Squamish
 B.C.
 March
10th,
2010
–
 Production
 for
 Anthill
Films’
 new 
mountain 
bike
 movie
 Follow
 Me
 is
 wrapping
 up
 and
 the
 wait
 to
 see
 one
 of
 the
 most
 anticipated
 action
 sport 
films
 of 
the
 year 
is 
almost 
over.


With 
the 
official 
teaser 
for 
Follow 
Me
 just
 completed
 you
 can
 now
 get
 a
 glimpse
 at
 what
 the
 Anthill
 crew
 has
 spent
 the
 last
 year
 and 
half 
working
 on.

In
 less
 than
 five
 weeks,
 over
 1,000
 people
 will
 get
 to
 see
 the
 full
 film
 for
 the
 very
 first
 time.
 
 
 The
 world
 premier
 of
 Follow
 Me
 will
 take
 place
 April
 16th
 in
 Monterey
 California
 at
 the
 Golden
 State
 Theatre
 to
 coincide
 with
 the
 Sea
 Otter
 Bike
 Classic.


 Two
 days
 later
 on
 April
 18th,
 the
 crew
 will
 be
 back
 in
 their
 hometown
 of
 Whistler
 B.C.
 for
 the
 Canadian
 premier
 at
 the
 TELUS
 World
 Ski
 and
 Snowboard
 Festival.

 Then
 it’s
 down
 to
 Vancouver
 B.C.
 for
 another
 show
 at
 the
 Vogue
 theatre
 on
 April
 23rd
 to
 kick
 off
 the
 world
 tour
 of
 Follow
 Me.
 The
 world
 tour
 will
 give
 mountain
 bikers
 all
 over
 the
 globe
 the
 chance
 to
 get
 an
 exclusive
 look
 at
 the
 film
 before
 it
 comes
 out
 on
 DVD
 and
 iTunes
 in
 the
 middle
 of
 May.
 
 
 Over
 40
 stops
 for
 the
 tour
 have 
been 
confirmed 
so 
far
 and
 new
 dates 
are 
being 
added
 daily.

Go
 to 
anthillfilms.com to 
find
 out 
more 
about 
confirmed
 locations, 
dates, 
times 
and
 tickets.

 The
 site 
is 
constantly 
being 
updated
 as 
more 
tour 
dates 
are 
added
 so 
check
 back 
often.

  Follow
 Me
 is
 a
 new
 HD
 mountain
 bike
 film
 from
 the
 crew
 who
 brought
 you
 the
 Collective,
 Roam
 and
 Seasons..
 Follow
 Me
 is
 all
 about
 good
 times,
 pushing
 limits
 with
 your
 friends,
 crazy
 adventures
 and
 most
 importantly
 having
 fun
 your
 bike.

Breaking
 from 
traditional 
single
 rider
 formats, 
the
 film 
is
 based 
on 
the 
idea
 that 
“no
 one 
rides 
alone”; 
mixing
 and 
matching
 the
 world’s 
best
 downhillers,
 freeriders
 and
 slopestylers
 in
 some
 of
 the
 best
 places
 to
 ride
 on
 the
 planet.
 Featuring:
 Sam
 Hill,
 Gee
 Atherton,
 Brandon
 Semenuk,
 Cam
 McCaul,
 Thomas
 Vanderham,
 Matt
 Hunter,
 Ben
 Boyko, 
Kurt
 Sorge,
 Steve
 Smith
 and 
Geoff 
Gulevich.


 
 Visit 
anthillfilms.com

 to 
pre‐order
 and 
find
 out 
more.

Follow
 Me is 
presented
 by
 Shimano 
in
 association
 with 
Adidas 
Eyewear,
 Bike
Parks
 of
 BC,
 PRO
 Components,
 PinkBike.com,
 Bike
 Magazine
 and
 Nike
 6.0
 and
 will
 be
 distributed 
globally
 by 
VAS
Entertainment.

This is going to be insane. Seriously. NWD doesn’t even enter the picture, it’s all about Stance films “Life Cycles” and Anthills “Follow Me”. Read a full interview with Derek and Ryan from Stance here.

CONCEPT: Take Thomas Vanderham onto trails he knows better then any other rider at night, and look at it in a new way.

MAKING IT HAPPEN: Whistler bike park gave us the location. Bear Back Biking styled us out with the accommodations. Coast Mountain Catering Liz Abby dialled in unreal meals. And we had four pro lighting dudes from the US helping shine light into the shadows.

