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I was recently contracted by Piano Hill to shoot/direct a 22minute tv show / documentary on the Tour Of New Zealand Cycle race. Groups of riders and individuals simultaneously rode the length of the North & South Island over 7 days to meet in Wellington on the last day. It was an incredible week on the road with some very interesting people. There should be a teaser for the show online in the near future which I’ll post up here. Outside of filming I grabbed a few stills along the way.

The tour started in Bluff on a blustery morning, which made for some moody imagery. Pictured is my Nissan Sunny rental which (just) handled the job.

Tim Shadbolt started the race & I couldn’t resist getting a snapshot after I had interviewed him. One entertaining character.

Day 1 finished up deep in Southland at Mossburn.


We had a couple of mornings shooting hand held from an R44 with Wanaka Helicopters. Simon Spencerbower was my pilot and was amazing to work with.

Iconic sheep truck just outside of Tarras

R44 in the Lindis Pass

Simon Spencerbower

I’ll never tire of the Tekapo Canals

Canterbury

De briefs were held daily for riders. Here 150+ riders pack into the Hanmer Heritage

Kaikoura

A lot of exhausted riders after completing 700kms over 7 days

Arriving into Wellington on the Bluebridge.

Teva approached me to create a 10 second advertisement to be screened at the Queenstown International Airport using excerpts from the short film I created ‘In my shoes: Kelly Mcgarry / Links’ – My colourist Lindsay Horner used a really neutral grade with desaturated highlights to ensure it would look good on the big screen & created some simply motion fx to suit.

Over the past year I’ve really enjoyed riding the Deans Bank mountainbike trail in Wanaka. It’s an approximately 40 min single track loop on the side of the Clutha river ( Justin rode it in 30 min the morning after shooting this video ) that caters for every level of rider. The trail inspired me so much that I decided to create this short film. My motivation behind the film was to create a cross country mtb film that made riding up hill, and across flat look fun – something that is very rarely done successfully. This is not an easy task by any means and relies on creative camera movements, a bit of planning and the right edit. I gave Justin Leov a call, told him my idea and we managed to quickly fit this shoot in over one day, with the support of Lake Wanaka Tourism. I also threw in a couple of scenics that I shot with the ShotOver on a previous shoot for Annabel Langbeins cooking show. Below are a few BTS photos and some more info…

Deans Bank trail shapes.

A lot of people have asked me how I achieved all the smooth tracking shots in the video. Recently I purchased the glidecam 4000hd which is a hand held stabilization rig, using weights and a small gimbal to minimize bumps whilst walking. I mount the 5d on top and try to create original movements. I used lots of full pace running following justin on and around the trail. Deans Bank was a great location to do this as there was plenty of room for me to move around the trail.

I chose the Canon5d for this job as it’s easy to use with the glidecam, and is so small and versatile. When shooting in locations with no vehicle access its important to have light gear. When this camera is combined with prime lenses and used the right way the image quality is phenomenal.

As in all films I believe variety of shots is key. I tried to use lots of nicely composed lock offs in this film, the majority of which were shot with the Canon 50mm f.14

Mid reverse glide cam wrap around the berm shot

Shooting one of the last shots into the evening light.

The series Revealing Lake Wanaka, which I created in 2010 in conjunction with Lake Wanaka Tourism continues to get great press. The above article was published recently. It gives me great satisfaction when my passion projects have a positive effect on my home town and the greater tourism industry.

Any type of creative artist is continually looking for ways to explore, change and improve their work. This project that Ian Ruhter is doing, inspired me like crazy. What an incredible way to capture an image. Hit Play.