Prospect 2010 Final Film

Dec 1, 2010 at 16:18
by Scott MacPherson  
I took up this project back in July as I wanted to show the variety of different types of downhill tracks we have in Scotland, ranging from backyard downhill tracks to mountains with chairlift access. I wanted to avoid the obvious Fort William and focus on some of the lesser known tracks which some people may have heard of but never seen from top to bottom.

The story of the journey from start to finish of Prospect 2010, a short Scottish MTB film from Scott MacPherson...I undertook this project alone and filmed it all on my Canon 7d which I only started filming with properly in April. Before that I was very much a photographer who wanted to get his name out there, however after realizing that I was going round in circles with my race photography and spending a lot more money on petrol than I was making selling photos I decided to stop and try making a video, then retry with the photos again next season.

photo
Jonny Black (front) and Lewis McLaughlin (In Air) earlier this year at Cambusbarron, Stirling.

I have learned a lot through this project, mainly that video is just moving photos. That statement may sound silly, but it took me awhile to realize that approaching each shot as a photo was the best tactic, instead of panning and zooming in and out constantly I started to work with fixed focal lengths and fixed camera positions, coupled with the odd pan and zoom.

I have also learned how important sound and music are with in a video, this was something I struggled with a lot. My very first edit was done by editing the video together and then looking for a song this made things incredibly stressful and difficult. I have since learned to find a song and then edit the video to the music, but even still I found finding good music that hadn’t been used before to be a difficult task.

The first 2 segments were filmed at secret locations, my reason for including the first segment was to show that there are people out there who primarily ride locally and are still really fast. This guy, Andrew Bond, had never raced until the last 2 rounds of the SDA this year at Ae Forest where he finished 24th with bike complications and 12th at Ft Bill, both in the senior category.

photo
Andrew Bond, riding his trails Summer '09

Segment number 2 was filmed in the Elgin area, I included this trail as it is pretty unique, a DH pump track… I filmed one of the main builders of the track Sam Rodda who is now riding for Mtb Essentials.

photo
Sam Rodda at SDA round 1 Pitfichie

Next up is Greg Gilfillan riding Dunkeld, a trail which is notorious for its steep and rocky top section and physically demanding rocky and rooty section half. This track was Greg's choice as he never got to race it this year at the Scottish Champs as he was away in France to ride the Megavalanche. Greg finished this season as the 3rd fastest overall Youth in the SDA series and 2nd place at the National Champs, his worst result this season was a 7th place at Innerleithen (We shall all just forget his 29th at Rheola BDS round 1 where he had a big crash).

photo
Greg riding for the film

Segment 4 was filmed at Falkland Bike Park, Falkland is home to Scotland's only legal wooden ladder stunts and trails. The forest contains 2 Downhill tracks, 3 freeride lines, and giant dirt jumps. This is all built on private land and a fee is paid by the builders every year for insurance costs to keep everything official, regular riders pay an annual membership fee to cover insurance and building costs of the trails.

Perhaps overshadowed by Ft William just another hour's drive North, the next segment Glencoe is one of only 3 Chairlift trails in Scotland, the other 2 being Fort William and The Lecht in Cairngorms National park. Glencoe is a love/hate trail, many love it because of its technicality, steepness and chairlift. Many hate it because they claim it’s too difficult. I managed to film on a gloriously sunny October's day with the sun causing many problems while trying to film the top section in the strong sunshine. I filmed this with Senior rider Fraser Houston who is one of the main track builders at the centre.

photo
Sam Flockhart at the Innerleithen IXS round

The fifth segment was filmed at Cambusbarron in Stirling, well known amongst a large amount of central belt riders, Cambusbarron offers fun trails built by locals. Although not steep at all it's a great place to train, as it has many technical and rooty sections as well as big jumps, stepdowns, including the famous Cambu (Cam-boo) stepdown pictured further up the page, and dirt jump trails down in the quarry. Cambusbarron is also in threat of being reopened for quarrying which would be a huge loss for the community and a lot of central belt riders.

