The revolution is beginning, as is my rambling

Social media is too short, glanced over and not really worthy to voice any proper opinions. I've never 'blogged' but I do enjoy writing. So I'll combine the two. Here goes.

People are starting to make good videos again. People are making short, sharp, to the point videos that aren't trying to be epic or professional looking, heck half of them are shot on iPhones but they still make me buzz. I'm hoping people have realised how monotonous the abuse of slow motion is, or how I really, really don't want to see you put your sodding goggles on. I turn off and click X if I see that. PEOPLE, it's mountain biking. It should be raw, rad and fast. Look how popular Earthed and Sprung were, and most importantly STILL ARE. That's what people want to see. The style works for MTB, so why meddle with it?..  I love that style, I love BMX and Skate videos, and granted it took me a while to find my style (after a few years of dabbling with a DSLR) but I feel I can take it to the next level. I'm just getting started.

This is, or was, my Canon XA10. It's not particularly expensive, or that good compared to other cameras on the market, BUT it's all you need. I'm not exactly loaded. I'm freelance filming bloody bikes. I don't care for big fancy cameras, not yet anyway. And look at the state of my mic - each end has snapped and it's held on with one cable tie. Works though.

Anyway, revolution. I'm doing my best to spread the joy of pans and zooms once again, but Josh frickin Lewis - he is the boy that's on it. Straight up spear heading the old school revival. I'm pretty sure he's got a Canon Legria G25 - it's not particularly high end, it's more towards low end. It's cheap and more to the point, it's all you need. Have you seen how many views this dude has racked up? And he's a BLOODY RIDER. His 2015 highlight video hit a million views on Facebook. All he does is capture the action in the simplest way possible, and guess what? It works. He's way more valuable for a company's exposure than any FS700 or RED operated by some slo-mo gorp.

I'm not getting on at anyone here. I've seen some awesome cinematic pieces that encorperate slo-mo (namely Synonym by Last Light Cinema - its insane) and the likes of Kranked and Follow Me are what got me into filming, not to mention Nico Turners FS7 focus pulls. But the likes of 50/01 and ClaySpades are now banging out videos full of pans and zooms and it gets everyone so hyped. There's some cool instagram groups of the younger lads making ace videos too (@safetypencil and @theweaponsofficial are good examples of up and comers).

Check this video out. One of the biggest companies, Fox, purposefully commissioning a video in what they call a 'rough cut' fashion. It's old school as f*ck and it's amazing. Okay, so we're always going to have jaw dropping cinematic pieces to be gobsmacked at, but the comeback is on. We're raw, ready and completely flat out at the other end of the spectrum and it's where us lot, anyway, belong.

If you're reading this (well done for getting this far), ask yourself this. Does newer technology make MTB videos better? I think it's just a different way of capturing it but so many people are caught up on the fact the newer means better. If you ask me, it certainly does not. The video below is my favourite video right now. I laugh every time. Drop bars on a kids bike with a rifle on his back. Amazing.

Peace out.