As the official photographer for Anthill Films, Sterling Lorence is on set for our shoots whenever possible. Beyond capturing mind-blowing photos that document the progression of our sport, Sterling’s shots are a great compliment to the film, giving a unique perspective on of everything that goes down in front and behind the cameras. When Sterling agreed to share his slideshow from Follow Me, we thought it would be good to get his perspective on what life is like for being a still photographer working on a film shoot.

1.  What it is like being a still photographer on a film shoot?

For the most part, it is really good being on film/webisode shoots. There is always an added formality and responsibility that lots of good work must be accomplished due to limited time and the expense in film production. Riders know that some of the details that can be hidden in still photography are on display in moving pictures, so it brings out the best in the rider’s style and performance.  One of the downsides to being on a film shoot can be when the angle I would like to shoot from happens to be in the key film angle.  I often have to discover other angles where I can stealth out of view.  But, most of the time, there is good cooperation/collaboration amongst the video crew and myself.

Since the days of the Collective, I have dealt with many a cable cam...

Eventually I have gotten pretty good at anticipating/cooperating so that...

when riders like Sorge throw down so hard, I can nail my shot and not ask him to shred again

2.  From your perspective, what does a still photographer add to the production of a film?

Photographers bring the opportunity to share all this amazing action with the magazine world, advertisers, posters, the web… We also give an added level of exposure to the riders, the film, and to all the sponsoring companies.  Often the top riders in the world, doing really big stunts, won’t do them unless a photographer is on set.  I also think photographers bring an artistic element to the shoot where the videographers often ‘shoulder-hop’ our sick angles… .

Seldom is it that the Darcy Wittenburg clothesline circus act improves my shot. But here he gives an added sense of height for Aggy killing it in Brad's Yard.

3.  You’ve got a long history with the Anthill crew.  How did it all start and how have you seen things evolve over the years?

It all started when a few riders that were stars in the original Kranked and NWD films decided with a few of the filmers and myself as a photographer that there was room to have a film company that would try a more mellow approach to an MTB film that had good chill tunes, primo singletrack riding, some storytelling and an attempt to do the best cinematography and editing possible. Looking back, I think the response from the sport shows that the Collective accomplished that and the demand from viewers is why we have kept it all very alive with Anthill.  Stay tuned for more!

4.  What do you remember most about helping make Follow Me?

There certainly is an added element of fun for the riders when they get to session together. That’s why the theme for this film became what it is.  Most film segment shoots have the rider being alone, so I think it can be quite intimidating and a bit lonely for the rider.  There was lots of fun on most of these shoots. When you have Gully/Sorge/Hunter/Semenuk/McCaul/Coastal Crew/etc… anywhere near each other at anytime, it gets chaotic fast… but fun.

5.  What were the highlights vs. lowlights for you?

The highlight move for me in Follow Me was certainly Matt Hunter’s step up gap to wall ride.  We had witnessed him crash on it once and this always makes the return shoot become very nervous and worrisome.  Watching him stomp that, and seeing the wall explode behind him was so rad.  The photo was much more amazing than I ever expected.  I also have to say witnessing Semenuk’s moves in the Sunshine Coast seggy was super rad too.    The lowlight to the film would have to be the fact that shooting two riders in a still photo sometimes just doesn’t work. One rider always looks better or is in the critical spot in the photo, leaving the other rider less significant.  That was one of my hardest challenges.  I always try and stoke out all the riders with as many sick shots as possible, but for the continuity in the film process… the second rider sometimes got burned a bit.

5.  Do you enjoy watching the films you’ve been a part of?

Yes, it is always a thrill on premiere nights to see the fruits of so many hard working days.  I am a huge fan of all the films…mountain biking is a relatively small sport so anyone that chooses to put time into our sport, be expressive and share artistry with us, is gonna get my attention and time. That is why it is so key of those brands out there that are cool enough to put money into these film projects… without them, we loose a large chunk of art and expression.

