Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Straightface Studios Video

Just about exactly one year ago, Don Lange, owner of Straightface Studios, starting 'filming' at the races to make a video.  Don is an old friend of Kenny Cummings from back in the days that they were both making music in Seattle.  They both had great respect for each others band and became good friends.  But, Kenny moved to NYC and they lost touch for some time.  Years later, Don tracked Kenny down and they revived their friendship.  In the mean time, Kenny had gotten into vintage motorcycle racing and Don became quite intrigued by this hobby.  And, also in their years of separation, Don had established a business doing computerized graphics and animation, largely for advertising.  So, Don decided that he wanted to make a video around vintage motorcycle racing.  He came to Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway last year with two camera people and some GoPro cameras.  He learned a lot and we all had a great time together.  Then Don came to the AHRMA race at Road America in June.  In July, I went to the race at The Ridge in Shelton, Wa., Don's backyard.  I stayed with Don and his wife and he came to the races with his GoPros.  In August, Don came to New Jersey Motorsports Park for the AHRMA race there.  Don was getting hooked.  So, when he found that Kenny and I were going to race at the Island Classic at Phillip Island, Australia, he decided he had to go there, too, and had camera man Lars Larson come. 
After much editing, searching for still photos, and getting Kenny to do the sound track, this is the result:
http://vimeo.com/93292358
I understand the intention is for this to be the first of a number of videos or part of a longer work.  I maybe biased, but I think it's excellent and clearly a labor of love and I look forward to his work that follows.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Oz VII

I just came across a couple of good videos from the Island Classic:
http://vimeo.com/88416915
This is very well produced and seems to be 'official'.  There are some shots on me on track at 12:10 and 12:15, pushing the bike in the pits at 14:03 and a brief interview from 17:00-17:52.

A much less 'produced' and way shorter video that still captures a lot of the feel of the event is:
http://vimeo.com/88137572