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.
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.
(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!
(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…
