My long-time dream of a hand modeling career took a huge step forward this week…..
On Tuesday I left the ATL for not so sunny SoCal, Carpinteria to be exact. I spent the rest of the week there shooting product and technology videos for Topeak in the studio of Venture Visuals. You may remember their work on the Ergon videos released earlier this year. When Topeak’s international marketing guy, Peter Swap, and I were discussing producing some professionally produced videos at Interbike this year there were only two candidates in my mind: Venture Visuals & Andrew Kornylak. I’ve enjoyed working with both.
Eddie O with clap board
Topeak-Ergon teammate, Yuki Saito , and I arrived in the afternoon and were put to work immediately building bikes and preparing the product. Then is it was action time. We donned our team kits and went about showing off the various Topeak technologies: SmartHead, SmartHead ThreadLock, TwinHead, Morph, Dual Action, Pressure-Rite, Quick-Click, Quick-Track, & the new JobBlow Ace three-stage pump. We also covered some specific products such as the Mini 9 Pro and Air BackPack.
The process went something like this: Enter the frame, present the product, put it to use and then exit the frame. We’d do a wide shot, medium shot and then close-ups. Later this will all be edited into a seamless video. Prior to our arrival close-ups on a mechanical board where shot to give that 200* view of the products. These should be very informative and slick when finished.
....and action!
Yuki on set.
Thursday night we began the talking head parts. These are meant to introduce the Topeak-Ergon team and explain how and why we are involved in the product development with Topeak. Peter went first with the background on the team and idea behind Topeak’s involvement. He struggled to get comfortable in front of the camera, but did a great job. Next up was Eddie, One-Take, O’Dea. I’ve done enough of photo shoots and clinics to relax and just go with it. I introduced myself, gave some back ground and then an example of when the Topeak products I carry in a race saved the day. I think I was in front of the camera for less then 15 minutes for that one. Yuki finished it off giving his back ground and relating some race experiences in Japanese. We joked about editing the subtitles to read: “I kicked Lance Armstrong’s butt last week.” over and over after beating Lance at the Mellow Johnny’s 6 Hour. Yuki didn’t seem too keen on the idea.
As if they could me any prettier.
Late Thursday night we picked up Dave Wiens from the local ariport and had dinner over looking the Santa Barbara harbor. I of course I sampled the local brews Firestone-Walker DBAs and had a huge plate of swordfish with the fixin’s. Speaking of local brews, Carpinteria has a little brewery as well. Island Brewing Company makes a great black IPA called the Black Mamba.
We did get some sun on Wednesday.
Dave Wiens doing his thing.
Dave started the day off in front of the camera on Friday. He’s good. Very relaxed and conversational, but at pace that works well on camera. I suppose this is not his first rodeo. We wrapped up the day with some product intros which involved standing on the set, presenting the product, saying it’s name and then a tag line. Were coming up with tag lines on the spot which was fun. I got in such a rhythm with it I was spewing tag lines for the next hour. With about 30 minute to spare, Dave and I were off the airport while Yuki finished his parts. I’m not sure when these will be released, but you certainly hear about here on FB when they are.
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[...] was back home for just one day and then off to California for the Topeak video shoot. 4 days in a studio in Carpinteria making videos to be used on the Topeak website. These will be [...]