I met up and filmed with Sam Flockhart for this segment, a junior rider riding for Lapierre International in the World Cup series, just before he was about to fly out to the World Champs at Mt Saint Anne, Canada. Sam's season may not have been as successful in race result terms as he had probably hoped, but he still managed to win the Junior European Champs in Oslo, Norway with a result that would have placed him 16th in the elite men's category. Having witnessed some of his unique lines at Cambusbarron and being by far the fastest person I have seen ride there, I am sure the experience he gained from this season will set him up well for next year.

photo
Roosting through some leaves.

Unlike the English dirt jump scene, Scotland's scene is virtually non existent. In a country dominated by DH tracks and epic all mountain trails there seems to be a lack of properly built dirt jump trails. One of the few places to hit the jumps in Scotland is the small town of Culross on the coast of the Firth of Forth. It features a few lines and a short pump track that have been built by Andy Brown and other locals. Earlier this year they hosted a very successful Spring Jam in aid of trying to bring all Scottish dirt jumpers together.

The final segment of the film was filmed at Ae Forest, near Dumfries in the Borders. Ae is part of the 7stanes trail network which includes Mabie Forest also in Dumfries area, and Glentress and Innerleithen in the Tweed Valley. The centre has great facilities such as a bike shop, cafe, showers and bike washing facilities. Trail wise it includes a red graded XC/Singletrack loop which joins up with the Shredder, a freeride trail, to finish with a long series of table top jumps.

However I went to film with Junior SDA overall winner and junior Scottish champs runner up, Allan Findlay. This segment sadly wasn’t finished at the bottom of the hill due to lack of light as the sun was setting before we were able to finish. Allan also had to ride his all mountain 2011 Orange Five as his DH bike had not returned from the shop on time. Allan also went to Windham, USA to race in the final round of the World Cup series and impressively managed to qualify for the Sunday finals, he says he hopes to race a full season of WC’s next year.

photo
Allan riding his usual 224

The only trail that I sadly wasn’t able to film on the list was Innerleithen, I had arranged to film this segment with Lewis Buchanan, but due to current weather conditions and no more time to stall the film I had to release the final film without Inners.

Enjoy the film and I hope to see you all in Scotland next year riding the trails!

Scott MacPherson

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Member since Feb 8, 2007
2 articles

53 Comments
  • 7 0
 SCOTLAND!
  • 2 0
 Maximum props dudes thats way decent! Nice soundtrack (fuct my laptop speakers right in 80P) . Some good no frills riding & tracks , decent camera work , some good work all for the right reasons . Its convinced me I need to make the effort next year & get my scrawny ass up them ways to do some riding & climbing . Nice one peeps respect . Keep doing what your doing & you will be able to finesse & tweek it in time .
  • 4 0
 Awesome video. Very diverse riding, terrain, music, and cinematography. It made me want to go to Scotland!
  • 1 0
 Good haha, thats the whole point behind the video, theres alot more xc trails and singletrack epics too.
  • 1 0
 Got to keep on bikiing...on the road to zion man. Wink good taste in music my friend
  • 1 0
 I completely agree. An insanely great video, makes me want to go riding Smile
  • 4 0
 awesome work scott, it was definitely worth all the effort I'm sure
  • 4 0
 Thanks, yeah I am happy with the outcome, I have learnt so much doing this. It's not perfect but nothing ever is.
  • 2 0
 at Gee's 7th place at innerleithen he fucked himself up in a big crash last practice run sunday morning, i'm surprised he raced i saw the state of him, 7th is a miracle...
  • 1 0
 Amazing work buddy! Shame the inners segment wasn't in there, still works very well without though!
  • 2 0
 Gee as in Greg? =S haha Lewis I was wondering if you had commented on the wrong blog for a minute.

