Break from movie for.... BMX!

Had to throw this up here. Loved the vid, then realized it was filmed right here in the SLC! Wooooord! can't wait to meet these kids someday.

Giovanni Progress: First weekend down.

It's been an insane set of days.
We orchestrated rooms full of people and assembled crane shots in a tiny, meticulous house. We filmed bikes racing across town and shut off traffic for an hour using some traffic cones and a flashlight with a piece of orange gel taped on it. We lurked in Liberty park with a hipster, an anarchist punk, and a drag queen, yelling swear words at the top of our lungs. I worked myself to exhaustion, Al stopped talking, and Chris is probably gonna fail all his classes. Not to mention the 5-10 core people who showed up tirelessly to every shoot they could and stayed up all night doing menial jobs because they believed in the awesomeness of the project. I'm humbled by that kind of selfless devotion to the work I'm trying to do, and I hope someday to do you all justice.

The results have been so great. I'll edit all week and have a better idea of what we have, but I am so impressed, and I began with unrealistically high expectations.

Thank you all. So much.

Some sneak previews, unprocessed:


Giovanni flees the scene of the crime.


Leo stands up to Giovanni.


Giovanni has anger management problems.


Sam does it right.

Not to mention a whole new character to introduce, the fabulous Elvira played by Scott Allen Curry:


Stay tuned. Filming a braveheart-worthy Alleycat on Sunday the 15th at 1:00 PM, be there on time, and join the madness.

Seriously Cool Bike

I love all my bikes, always have, always will. I think they're beautiful, and attention-worthy, but they're essentially replaceable tools, to be exchanged for the perfect combination that will both meet all my transport/fun/nerd needs and last awhile. But today (or yesterday, whatever) marks the completion-ish of a project that will test my resolve in regards to resisting material object lust and excessive use of superlatives.



This bike began over a year and a half ago, when Lindsey Howard decided she'd pursue frame building. She was 18 years old at the time and largely taught herself how to build, reading a ridiculous amount and apprenticing at the shop of a semi-retired hobby builder. She's brilliant at most things she tries to do, and manages to cram much more into a day than most. Lindsey wants to build bikes that are long-lasting and practical rather than flashy and expensive, she would like to learn a ton so she can teach people to build their own bikes and have things purpose built to fit rider needs for a long long time.

So she started by building me a completely impractical bike. A true Bicycle Quarterly enthusiast and fan of racks, fenders, and gears, she gritted her teeth and built a brazeon-less track frame with tiny clearances. Sorry, Lindsey.

She ordered some heavy-gauge Reynolds 531, that butts from 9 to 6 to 9 rather than 8 to 5 to 8 (i think?), and joined it with 74.5 degree lugs. The fork is still unfinished, it'll be taller and overbuilt straight-blades, set into a Henry James raked crown.

I thought Lindsey's skill at brazing was extremely impressive for her second frame, and I figured this thing would be around for a while, so I had Greg's friend Lance powdercoat it clear so all the bike's braze, flux, and heating marks show through over the bare metal. I love it, he did a fantastic job. I know the thing's new but I just stare at it, in different light, it has all these subtle underlights and luster from the polished metal.



My cameo on the frame was getting to file out that triangle in the seat lug.

It got my main Brooks Professional seat and the Nitto Pursuit bars I've had on all my fixed gears, which are a little long, so they may change in the final build. I shellacked the bars as an experiment and really like them. The wheels were Chris Ginzton's idea, as the bike's starring in my Don Giovanni movie. He ordered 2.0-1.5-2.0 DT swiss spokes with this amazing rifling on them and we laced my Miche hubs to Mavic open pros for a very light, strong wheel set.

This bike still needs its new fork and a brake to turn it from movie prop to daily whip (for me), but I've never been more enamoured with an object.

Thanks.

Second Shoot: Bobsled MTB Trail

One of our most technically difficult and rigorous shoots for an awesome scene. Coming together very well, we got screwed out of time by Daylight savings and hiking to the top of the hill so only got to shoot for 2 hours.



Still, the rough edit looks great, and we'll pick up the rest of the scene Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Giovanni got hisself photoshot last weekend:

Here are my photos, and


here are a couple of Greg's.

See ya'll this weekend! We're moving the Saturday shoot from Gallivan to Liberty Park, cause we won't get kicked off there (I hope).

HEART OF DARKNESS II: DON GIOVANNI ALLEYCAT

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S THAT TIME:



In conjunction with the epic and climatic final scene of the Don Giovanni Film, it pleases me to present the Heart of Darkness 2. Basically you'll race in a real 20+mile alleycat and be caught on camera at the beginning and end, to be thrown straight into the fictional narritive! Should be fun! Have your friends come to the beginning and meet you at the end, even if they're not the racing types, and have them bring hot chocolate because it's gonna be cold! But amazing... I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Sunday, November 15th, the most epic day of Salt Lake bike-film history, and Salt Lake's Gruelingist Alleycat to date, with some fan-freakin'-tastic prizes. So far we're looking at stuff from Velo City Bags, Chrome Messenger Bags, FRESH Modern Apparel, and PAC Designs. Cane Creek just threw in some 110 Headsets, which I love. And we just got some stuff shipped out from MER Bags in Brooklyn. Don't sleep.

