Last weekend my buddy Keith invited me to spend the day watching his friend race in the Gloucester Brewer’s Cup cyclocross race. I figured it’d be a nice day of relaxing by the ocean, drinking beers, watching racers, and I thought it might be a fun event to film. I had never been to a cyclocross race, although I used to do mountain bike racing in high school. Cyclocross is like mountain biking but the bike is more like a modified road bike and they race on a shorter course with multiple laps. I don’t film a ton of sporting events (I don’t think I have done one since my Boston Marathon video back in 2007), although I do find them quite enjoyable.
As it turned out, cyclocross is a pretty perfect sporting event to film. It was an all day event with different age groups and categories racing each hour, so there was plenty of time to get footage. The racers did 4-6 laps of the course, so you could shoot in one part of the course for one lap and then move for the next one. Plus the racers wear brightly colored clothes, and, well, bikes are just cool. I had hoped to have my new Canon 7D in time for the race but it didn’t show up until a few days later, so I used my EX-1. In hindsight, this was a much better choice anyway. The zoom lens on the EX-1 covers a much bigger range than the lenses I have for the 7D (plus I’d have to switch lenses frequently). I also think some of the focusing aids and overall functionality of the EX-1 as a proper video camera make more sense for shooting sports (at least this event). Plus, I shot a lot of overcranked (slow motion) footage at the race, which CAN be done on the 7D, but it’s slightly less versatile and probably is a poorer image quality than the EX-1. I shot a lot of the “real time” footage at a higher shutter speed than normal. I would normally keep the shutter at 1/48 of a second when shooting 24p, but I like the look of fast sports with a faster shutter (generally around 1/250 of a second). Some people poo-poo that look because of the staccato look but I like it. You’ll see both shutter speeds and the effects they have represented throughout the video.
But it was a great day, the weather held out (although I was partly hoping for the downpour we had the previous day as that would have looked very cool), and I came back with a ton of good footage. I went through about 90 minutes of footage that I shot and pulled out the selects (about 10 minutes worth). Then I passed it off to my friend Keith, who is an editor, to cut it. I really enjoy sometimes handing off my footage to other editors and it’s always interesting to see what they do differently than I would. We worked together at coming up with a good soundtrack for the short video (thank you Freddie Mercury), and then he went to work. I did some of the finishing color grade to the piece when he was done editing, just to make the look a little more punchy.
So check out the video we came up with and if you are shooter who enjoys filming sports, I highly recommend checking out a cyclocross event. And I think I got the bug and may compete in one of these races next year!
http://www.vimeo.com/7028664
Tags: cyclocross, director of photography, EX-1
Very cool Ben…great shots! Made me want to ride my bicycle (thanks Queen).
Wow, that was a lot of fun to watch. I think you really captured the enthusiasm and controlled chaos of a cross race. Thanks so much for sharing. Rock on.
Thanks Dave, yes very inspiring to watch and I think a more casual group of people in a competitive
community.
Heather, thanks for watching. I had a blast and hope to film some more of them in the area.
Great vid, I agree with Heather in that you definitely captured the pure fun of the race. Queen was a great choice too, definitely got me excited to go ride!
That may be you best yet. Loved it.
That’s one great video. You really caught the whole story of a cyclocross race.
I had to watch it twice as we don’t see too many good videos on the obscure sport here in the U.s>
Wow, that was freaking tight.
My only complaint is that anyone who’s been in the cycling scene for a while has probably
already 10 or more race videos with that song in it.
But I got over it because your video was GREAT!
Excellent Video. Really nice to see a well made video about the sport I love so much. Every race promoter should have a video like this to highlight their race! The shot from on top of the boulder was especially cool.
Thanks for all the kind words.
Colin, I definitely wondered if Queen had been “done”. It seemed
cliched but then when I sampled it in it just worked perfectly. I also haven’t seen many bike videos.
BvB, I’d be happy as a clam to produce videos for other promoters in the future. Please pass my
video along to others who might be interested.
Ha, that’s awesome… awesome editing too, loved how closely it corresponded to the song.
Now, it wasn’t very nice to put the shot of the woman running right on the line “fat-bottomed girls’ll be riding today”, now was it?
Haha, well done though. Great video.
FWIW, that was unintentional until we watched it, and it worked well placed that way.
nice work, very well paced.
Thanks Rob!
[...] With all of the film crews descending on Cambridge and Somerville lately I have to admit I’ve caught the Hollywood bug and had been hoping for my big break and at least 15 minutes under the hot lights of fame. Well here it is, my debut on the small screen. I hope your computer is a little faster than mine and that you don’t blink to catch me go by at about minute 1:30 in the nice little cyclocross montage taken by film shooter Benjamin Eckstien from The Great Brewers GP of Gloucester. [...]
Matty that was hilarious. Sorry if I got you in trouble.
Just watched this stoned. Even better!
Ben
Brilliant !
You really Nailed the look and feel of cross.I raced that day..and its amazing that your film captured all the vivdness of the event .I hope you do more and include some barriers and run ups..and if I’m lucky maybe i will get to be in one or line up next to you and shake your hand personally and say thank you.
I really enjoyed the video and embedded it on my blog at cxmagazine.com
c’mon in ..the mud is great
cheers and thanks
tim
That was inspiring! Well done mix of shots, compositions, and color. You have motivated me to work on my CX filming skills.