Thanks "K3ano"
  • 2 0
 aww yeh, thats when i was concused and missed my first run, haha.
  • 1 0
 good show of why you never over look an orange 5 as a do-it-all!
  • 2 0
 i hope you all realize just how insane 21:50 is.
he is heading straight for that tree.
SO INSANE
  • 1 0
 That was awesome. Loved it.
Great use of music, seemed to fit all parts.
Love Pendulum too Wink
  • 1 0
 for a first effort this is right up there. Well done. As someone who only rides Inners and Fort Bill this will make me get out and try the others - if I can be arsed pushing up that is.
  • 1 0
 "Falkland is home to Scotlands only legal wooden ladder stunts and trails."

What about Mabie? Razz

Also I think you can chairlift at Glenshee, but I may be wrong. But thats enough nit-picking for now Wink
  • 1 0
 Hahaha, Mabie isn't really super tech... Yeah it has the Darkside but its nowhere near as dangerour as the seesaw drop, 35fter, road gap or crazy 20ft from the ground skinny to drop things at Falkland.

I never realised Glenshee had chairlift trails Frown Thanks for reading it all though tup
  • 1 0
 glenshee is a 4x4 track its balls
  • 1 0
 Arite, wasn't sure what was there, just heard about the lift.
  • 1 0
 Dude theres total rad wooden stunts at Glentress Freeride Park Ive heard.
  • 2 0
 Yeah, but there not legal, thats why the FC put logs and shit in front of them to stop you riding them...
  • 1 0
 yeah really good film, i like that the first rider isn't riding a £4000+ bike in this film, its nice to see the mk2 big hit again really liked that frame
  • 3 0
 Wicked video. Great watch and nicely edited.
  • 1 0
 good blog, wouldve loved the inners segment. you should still do it aside the movie.
  • 2 0
 Great video, im glad all the hard work has paid off.
  • 1 0
 You have you posted a film that makes me want to go ride my bike. It's snowing outside!
  • 1 0
 not snowing here, yaaay! it's just -7c instead...
  • 1 0
 great video, i only saw to the end of the glencoe section cos my computer is gay, but it was awesome up to then tup
  • 1 0
 loved the video, especially the falkirk bike park section, awesome!!

i assume its somewhere near falkirk?
  • 1 0
 Hi mate, it's Falkland Bike Park, not Falkirk. Falkland is in Fife, Scotland.
  • 2 0
 ahh thats where i was going wrong, good old dyslexia for you!!

thanks mate Smile
  • 1 0
 nice footage there, well put together Smile could do with a couple of tweaks though Smile
  • 1 0
 Such as? I am open to criticism as I know it's far from perfect. I am still very much learning alot about the best strategies to film and edit video.
  • 1 0
 Same here, Im not trying to put it down dude, just recognised a couple of things such as
you could develop more creative camera angles?
and the details that make it a bit more proffesional, like bags in shot etc.. Smile
  • 1 0
 Yeah haha, there was certainly a few bags in the shot shots. Thanks though Smile
  • 1 0
 No probs, keep it up! Smile
  • 2 3
 Most awkward riding I've ever seen... the first guy. Handlebars were way too wide, he was jerking like a worm on that bike. Hey, I'm just saying. I myself can't ride that good, but that was just weird.
  • 4 0
 some people just ride like dinosaurs, gee atherton does so, but not so extreme
  • 1 0
 Awesome video! Sooo good to see something local other than Whistler or Utah!
  • 1 0
 really enjoyed that, was just great to hear some good music on a vid for a change, cant beat a bit of rubadub shakedown
  • 1 0
 what's the name of the song on minut 14:30???
  • 1 0
 Pendulum - The Fountain
  • 1 0
 Missing Scotland... Frown I have to come back soon.....
  • 2 1
 Great video! And props for sharing a full length for free!
  • 1 0
 Sweet vid man, its a shame you never got to film Inners.
  • 1 0
 realy nice very good viewing
  • 1 0
 mint the dogs bollocks loved it
  • 1 0
 yyyeeaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! great vid good job my vot four vod
  • 1 0
 Nice job.....:-)
  • 1 1
 l look for a High Quality Download ??? can u tell me ???
  • 1 0
 looking good
  • 1 0
 VOD.







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