In other news, We're shooting a great scene this sunday on the bobsled MTB run. Great times, would love some help starting at about Noon-Thirty.

Transforming the Don

Chris Ginzton, as you may or may not know, is a fantastic biker. He is not, however, a hipster. So we brought in the professionals.


This good lookin' fella is Kaleb Andersen, he works his magic over at Lunatic Fringe. Though Chris got a dye and a cut, I somehow scored a scalp massage and a steaming towel treatment. Plush stuff!

Here's the man himself, playing Don Giovanni, before hipsterification:


And after:


Ta-Dah! We continued the magic over at FRESH with Ian Wade, which is easily one of the coolest clothing places in the city. We had to dash through this place in Greg's Alleycat last weekend and I got to know Ian better through the same event, he's definitely got style and some cool clothes at decent prices.

Notice the extreme skinniness factor occurring below the waistline. Golden!


Now that our main guy's on the way, it's time to partially unveil the other leading actor, who is so cool even my hyperbolic prose falls shoot of doing it justice. So I'll leave you with a teaser:


Yes. That is the hottest bike you've ever seen. And yes, there will be more to come.

First Don Giovanni Party!

Our pre-production party for The Tale of Don Giovanni was wildly successful, due mostly I hope to my brilliant combination of Chocolate Chip Waffles and White Russians. It was great. We showed off Don Giovanni's bike, the second project frame built by Lindsey Howard, a local genius, and showed the first minute of footage from the film. If you didn't make it, you can check out the rough clip on vimeo! it has no music or post-production, but it's the only teaser clip we'll release before the trailer so enjoy!:



We also had a drunken script reading and general revelry.


The night was great, and the film's coming along great. Everything has been coming together marvelously, from the creation of Don Giovanni's bike (see upcoming post :)) to the tracking down of a hair stylist (Thanks to Kaleb Andersen of Lunatic Fringe) and an addition to the musical score team (Nate Asman for the win!).

We're next filming the mountain biking scene on the bobsled trail next Sunday at 2:00 PM, weather permitting. Come on by! The next real shoot is Friday, November 6th, where we'll be filming scenes 1-6, the entire hipster party. Bring your flashiest clothes!

These pictures and several others were shot by Greg with his remote flash setup, they turned out brilliant! Check out his flickr for the higher quality snaps.

First Don Giovanni Shoot

Our first short shoot was a rip-roaring success. Only roughly edited the footage together but it looks good, catch a sneak-preview this friday, at the first Don Giovanni Party! 9:00 PM. The Dada Factory.





We also built Jessica's new bike, providing good contrast:

TWO VIDEOS I FORGOT TO POST!

Speaking of Greg, here's too much footage of him in spandex ;).



Greg called me up one day and said "wanna film some biking?"
"No," I replied, as is customary.
Then I thought about it. "Why not?"
"I'll pick you up in 2 hours" He said.

There's the result. I love that song, and had forgotten this was how it was introduced to me.

Also! Al and I cut a new trailer for the 337 Movie: Afterimage. We've also recut the film, incidentally, it's 52 minutes long and hopefully being sold to Europeans as we speak. Check out the groovy split-screen:



Speaking of things I've forgotten, how could I ever forget to remind everyone that Bike Porn 3 is happening!??!:

Come see some racy filmz at 1401 S. Main at 9:00. That's on Oct 17.

Also, the same night as the first Don Giovanni Party you can pre-game as a Zombie during the Salty Zombie Weekend!

Out like a light.

BFC ALLEYCAT!

Come one come all! Should be fun, it's organized by buddy Greg, whose photos you've seen on here before.

ALSO! The previous friday, the 23rd, is my first Don Giovanni Party! This one's camera free, just to get everyone interested together for a good time, but there'll be a photobooth, a reading from the script, and perhaps even a sneak preview of some footage! Down at the Dada Factory, 9:oo PM.

Werd.

Hiding.

Lui Bolin is blowing my mind right now, and he happens to provide a fitting image for my internet auspiciousness recently. But I've been good, if under-the-radar.

Shooting The Tale of Don Giovanni: That Indomitable Hipster soon, my first narrative. It's shaping up to be great. More news on that in a minute. Shooting a first scene earlier than scheduled, on the 18th of October at the SLC Bike Collective in the evening, starting at 6:00. Let me know if you want to help out.




Here's Dallin, in character (as always) as Leoprello, taking his first crack at the script.


Chris is playing the heartless lead, here he is being uncharacteristically nice :).



Went to Interbike in Vegas and learned about the World Bicycle Relief. They're a fantastic non-profit that I'd like to work for someday.

Been moving my Dad out of his place, and working on some stuff for the Leonardo. Biked to 33rd and 33rd on a cruiser last night. Fun, cold, introduced the seriousness with which winter's approaching.

Getting really good at delivering lots of food without a cart, which makes me faster.

My Favorite Picture Combination Ever.

If I were a real artist I'd make stuff like this all the time.





first photo mine, second photo David Wood.