Tuesday, April 4, 2017

The best compliment a video producer can get


One night in the mid-2000's, when I was a fat taxi driver, I got a call from the BMX guys at Barspinner Ryan's house in Huntington Beach.  Somebody needed a ride from a party at their house.  I was the old, washed up Has Been BMX industry guy, so all the BMX guys called me when they needed a cab... especially if they didn't have money.

In any case, I picked up one of the Sheep Hills Locals, can't remember which one, hopped in the cab with a couple younger guys I didn't know.  As I was driving them, the Sheep Hills guy told them, "Hey man, this is The White Bear, he's the guy that made the 44 Something video."  Much to my surprise, one of those guys was a rider just breaking into the big time, Ryan "Biz" Jordan.  He said, something like, "I used to watch that video EVERY DAY before I went out riding."  To say I was stoked is an understatement.  When I shot video and sat down to edit that video in a corner of the S&M Bikes office, my main goal was to make a video that made people want to go ride.  It's as simple as that.  When I made my first self-produced video in 1990, riders didn't really make videos then.  Eddie Roman had made Aggroman, and Mark Eaton had mad a couple of VHS mastered Dorkin' In York videos.  But videos were made by companies to promote their bikes.  So I spent a long time that year trying to figure out what the real goal of my video was.  When it all came down to it, my criteria for a good bike video was that I wanted a rider to be walking their bikes out the front door to go ride before the video ended.  I've actually seen that happen with my videos fromtime to time. 

But when Ryan Jordan was in my cab that night, it was the first time that a serious pro rider told me that my video got him stoked to go riding before he was a pro.  That's a good feeling.  So all you riders out there, if you run across some old HAS BEEN BMX guy whose photos or video parts or videos they produced stoked you out when you were younger, let them know.  It's a really great feeling to know that the video I got paid $450 to edit in 1993 actually made people want to ride.  

I've got new blogs now, check them out:

The Big Freakin' Transition- The future and economics

Crazy California 43

WPOS Kreative Ideas 


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