo music. I love the acoustic guitar sound with a little bit of electronic accompaniment. Check'm out! "EraseHer", "You got Your Friends" and "Trips to LA" will be great for background music and credits. "Do the Math" is too dark for this project but a gorgeous song nonetheless.
I'm looking for at least 9 more songs from a very broad spectrum of bands. I need some high energy up-tempo rock and electronic for the action montage shots. Other down-tempo music is needed too.
It's a shot in the dark, but if anybody reading this (is anybody really reading this crap?) is or knows of some great bands that might be interested just send me a PM.

Part II

My new DV cam just came in. Holy exciting, batman! Sony HVR-A1U. HD 1080i This will be THE primary camera that all off-bike shots are recorded with. This lil' bugger is the technical heart of this project. Don't fail me lil' guy!

So basically the continual lows regarding Part I have been stayed off by the amphetamine like stimulus of a new, cool electronic gadget thingy. Yay!

Shooting a documentary for 2007 (getting started)

(This was originally posted on January 22nd 2007 in my Myspace blog.... Just getting this new blog location up to date.)

Uh, ok, so I guess I'm jumping into this blog thing. Anyway, thought I'd use this as a way to document my next film project.
My goal is to create a 30 to 60 minute documentary about Motorcycle track days.

Filming starts in April and I will be shooting all the way through 'till September and maybe October. This documentary will cover 10 to 12 separate track days at tracks including: Pacific Raceways (WA), PIR (Portland), Thunder Hill (CA), Miller Motorsports (UT) and maybe Reno Fernley (NV).

The idea behind this project is to educate as well as entertain, including emptying out my bank account entirely. The goal is to create something that riders (from street to track) and non-riders can enjoy. It's not just going to be about bikes flying along at 160mph, there's so much more to track days than this. The comraderie and energy is electric; I want to capture that.

I really have no idea what to expect. I've got about 30% of this film laid out in my head, but the nature of a documentary is you film what happens. There only so much you can plan out. So I just wonder, with all the unknowns added to my inexperience, will this thing just fall flat on its face? Will I fall flat on my face? Ack.

I've got a lot of gear to buy and test out before then. I'm purchasing a new camera for all the off bike shots: Sony HVR-A1U. This camera is capable of shooting HDV 1080i. I will also be running two bullet camera setups for on bike footage. A 'co-rider' will also be running his own bullet cam setup, so I'll have up to three different simultaneous on-bike perspectives.

Here's the final video I created last year. Sort of the impetus behind the 2007 film.




You can see a couple other of my 2006 practice vids if you go to my video's section or just follow that youtube link to my channel.

It's getting late.
Next update I will talk about the soundtrack. Since I want this movie to be legit I need permission and/or licenses for the songs I will be using. This will probably be the hardest part of the whole project…