I had a very interesting e-mail correspondence with the main filming director prior to and during the event. Here's the initial exchange. We went on to discuss technicalities.
Hi,
It's good to see someone tackling filming a long Audax ride. I'm an Audaxer who's made a number of films about 1200 km plus rides. I'm planning to film a 1200km ride in Ireland this year. last year we filmed the London Edinburgh London ride.
This is the first half of the 40 minute film we made for the LEL, it's enthusiast focused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFqZxRrO_cM
Should you want any background material I've got plenty of LEL and Paris Brest Paris, in HD, the recent stuff shot with a Canon XF 100, with some earlier on Canon SLR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCi6ucYgFFk
We've generally found that it's easy to film the first parts of the ride, but capturing the night-time sequences on the 3rd or 4th nights is the difficult bit, especially as the field can be spread over hundreds of miles. Don't hesitate to contact me if you need any footage for background, or are interested in our experiences of planning for filming.
Regards,
Hi Damon
Thanks very much for getting in touch. Mark had told me about you when I first started researching this and I'd passed on your details to the prorgamme producer Margaret Wicks.
I've copied this to her because your films are good quality and capture the events well - they're certainly worth watching. Are you going to be coming on this Highland's Audax?
I realise the tricky part will come after the first couple of days, particular as we hope for follow different 'types' of riders. Some will be going for a good time while others will just hope to finish. I appreciate you identifying this as an issue because it reaffirms what I suspected.
Mark says he'll send out an email on our behalf so we can learn more about all the riders. Once we've identified a few, and the filming draws closer, I will take you up on your offer of a chat - I'm sure your advice will be extremely helpful.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
S
Obviously I'd like to sell them some background footage, but I'm also interested in the technical aspects.
Filming from the bike,and especially getting interviews with clean sound, is the bit that's never been entirely solved. I'd hoped that this film might do that.
So I'm looking at the film to see how good the on-bike footage is, the scenery is a given. The weather was perfect and you can put the camera on a tripod.
GoPro attached to the bike seems to be too wobbly, even when stabilised it gives a 'jello effect'. Which derives from the type of shutter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter A handheld HD camera seems to give better results, but I didn't hear much sound from it.
Filming from the back of a car is the usual solution to those problems, but the roads used wouldn't allow that, and it's easier with a bigger field, as the opportunities to do it are greater. You could be waiting two hours at a suitable spot for only one rider. A motor bike allows you to pass riders, drop off a cameraman, and park easily, and to film on the move, sound is difficult though.
It's obviously a good film, but it hasn't solved the problems I'm interested in. They might have got further if they'd had a lot more riders, as they'd have had more chances to get it right. Reviewing Go-Pro footage during the event is also not as easy as with camcorders, especially when sleep-deprived. That makes for a steep learning curve with poor feedback.
There's an opening for a more general Audax film on a national channel, BBC4 perhaps. Clearly I'd be happy to provide footage for a project like that, or there's Madegood's LEL footage. Their film seems to be closer in style to this one than mine are. They both focus more on specific participants.
