Eric Block serves up some tips for dialing your web videos:
In today’s media hungry BMX industry, people cannot get enough of the web edit. If you
arenʼt putting out an edit a week, it seems, you can forget about kids buying your new
whatever, made of post welded, heat treated molecular bonded beeʼs wax coated air
pressurized 4treated cro-mo steel, or getting that hook up from that new energy drink
manufacturer trying to market to the X-treme geners market.
That being said, you canʼt go at this half assed, buddy. With Woodward offering classes
on video and every kid on your street walking around with a three thousand dollar HD
Nikon 5472KR, you best be on your filming game. Just peruse the comments of The
Come Up; half of the disses are on the filming. Riding is secondary in this day of high
tech wizardry.
So, to help you attain Joe Simon like status, here are some basic rules to follow when
making your next edit of broʼs throwing their bars off that gnarly four set outside of your
school.
1. Select your song to edit to. Street should get some hip hop to show that you are
hood. It doesnʼt matter that you are from a small town in Wyoming. People need to
know you are tough. If itʼs a trails edit, pick a nice feel good song that expresses having
fun with friends. Stay away from angsty stuff, being in the woods should be all good
vibes.
2. Make an appropriate intro: Getting right to the riding is like skipping foreplay with your
lady. You gotta get your viewer worked up. Street edits should have multiple shots of
dudes missing tailwhips, falling off rails, etc. Show the viewer that the riders worked for
it. No-one likes robots. If you are shooting trails, make sure you show dudes watering
the lips and berms. You need to demonstrate etiquette. For extra points, a small grill
with some veggie friendly food is a good idea. If you want to be edgy, show em smoking
a bowl.
3. Now that the intro is in place, we can start showing some real riding. Street stuff
should start pretty basic. Maybe up a five rail to barspin. Nothing too tech or too big.
Trails should be some blurry artsy shots of unrecognizable dudeʼs flowing a set.
4. Now we can get into the real stuff. Street should get super tech. Link up two separate
ledges by tossing in a bunnyhop trick between them. If you ainʼt throwing the bars or
whipping the frame, why are you even here? Trails needs to be a little more subtle. Try
and stick to the four Tʼs (tables, turndowns, toboggans, and threeʼs). You want to make
sure it doesnʼt look like you are prepping for the Dewd Tour.
5. Time to end this sucker. select a good banger. Street dudes should be doing four
different tricks across a ledge. Trail dudes can just do a nice train transfer of some
stylish kick outs. Just look happy.
6. Remember, if you havenʼt figured it out yet, donʼt do a park edit. Those are for kids in
nice neighborhoods training to be the next X-games robot. Keep it real, son!
