A few weeks back, Anthony Watkinson hit me up with a sneak peek at the commercial for Etnies that you can find above. I was really psyched on the filming and editing and figured it would be interesting to take a deeper look at what it took to make the video. It seems like these days there are some really good edits that come through and you don’t really think about what it took to make it what it is. We shot Anthony, Chris Wilmshurst and Clem Henchers-Stevens some questions to see what it took to create this commercial.
Anthony, Etnies had wanted to do something with you for this commercial. How long did it take for you to figure out how you wanted to go about doing the project? Did you have a lot of say in where and how it was going to go down, or was it just a spur of the moment thing?
I wanted this to have a different look and feel to it than most other videos you see online these days. I seem to watch a lot of skate videos for the way they are filmed, the quality, and feel to them. I guess I wanted the same type of thing for this. The whole idea of one “obstacle” being lit up has been in my head for a while, I thought and drawn out some plans to build something. I didn’t get around to it due to being busy with other things until I got back from a recent trip to France with DK. The first time back riding Rampworx, I saw that ramp had been built. I was so keen, I called up Clem and Chris and got things rolling…
Clem, when Anthony brought the project to your attention, did you have any ideas you wanted to bring to the table to how it could or should look?
I think both Chris and I had the same general idea for the project. Being a photographer I was more experienced than Chris with lighting so I guess having strong harsh light was my most important job to get right.
Chris, you have been pretty notorious for high quality edits popping up lately. What were your original thoughts when Anthony brought the project up to you?
We had been thinking about doing something like this for a few months prior to the shoot. We wanted to create something different than your normal bmx video. This worked for me, as I am always interested in non-BMX films, and have always wanted to shoot something different.
Anthony, how did you feel about the set up? Was it something you figured you could pull together a decent number of clips and shots or did you just wing it and see what came from it?
Well, when I walked into the park and saw that there, I was so keen to ride it. Some people told me that they didn’t like it and that it was too tight. I started to roll around and ride it and before i knew it 3 hours had passed and it was time to leave, so then I knew it would work to film some things on it.
Did you have any other setups you wanted to try to work with for this project at all?
I had my own ideas that I had drawn out, but couldn’t pick one and it kind of got put on a back burner since I was pretty busy. Then I saw that at the park and it was awesome.
Were there any tricks in the edit that gave you a bit of trouble?
Nothing gave me too much trouble without sounding like a idiot. Well, except the 3 whip… that took me a few tries and when I got it, it didn’t look how I wanted. I wanted to try that again until it was how I wanted it..
Chris, what kind of equipment did you work with for this project?
I used a Canon 7D with 50mm f/1.8, Samyang 8mm F/3.5, Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 lenses. Rode Stereo Mic, Manfrotto 503hdv w/ carbon legs, Glidecam 2000 Pro, and Glidetrack SD.
Clem, What kind of equipment did you work with for this project?
I used a Canon 7D, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Samyang 8mm f/3.5, 2X Canon 540ez flashguns, 1 Nikon SB28 Flashgun and Elinchrom Skyports. This was for both filming and photos.
You were in charge of the photography and lighting side of things along with helping to film. What were some things you were considering when setting up shots for this?
I had the same concerns for each forte. Photography wise I tried to get simple shots where Anthony was well lit and the focus was on the obstacle. As for the lighting I wanted it too be as harsh as possible without being able too see the lights. In my opinion seeing flashes or lights in a shot wrecks it and is a bit lazy.
Chris, I know working with dark lighting can be a bit challenging while filming. What were a few things you had to do to make sure the clips turned out and looked clean?
Well, the main challenge was getting the lighter lit up, we wanted the rider to be the main focus of all the shots, I think Clem did a great job of lighting up the shots and we got the results we wanted.
Clem, how did you feel about the way the photos turned out? What kind of time was put into the post shoot to get the photos touched up?
I wasn’t completely happy with the photos turned out. I spent more time doing the lighting and additional filming for the video. I believe that the least amount of post work the better, theres nothing worse than someone over editing their photos so they just look unnatural. All I did was a bit of temperature change and vignette on Lightroom.
Chris, how much time went into editing a project like this? How did you go about picking the song for this?
The song choice was hard at first, as this was for Etnies we needed to get some permission for the music. We did not want to make an edit with a song that was licensed and have a possible law suit towards Etnies. So I asked my friend from University who happened to be in an instrumental band if I could use one of his songs, he said yes and sent over one of their songs. With the editing, I spent a few days on it in between work and University, originally we planned to edit this to a cinema aspect ratio, but we decided that we should stick to 16×9, I threw together a few edits and sent them over to Anthony to have a look over, and when he thought it was right I made sure it was all timed right, colour corrected and once that was all done, I rendered it for the final product.
How did you all feel about the final product?
Anthony – I think it came out pretty much how I wanted it to. I’m really psyched on how good of a job both Chris and Clem did with filming and lighting it, making it look as good as it does.
Chris – I think the final product came out how we planned.
Clem – I think that we managed to make something different. People seem to be getting slated 24/7 for unoriginal riding and filming so in that sense it was a definite success. The filming and editing was top notch and I guess the lighting turned out quite nicely as well. I hope to do more things like this with Chris and Anthony in the near future!
Anthony, do you have any plans for more projects like this in the future?
For sure! I have so many ideas for new ramps and things all the time. It’s just getting to the time to build them and getting together and filming it. Hopefully in a few months there will be another one. We’ll have to wait and see..
