Gravitate - a Scottish DH MTB film

Dec 1, 2010
by Stefan Morrocco  
Gravitate is a Scottish downhill mountain biking film showing the diversity of people who race.

I have been filming mountain bike races in Scotland for a few years now as a hobby, but about a year ago I naively decided that making a film in my spare time would be a good idea. I wanted to produce a film that demonstrated the diversity of people who race downhill mountain bikes by showing a cross-section of the racers in the Scottish Downhill Association race series. The film is aimed at the mountain film festival market to appeal to people outside of the sport (doesn’t mean it shouldn’t appeal to those already in the sport!) to help encourage them into the sport by demonstrating that there is a real mix of age groups and ability levels and it is not purely a sport for the world cup elite and guys who can throw 360s off 80 foot drops.

More information and video inside,
photo


The film shows six individuals and two teams that regularly race in the SDA series, showing them competing, riding their own trails and chatting about what got them into dh’ing, why they race and what they think about the Scottish race scene.

Appearing in the film are:

Ian McIntosh, a masters rider;
Darren Wilson, a young junior rider who lives in a fairly remote part of Scotland, but shows real commitment and dedication to get to the races;
Bex Reilly, one of the top female riders in Scotland;
Paula and Sara Rennie, a couple new to the racing scene;
Perth City Cycles (Fergus Lamb, Sam and Willem Herd, Ben Hall, to name but a few), a large team;
Highline Racing (Tom Lamb, James Shirley and Ronan Taylor), a small team;
Chris Hutchens, Transcend/ Orange elite rider; and
Joe Connell, a youth rider this year, but who has recently been signed to race for the Sunn WC team in 2011.

It was great to work with all the guys who appear in the film and I’m grateful that they never once complained about having to push back up and ride the section just one more time! This has been a great experience for me and a massive learning curve. I’m aware of some errors and some poor audio – I only got a good microphone half way through the year, and one of those furry microphone covers is on my Xmas wish list. The soundtrack is made up of Scottish Bands/ artists. The footage was filmed on a Sony Ex1 and Contour HD and edited in Premiere Pro. I’ve just got myself some books on After Effects and Photoshop for video, so expect better graphics next year!

The film was premiered on Friday night at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival and was received well, despite my nervous and rubbish intro! I’ve made the film free-to-view so that as wide an audience as possible can see it and hopefully attract more people into the sport. I would encourage you to watch right to the end of Part 2 for a little added extra pump-track action.

No long films next year, but I have a few ideas for some short films, so keep an eye out for those! Now please enjoy Gravitate:

Views: 9,023    Faves: 112    Comments: 15


Views: 5,620    Faves: 97    Comments: 9


If you enjoyed it, please make a contribution so that I can make more next year.

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Author Info:
mtbvision avatar

Member since Apr 4, 2009
6 articles

50 Comments
  • 8 0
 ....Bagpipe Metal!...I knew it had to happen sooner or later...
  • 3 1
 My opinion of Bulgarian bikers just hit rock bottom. This video was made out of a love from the sport it's not been sold and Stefan has made nothing on this. When someone comes out too do something for the biking community please dont slate it if you want to give him helpful pointers I'm sure that appreciated but your negativity and foolishness is not needed on PB!
  • 2 3
 my opinion of british bikers just hit rock bottom. ... comparing someones opinion with his nationality is so 1930-like. dude, we're in 2010. -.- some sequences do look odd, indeed. browner and dh-darren have given an explanation. great work though!
  • 2 1
 In the end when you have a nationality next to your name in a small community that is the biking world anything you say can impact on peoples opinion of you and when Bulgaria is a very small country with very few bikers your opinion can be taken wrongly. But that's just my 2 cents And please being patronizing is for 12 year old's... But lets not take away from what an excellent film this really is!
  • 1 7
flag r4p1s7 (Dec 1, 2010 at 23:43) (Below Threshold)
 'my opinion of bulgarians bikers just hit rock bottom'...buaxaxaxaxaxaxax 'there are so few bikers out there'...muaxaxaxaxaxaxaxa go squirt on your hardtail fagg, before saying something about someone you don't even know....... p.s. blow me, beat it, bite me,fukc off....hehehehehe
  • 1 0
 My point about bulgaria being small and having few riders is true but it is true in most country's I mean how many downhill racers are in your country a couple of hundred I mean in Scotland it is tops 500. And you have a problem with me owning an XC bike because I cant afford a full-sus man if only more of the biking world where like you I certainly wouldn't like the sport the way I do... Pretty immature no "go squirt on your hardtail fag" You dont know me and your calling me a *ag and your telling me not too say something about someone I dont even know. Your english obviously isn't too great then as not once have I made reference to you as a person simply in your post I made reference too the comments you've wrote not you...
  • 1 5
flag r4p1s7 (Dec 2, 2010 at 23:01) (Below Threshold)
 booooooring....
  • 3 1
 you really are a douche bag eh? blow you? how bout you go f*ck your mother in the ass while watching cartoons and porn you ninnyprick. got nothing good to say then be quiet a*shole.
  • 1 0
 Awsome riding and vlog, the only thing I would say is maybe edit the comment vlogs in half, maybe quarter, these people are awsome but if you edit they would not seem to ramble as much because I tuned out of what they were saying after a while. I would probably do the same if you stuck a camera in my face!
  • 2 0
 obviously dont have decent cameras to shoot decent riders in third world bulgaria . .. . . . . . . . damn did i just write that in view of everyone??
  • 1 1
 good job, for the first video it will be better if you find steeper trails, is very very flat, and they pedal lots, i will say this trails are for crosscountry bikes, not for dh. and I founded very mellow music, almost fell asleep. don't get angry is just a coment for you to improve. anyway kept it on. second viedo is good just because is racing trail, too much bla bla bla. by the way volume is very high even in the lowest mode. peace brothers!
  • 1 0
 i think you should listen to these guys dr morroc, they seem to know what they are talking about. you obviously know heee haw!!
  • 1 0
 i sorta do some music production so i might have really sensitive ears, but some speech filtering, stereo and general levels balancing wouldn't hurt.
  • 1 0
 Cheers, yeah audio is something I need to learn about more and wasn't really something I gave much thought to until the end.
  • 1 0
 hey!! i remember seeing tomb lamb up at pitfichie the day they started shooting!! Big Grin
  • 2 0
 great blog and film Big Grin
  • 1 0
 Does he really says Latvia at about 16:31 at first part?
  • 1 0
 There's always a hater, isn't there !!
  • 1 0
 What is the name of the first song?

Red hot chili pipers - ????
  • 1 0
 hell bound train Wink
  • 1 0
 Are those opening scenes from Aberdeenshire?
  • 1 0
 It's in Angus, near Loch Lee.
  • 2 0
 Nice.
  • 2 1
 I would really like to see someone doing 360s of an 80 foot drop....
  • 1 0
 I spy a 224 with a linkage. Hhmmmmm.
  • 1 0
 Great vids boys. Great for Scotland to get some coverage.
  • 1 0
 i think the scottish film prospect is better, but still a decent film Smile
  • 1 0
 who does the bag pipes!? that shit is awesome!
  • 1 0
 its the red hot chilli pipers , they do alot of 'bagpipe rock' ive played with them too Big Grin
  • 2 2
 nice work scott Big Grin was awesome!
  • 2 0
 Who's Scott? But thanks!
  • 4 0
 i think he thought you were scott macpherson
  • 3 0
 Hahaha =')

Nice one Stefan, Really good watch Big Grin
  • 1 0
 haha my bad...:S
  • 1 0
 thats so awsome he thought it was scott
  • 1 0
 That was cool man
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