Thanks to Sterling for sharing his slideshow with everyone.  Make sure you check out his site: www.sterlinglorence.com

Also… don’t forget that there’s only a few days left for the Follow Me Custom Demo 7 deal – buy Follow Me from anthilfilms.com and you’ll automatically be entered to win (contest closes December 31^st).

Happy holidays!

Anthill

www.facebook.com/anthillfilms

www.twitter.com/anthillfilms

You know that saying about the iceberg… something about the part you see being way smaller than the part you don’t. How does that saying go? Anyway, that saying is a lot like making movies. The part the audiences sees is just this tiny chunk poking out of the ocean. Meanwhile, underneath there’s this massive chunk that you don’t see. Matt Hunter’s gap to wall ride in Follow Me is a good example of this. Everyone who has seen the film loves that shot. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

OK so I’m rambling a bit here. The point is – there was a ton of work that went into making that one shot. It was only a few seconds in the movie, but it was years in the making. It had to be conceived, built, tested and filmed. And even after all that, it almost didn’t happen, as you’ll see in this quick Q&A with Matt Hunter:

When did you first get the idea to build the gap to wall ride and how did it come about?
A gap to wall like that one? Well it was sitting there in the “imagination” section of my brain. It didn’t get to move over to the “reality” section until I hiked into that zone and saw the run in and the cliff wall. Even then, it took a while for my brain to complete the transfer from Imagination to Reality.

The first time you hit it things didn’t turn out so great. What happened? What went wrong?
I went too slow. It was not possible to judge the speed on that run in, I had nowhere to go except off the ramp once I committed to going fast down that hill. I knew I wasn’t going to make it, but I had to hit the jump anyway… So I kind of flying-squirreled my way across to the far wall and ditched my bike. I landed on the wall and bounced to the bottom. Thanks to Murphy and his stupid laws I happened to land on top of my upside-down bike, and cut my balls. I was kind of stressed about it, but it turned out to be a non serious flesh wound. A few stitches and they are fine!

For your second attempt, time was getting down to the wire for the film, what were you feeling waiting at the top getting ready to drop in?
I was really confident because I had made my run in about 200 meters longer, so I was pretty sure I would have enough speed. I guess I was feeling pretty focused though, just wrapping my head around what I wanted to do.

The second time up there you dropped in before the crew was ready. Did you do that on purpose? What happened there?
Ha ha, no not on purpose. We had a communication issue. I was so far away from them at the top my run in that they couldn’t hear me even though I was yelling at them. They thought I was just doing a test run.

What was going through your head right before you took off? Did you know you had it as soon as you left the lip?
Usually you know as you leave the lip, but this time I wasn’t too sure, as I ended up landing on a huge sagebrush. I thought it might make me crash, but I hardly felt it, it was a sweet bush-tranny.

That shot is one of the most talked about shots in the film. What kind of response have you gotten from people you’ve talked to?
People remember it for sure. That makes me happy, I always want to film something big, that’s fun, and that people will remember and enjoy watching. I was lucky to find the right set up for that move. I knew the instant I saw it that I had to try it… It’s really great when those things work!

Just in case you haven’t heard yet… Buy a DVD or BluRay copy of Follow Me from www.anthillfilms.com and you’ll be entered to win a custom Demo 7 from Specialized and receive a free one year subscription to Bike Mag.

Thanks!

Anthill
facebook.com/anthillfilms
twitter.com/anthillfilms

For all our friends and fans in places outside of North America who wanted to get a digital download of Follow Me you’ve gotten a bit of a raw deal over the last 6 months.

There’s no point in going into all the details.  But the short version is… we’ve been trying to get Follow Me into iTunes stores other than Canada and the US for more than 6 months now.  Despite everyone’s best efforts, it hasn’t happened yet.  And we still don’t know exactly when it will.