DAY 1: Getting it rolling we had a lot of apprehensions about shooting. We have never dealt with this type of shoot and we had a lot of unknowns. Not to mention that we were spending a lot of cash every day to keep this ship floating. This shot was by far the most expensive we have taken on so far so that always adds to the stress.

Once we started to shoot we started to feel better, but also felt a bit worse. The lights are slow and getting the proper look wasn’t coming easy. We didn’t actually feel as if we were getting what we wanted. Adjusting to the 6pm to 6am schedule was also hurting us. We have high expectations of ourselves to pull off unique shots and day one we drove off the hill at sunrise with a bit of an uneasy feeling that we might have just blown this one.

DAY 2: After some discussions about the shots the day before we realised we were going to need to adapt our script a bit to make sure we are getting dynamic shots. We did have enough lights to spray a massive area down and shooting wide angle would be a huge challenge.

With a new game plan we set it into motion and started to execute some shots. Still feeling like we had our hands tied a bit with the limitations that come along with not having an endless budget to get the tools we wanted. We are trying to make our footage look like Hollywood on a bike film budget.

Thomas was a great rider for this type of shooting. We needed precision and the ability to hit the mark every time, because we wanted to nail shots then move on to maximize our time with the lights. He was solid through the shooting and made our jobs easier.

End of day 2 we had a better taste in our mouth for the shoot and could see after a few small successes that we were going to get what we wanted, it just wasn’t coming easy.

DAY 3 and 4: Much success! We have had two days of really killing it. The crew is starting to hit our stride and working as a nine person crew we really began to ship away at the shot list. The sweet thing about using lights is that you are able to take control of the scene and not rush what you are getting. We spent a lot of time dialling in each shot and it was starting to pay off.

Day 5: Heading up we could see that we might get fog tonight…. we’ve really wanted some bad weather to shoot in and Gibb and I headed up early to make sure we were ready if it happened. The fog at Whistler can be dense soup; perfect for what we wanted and by luck it was hanging around tonight and not a drop of moisture to mess with all the gear, just perfect fog factory.

By the time the lights had gotten up and the sun had settled the fog decided it was also going to take off. *%#$ we thought to ourselves. All we needed was 10 minutes and we could have got a few really epic shots. After spending two or three hours on lighting I really didn’t want to move on until the fog came back. But that’s the thing with weather. You can’t predict it and we could spend hours just burning cash and waiting for the fog unicorn to show up. Waiting. Waiting. Should we just shoot and move? Waiting. A bit of fog. Not enough. Waiting but hopeful….fog rolled in. We went into our normal controlled-chaos gear. When we get epic conditions we have to be able to react quickly and it’s this weird balance of hurry but also take the time not to screw it up.

We got very lucky that night. Three hours of fog provided for some pretty sweet looks. Feeling satisfied we grabbed a 1 am coffee and headed out to see which location we should nail next and relieved we got what we wanted.

LAST day: This was a short day since the lighting crew had to drop off lights in Vancouver the next morning and head to Seattle. The only plan for the night was a scrub on a trail on A-line. Feeling pretty good about what we had in the can it was a relaxing last evening of shooting. Thomas performed as per usual and we bagged a sweet angle.

WRAP: Looking back on the shoot it really couldn’t have gone any better. We have a lot of people to thank on this one. Liz Abby the cook kept us filled with awesome food that made coming home in the morning after a 12 hour shift exciting to see what was on the table. Mark from Bear Back Biking hooked us up with a mansion that included an eight- man hot tub through his friends at Whistler Dream.

Ryan and Jeremy from Whistler bike park dialled us in for locations and Kira from the patrol made sure we were safe on the hill each night. Thanks guys.

We had a two-person film crew recording what went down and it’ll be coming to pinkbike very soon so keep your eyes open for that.

Peace.

It’s not exactly news but Shimano’s off-shoot company PRO has been working on pro model parts, aka the “Star Series” with Thomas Vanderham and The Athertons. These two choice little vids produced by Anthill give a pretty cool introduction to the parts and the time and thought that has gone into their production. Hit up your local shop to find out if Shimano in New Zealand are bringing them in!

Kelly being a pussy and hitting the 10m double not the 17m one.

I just got off the phone with Kelly and it turns out he’s not a wimp after all and ponied up and hit EVERYTHING. He’s planning on backing that 17m double very soon. Check his blog and the DOT twitter feed for when it goes down. So I got my days a little wrong… Turns out the DH relay was on day two… You know who wins!