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Solo – A Self Filmed MTB Film

Solo is a short raw MTB film I challenged myself to make in a day. I wanted to show what the tranquillity of riding trails with nothing but the sounds of nature and a high engagement hub is like.

Riding bikes is therapeutic for me. It lets me unwind from the stresses of everyday life and get out into nature. I’m lucky to have some great riding on more door step with a large trail network.

To create the film I headed out on my custom Cannondale Habit with my Sony A7iii camera and my Dji Mavic Air 2 drone. Framing the shot took a lot of patience and perseverance as I had no one to help me. Selecting the right angle, riding the trail and then checking the footage had to be done multiple times for each shot. I must have ridden the trail 20 times in total.

This is the first of many films I will be creating over the next few months. This first video is set on a loam trail with lots of tight corners and a small amount of gradient. I choose a trail I knew well and wouldn’t be too steep as setting up the shot, climbing to the top and then riding the section multiple times is hard work. I also needed to be able to carry all my camera gear including a large camera, multiple lenses, tripod and drone with spares to and from the trail. I must admit I was shattered by the end of filming.

A huge amount of work goes into creating videos and I have huge admiration for those that create longer videos and feature films. To edit the videos I used a combination of Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Colour grading the drone and camera shots to match was time consuming and creating the audio for the drone shots that didn’t have sound also took a while.

The video as you can see is by no means perfect but I’m proud of it and now that I’ve gotten the hang of it I want to try it out on a more challenging trail, something were I can really show some speed and get loose.

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Will Brett-Atkin

Will Brett-Atkin

Will (@willbrettbikes) is the founder and creator of One Track Mind Mag. He is an award-winning Digital Product Designer and has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world. When not behind a computer screen Will likes to be out in nature riding natural trails with friends. He also likes to dabble in a bit of Enduro racing and has had some great results racing in the UK

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