So we’ve taken matters into our own hands.  We have just added a digital download to our site that you can buy direct from us through payloadz.  Sure it takes a bit longer than the fancy iTunes download but it works, it’s in HD and it looks sick.  Plus you can feel good knowing every one of your hard earned dollars is going direct to Anthill to help us make more movies in the future.

Go here to download your HD version of Follow Me:  www.anthillfilms.com/buy

Thanks for your support!

The Anthill Crew.

Thomas Vanderham has a big presence in ‘Follow Me’ the 2010 feature film by Anthill.  Thomas joined Matt Hunter for a rip in the bike park at Sun Peaks resort near Kamloops, he hosted Sam Hill for a DH tour on the classic North Shore trails and he wowed us with a progressive look at lines within a line in the Whistler Bike Park riding with Brendan Fairclough.  Thomas is known for going big but his approach to mountain biking is technical and calculated paralleling that of a world cup DH racer even though his canvass is hidden lines in the forest and the open hills of the backcountry.  Thomas uses the Whistler Mountain Bike Park as a training ground for working on precision maneuvers and building a familiarity and consistency on his bike that he then applies to large moves in select event venues and lines in the backcountry.

I recently caught with with Vanderham after a session in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park to get his thoughts on the Whistler segment in Follow Me.  Here’s how our conversation went…

JS: Hey Thomas how are you doing?

TV: I’m doing great, really enjoying the season so far.

JS:  So to begin with can you please explain the theme of the Whistler session and share the prediction you made at the time of filming last fall with Brendan Fairclough?

TV: Well the theme was how to have the most fun you can in the bike park, and for us that is finding creative and challenging lines.  I guess my prediction last year was that a lot of people would be eyeing up the lines we hit in the segment.

JS: So what’s the update on that prediction?

TV: Every time I rode Dirt Merchant there was a crowd of people standing around the rock [Pre-jump step down at 9:44 in ‘Follow Me’ BC Bike Parks segment] .  A lot of the locals are now hitting the line, which is so cool to see.

JS: Who were you just riding with and how was your day?

TV: I was riding through the weekend with all kinds of rippers, Kenny Smith, Curtis Robinson, Dylan Dunkerton, Kevin Bartowski, Harry, Flanders, and Curtis Keane.

JS: Kenny’s got a bit of reputation for riding gnarly lines.  Did he hit the new approach to the rock step down line you and Brendan hit on Dirt Merchant?

TV: Actually, it took Kenny a couple laps before he tried it. He was definitely hearing it for not hitting that line yet, but he had it by the end of the day. That shows you though… if riders are going to Whistler to look at some of those lines, be safe, make sure you are comfortable with them before trying anything.  The bike park can be very unforgiving.

JS: How is your summer looking?  What are you looking forward to this season?

TV: My season has been awesome lots of riding, digging, shooting, and a little bit of racing.  I traveled to Europe and Japan earlier in the year for a couple Follow Me premieres.  I’m looking forward to more of the same, next I’m off to do some coaching at the Summer Gravity camps in Whistler.

JS: How is your bike running?

TV: It’s awesome, the changes we made to the Revolt last year are working well.

JS: Have you been following the Tour?  Any predictions?

TV: I had been following the World Cup more closely.  Maybe I can follow the Tour after the Netherlands’ crushing defeat.

JS: Are you looking forward to Megan Fox’s replacement in Transformers 3?

TV: Haha, ya Megan Fox ran her course.  Her replacement is looking pretty good but Adrianna Lima is still my number one.

JS: You’ve just finished a great day of shredding in the bike park what are your go to beats these days for the drive home?

TV: I recently got a remix Mos Def album called Mos Dub, its dope.

Thanks Thomas!

Jonathan Schramm

Don’t forget if you order Follow Me direct from Anthill Films you will automatically be entered to win a custom Follow Me Demo 7 from Specialized.  Order HERE.

Things don’t always go as planned – that’s what makes life interesting.  Unfortunately sometimes when things don’t go as planned it really messes sh*t up.

Doing a BluRay copy has always been in the plans for Follow Me but we’d never done it before.  So after a lot of research and planning, we targeted the end of June as the ship date for the BluRay.

