BEHIND THE SCENES WITH BIRCHY - THE MAKING OF A KTM VIDEO
BY: CHAD DE ALVA
As time goes on, more and more of the video content we consume is generated by computers. Hollywood has been on the Computer-Generated Imagery train for years, and AI powered tools like SONA (Google it, and be afraid) are capable of creating very impressive videos from a sentence or two of text that will only become more realistic as time goes on. While all of this computer-generated content is entertaining, it also makes one appreciate live action content all that much more. With live action, the talent has to actually do all of their stunts, the camera operators have to be in the right spot to capture the shots, and the whole thing is produced out in the real world. When it comes to making off-road motorcycle videos, the trappings of a Hollywood set are nowhere to be found. There are no air-conditioned trailers or fancy catered meals. It’s just the riders, the camera guys, and everything they need to survive and create content has to fit on their bikes or on their backs. Chris Birch recently produced a couple of videos for KTM in the Southwest United States, and I had the opportunity to help shoot one of these videos. This is what goes into making a KTM video with Chris Birch.
I met up with Chris and crew in Richfield, UT, where Chris was wrapping up the last of his Fall 2023 Say No To Slow Enduro Bike and Adventure Bike schools. In the fall of 2022, I had the opportunity to attend the Intermediate Adventure bike school – (LINK), and on this trip, I attended both an Enduro Bike school (LINK) and an Advanced adventure bike school. The day after the schools were completed, we headed East to meet up with Radek Burkat outside of Moab, UT, where we shot the first video.
Radek is something of a legend in the world of hard-ADV riding. He was the only rider who raced the 2023 Grinding Stone Hard Enduro on an adventure bike, and there are plenty of videos online of him riding famous hard enduro trails like Pritchett Canyon and Five Miles Of Hell on an adventure bike. This first video would be a hard-ADV style video, and Radek’s riding experience and knowledge of the area made him the perfect riding partner for this video.
The man behind the camera would be John Colthorpe – Chris’ longtime friend, fellow kiwi, and the man who shot and edited Chris’ Say No To Slow Instructional Video Series, and many of his other videos like Mudbath Mountain, and Sea to Source.
Rounding out the crew were a few other industry friends who all brought something to the table to help make this project a success. Birchy is a big fan of serendipity, and he has a knack for finding good people and getting them together to make awesome things happen.
We only had a few days to spend in Moab working on the video, which meant there would be no time for location scouting. John and Chris knew what kind of shots they wanted to get, and it was up to Radek and the rest of the crew suggest locations where we could create those shots. Time constraints also meant shooting all day long, and with 90 + degree Fahrenheit temps, we rode until we ran out of water. Filming severely limits the amount of ground that can be covered in a day, so it was important to select locations that provided lots of potential shots in a smaller area.
Chris takes these video projects seriously. He was constantly checking with John to ensure that the shot looked impressive, and that John was happy with the shot as well from a technical perspective. More often than not, that meant that Chris and the other riders would need to perfectly execute big, high-consequence moves more than once so that the team can produce the best shot possible. Sometimes the riders would want another crack at an obstacle knowing that they could hit it better, and other times we would ask for another take as we had identified something we could do to improve on our end. There’s a balance here that comes from pressure to perform for all parties on shoots like this: One wrong move by a rider could be a showstopper, so the camera crew needs to nail the shot in as few takes as possible to reduce risk to the riders and not wear them out on multiple takes. Even incredibly fit riders like Birchy only have so many matches to burn on a given ride, and environmental factors like heat and sun take their toll on everyone.
In a place like Moab, there are decent shots to be had on almost everywhere. Yet, with only a few days to shoot, we had to be very choosy on the obstacles that we stopped to film. Picking obstacles that would be video-worthy came down to prior knowledge of the area, and Birchy finding lines while we were moving from one location to the next. For example, the lead image of this story and the thumbnail for the video on Youtube is a shot that Radek Suggested based on his experience in the area. The shots of Birchy sending the huge gap between two slickrock boulders was a line he found while we were riding a trail. It’s a line I wouldn’t even consider on any bike, but when you’re one of the best adventure bike riders in the world, you tend to see lines that mere mortals do not.
All too soon our short time in Moab was at an end, but we were able to cap it off with an all time ride – a session on the world famous slickrock trail under a full moon. Remember how I mentioned that the other guys that made up the crew were some outstanding industry folks? Well, they are the kind of folks you can call and say: “Hey, Chris Birch is going to be in Moab filming, and there’s a full moon, so you should bring some helmet light setups so we can do a full moon slickrock ride!” And just like that, we had helmet lights from MotoMinded and bike lights from Ruby Moto to make for an awesome night ride. Good people make great things happen when they get together.
Several times now, I’ve overheard conversations where other riders are talking about these two KTM videos. It’s awesome hear riders talking about how impressive the riding in the videos is, or how they would love the chance to get to ride in some of the locations featured in the videos. Yet for me, every time I think about these videos, I think about how much fun it was to spend time riding with such an outstanding group of humans. No matter what type of riding you’re into, these videos will get you stoked to get out and ride with your buddies – because that’s what it’s all about.
I can confirm that riding with Chris Birch is as awesome as it looks. The best way to get to ride with Birchy is to attend a Say No To Slow riding school. Check out Chris’ class schedule on https://saynotoslow.nz/pages/coaching, and follow Chris on Social media to catch him at other events.
