Moving pictures: single trail mtb in Piatra Craiului

trip report

We return with a video production after quite a long pause. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did while riding the trails of Piatra Craiului, filming and editing the piece.

There is a quite simple reason why we lagged behind on the video production front: when you go filming, that’s pretty much all you do. The fun factor of the biking is significantly limited, as riding is always interrupted. There is no flow. The backpack is heavier. Getting that big camera out for another shot, attaching the mike, double checking the exposure, then stuffing everything back in the pack for another short session of riding, till the next shooting spot. Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?

Well, it actually was fun. I decided on the last minute to forget about the tripod. Yes, I was planning some nice, smooth shots with buttery pans tracking a mountain biker flying over the rough terrain. Or typical rack-focus shots, changing from delicate leaves to a moving biker, than further back on the conquered trail in the background. But that’s what you get in a plethora of mountain biking videos, professionally produced and heavily marketed. There was no need for yet another one, was it?

So, the tripod missed the trip in Piatra Craiului. We only took my sturdy Canon 5Dmk2 with a 12-24 lens and a microphone (the 24mm prime lens is still on the wish-list), Mihai’s good old Canon PowerShot G1X and a GoPro with an improvised chest-strap and a tube clamp, and they provided a good range of focal lengths and points of view. The backpacks were of a reasonable weight, we were able to climb on bikes everything we tried and the downhill experience wasn’t affected (a very diplomatic way of saying that we don’t shred the trails on the descents anyway). We felt relaxed enough to repeat more complicated section – they provided some real-life documentary scenes that are neatly cutting an otherwise action-packed mountain biking video.

Here is the shorter, 8 min and a half edit:

Pe cărări în Piatra Craiului

Între două weekenduri de tehnică mtb am dat o fugă și o tură de filmări prin Piatra Craiului. Cu Mihai Constantenec, Horia Măruşcă, Karpaten.Trails, Mountain Biking in Romania, Iulian Cozma outdoor adventures.

Posted by Mountain Biking in Romania on Tuesday, June 7, 2016

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