As we went through the process this turned out to be a bit too optimistic.  After we worked through all the bugs, we ended up being a couple weeks behind schedule.  Things were looking up…  the film looked amazing in HD, the master was at the factory and discs were about to be pressed.  Then we found out the machine that the factory uses to replicate the discs broke down.

Long story short… we’re now looking at mid-July as the ship date from the factory for the BluRay.  We’re really sorry for the delay and hope everyone who has ordered or is waiting for the discs to show up in their local bike shop can understand and be patient.   We’ll keep everyone up to date on facebook and twitter as things progress.

Thanks – it will be worth the wait!

Last week Kurt Sorge, Geoff Gulevich, Jordie Lunn and Graham Agassiz dropped by the Anthill office on their way up to Whistler.  Since we were just putting the finishing touches on Kurt’s rider profile for Follow Me, we thought it might be cool to ask him a few questions to go with it.  Here’s what Sorge had to say for himself… plus a few shots that Sterling Lorence captured during the filming of Follow Me.  Enjoy.

Q: Where’s home?

A: Nelson BC

Q: Favorite riding location?

Kamloops.  The riding there is just so much fun.  The trails are fast and flowy, there’s lots of big jumps and a good crew of people to ride with.  It’s basically dessert terrain so you’ve got these wide-open, fully-pinned trails.  Also it’s really easy to build jumps there.  You try to build a big jump anywhere else and it takes forever – digging through roots and rocks, building with wood – in Kamloops it’s like building snowboard booters.  Everything just goes up so fast.

Q: Describe the mountain bike world that you’re a part of.

A: It’s just a tight crew of really good friends that are also pro riders.  We all ride and train together.  Go to the same contests.  We want to try to keep the “mountain” in mountain biking. I like doing tricks but want to make sure I keep true to what mountain biking is.  You might as well ride a BMX if you’re just doing tricks on a small mountain bike that is basically a BMX.  A real mountain bike is supposed to be ridden in the mountains.

Q: Favorite trick?

My favorite trick to do is probably a super-seater.  And I really like to watch super-flips.

Q: Favorite Contest?

A: Chatel Mountain Style. The organizers over there are super rad – they take really good care of you.  The course is awesome – it’s a mix between slopestyle and big mountain.  And the whole atmosphere there is really cool because it’s in a small European town up in the mountains.

Q: How many days on the bike this year?

A: Ummm 5 days a week for most of the year.  I’d say about 200.

Q: What keeps you motivated?

A: Watching everyone’s’ movie segments gets me motivated.  Action motivates me a lot to get out there, ride fast and learn new tricks.

Q: What do you do when you are not riding?

A: I just relax and hang out with friends and do the stuff I used to do before I became a professional mountain biker – snowboarding, sledding, dirt biking, boating, going to the beach… you know normal stuff.

Q: What did you think when you saw Follow Me the first time?

A:  Watching it in Monterey for the first time was awesome.  It got me stoked to go ride. The first time you see a film that you’ve put so much work into is a pretty crazy feeling.  Seeing it all come to life and sharing it with a ton of people is really cool.

Q: What’s been the reaction to your segment?

A: It’s been really good.  Lots of people are stoked on it and I’m just glad they enjoy it.  It’s pretty crazy how stoked the kids are on it.  I guess that’s what it’s all about… getting everyone stoked to ride their bikes.

Q: One thing people should know about making Follow Me that they don’t know already?

A: It was a lot different than what we do with other films.  Normally when you build something for a movie it’s just for you – but in Follow Me we all shared what we built, which made it kind of challenging.  But in the end it was all just about having fun.  It sucks riding alone on big stuff so it was nice to have someone to ride and work together with.

Q: Shout outs?

A: The Anthill boys, for killing it.  Now that we’re friends… I think???  Hopefully.  I don’t know… what’s a good shout out?  Family, friends and sponsors.  Thanks!