GOING ALL IN ON A PASSION PROJECT

Words by Dylan Wineland

There has always been this defining moment while making our films where we learn to let go. Sometimes it’s not by choice. And oftentimes it comes to us as the illusion of defeat, while in reality it is the very thing we needed to guide us where we needed to go. 

I am not a “woo-woo” sort of guy, but the pattern became undeniable. It became our philosophical treatise. The irony behind making a film that represents this philosophy is that it was something we had to practice every day while making it. Every obstacle we encountered was a reminder that we can only do our best, but the rest is up to things out of our control, and we just had to be okay with that. 

I’m always afraid of becoming stagnant, so with this film I really wanted to do something different. I wanted to push myself as a cinematographer and try things that I had only ever dreamed of. Rather than just watching from a distance, I wanted to take the audience on the journey with Aaron. That’s when I decided that the majority of the shots would be tracking alongside, down below, or up above him while he rides. 

Along with tracking Aaron, I wanted to mount cameras to the bike so that the audience could experience the feeling of being on the bike with him. This led to ambitious camera-mounting techniques that would not have been possible without an amazing team behind us.