I was excited about taking a couple of days to cycle round the Isle of Wight in late October 2022 with my old mate Gareth. As I’d been enjoying making the RunNotes films I decided to try and develop my filmmaking technique with this particular trip.
Here’s how it turned out:
I was keen to avoid making one of those many ‘me and my GoPro’ films that are so prevalent on YouTube. Just because you can now film yourself anywhere, it just doesn’t translate into an inviting and accessible experience for the viewer. I wanted to work hard at making something that would share a great experience, invite the audience into my friendship with Gareth and leave people with a sense of adventure and enthusiasm for doing something similar. Whether this was the case is something I look forward to hearing about.
The end project seeks to combine a bunch of elements. Here are some brief process notes in no particular order:
The animated map(s)
I made the main detailed map before we took the trip - after finding my way with the 3 Forts film I had a clearer idea of what did and didn’t work on the screen, so I spent some time creating a vector-based design using the excellent Affinity Designer as my drawing tool.
Planning (and then adjusting) the route
The cycle route itself was planned using the Footpath app. It is worth the annual subscription because you can do quite a lot with it. Here is a part of the original plan for our cycle:
We were going to head inland and take in all sorts of magical delights.
I recorded the GPS data as we rode and then used this to adjust the map afterwards - like so:
Notice how things shifted to the coastline once the weather and hills had their say…
When to be accurate and when to simplify
Once of the things to emerge from my creation of the 3Forts film was a sense that you don’t need to be ruthlessly accurate with your map on a screen. The general idea is fine. I took this and adapted the actual route into something that roughly follows the route. One of the important aspects of working with an audience is that you have to know when you have done enough with your editing and explaining - too little and they won’t get it, too much and they will grow tired. For this project I erred on the side of simplifying things.
The Bikes and my mobile filming approach
I also took a bit of time to create some sweet illustrations of our two bikes - this wasn’t particularly necessary but I wanted to do it anyway.
Guess which one was the weight of three baby elephants.
It might be interesting to have a discussion at some point about how different these two vehicles are. Gareth’s bike can be lifted with one hand. Mine cannot be carried easily over anything more than a kerb. My bike was purchased with touring and filming in mind - to this end it was fantastic. I used special extender handles and combined that with a GoPro lightweight clamp for various shooting positions.
I needed to find a solution for filming on the go without risking a serious traffic accident - I purchased numerous clamps and extender thingies until I settled on the end result.
This was something I considered for a while - I am so glad I did my research and testing in advance.
Here was the end set-up. A lightweight and very useful clamp arrangement.
The main thing for me was to be able to capture something quickly - being confident I could change the angle and not have to be distracted from staying safe in awkward conditions. The end solution proved to be just the right thing - I was very happy.
Creating a simple access point for the viewer
When it came to editing the film I did the usual stuff - whittling everything down to usable material and then forming sequences. This then led to me finalising the map and I created a series of moments that I knew we would be passing through. At this point I decided to try and create a short intro film - something lasting a couple of minutes that would be a quicker summary for people who don’t feel like the commitment of a longer film.
The shorter intro I created does this with an even simpler map - based around the Isle of Wight flag:
The split in the middle is the River Medina - something I didn’t realise until I started paying attention to the details.
I was really applying the old truism ‘repetition is the mother of memory’ to my editing - something that streamed shows have as a fundamental structuring device (“previously on…”). Assuming that people only watch this film once I wanted to give them a bit of enthusiasm for the full experience, and - having won them over - would give it to them AGAIN.
Transparent map routes
In the 3Forts film I was switching back and forth between an animated map in the background and run snapshots in the foreground like so:
On this piece I started doing something a little more sophisticated - having the video appear sandwiched between two map layers - like so:
This was achieved by producing the map assets in the usual way:
vectors in Affinity Designer
export selectively to both SVG and (transparent) PNG layers
SVG assets exported to a Motion project (via Pixelmator Pro)
Keyframing using a custom setting with the
a. the WriteOn behaviour and
b. a framing camera.
exporting two versions of the map
one with the full base-layer and
one route-only layer (using the animation-transparency 4444 codec)
My original post-it scribbles no less.
At this stage it was a matter of carefully editing sequences to get a balance between map information and filmed material.
The original great-map-sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark - my 12 year old self salutes you, Steve.
Raiders of the Yar Mouth
In the end I am so glad to be able to put this piece of work out there. I really like how the different elements combine. If you have any thoughts please leave a comment on the YouTube page or get in touch.