The past 48 hours have been absolutely surreal. It has been a whirlwind of emotional activity and a totally mesmerizing experience at the same time. As many of you already know on Wednesday evening “Speed on Two Wheels” premiered on The Science Channel. I doubt I’d be the first filmmaker to tell you that the days leading up to a premiere are psychologically challenging to say the least. Your mind flutters across a range of emotional peaks and valleys. For most of the time you never quite know what or how to feel. By the time you actually get to the program airdate you inevitably find yourself a mess. It may not look it on the outside, but inside you worry about everything. Your mind races from one detail to another. You find yourself dissecting shots and frames and all the little pieces that make up mere seconds. Then once the program starts all of these sensations come crashing together and you suddenly find yourself completely convinced of the impending doom that you’re about to witness. The program is going to fail. You just know it.
Amazingly however, “Speed On Two Wheels” didn’t fail. Since the show aired motorcycle and sportbike message boards across the ‘net have been on fire. The response to the show has been overwhelming. I’d say 95% of the comments I’ve read have been not only amazingly positive but incredibly supportive. To be completely honest all of these reactions have been a total and utter shock. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect such an immediate and fluid reaction to something that I had worked on. By no means do I mean to sound self-serving or pompous – not at all - but after reading about how other folks have felt after watching the show I find it hard not to smile.
On a personal level the last 48 hours have been an incredibly gratifying experience because this was such a passion based project for me. Of course when you combine your personal passion with you work, I think you always run the risk of getting lost in the things you want to see or hear as opposed to what the viewers desire. When we headed into production I felt very strongly that this had to be a show that appealed to a very wide range of motorcycle enthusiasts but at the same time I did not want the show turn into something that talked down to the viewer or didn’t actually offer any real substance. Thankfully I think folks picked up on that.
Ultimately it’s an incredibly fine line to walk, how do you introduce folks who’ve never ridden a motorcycle to sportbikes and racing while at the same time making die-hard race fans feel excited about what they’re watching. This is entertainment after all. We spent a number of months in the editing suite trying to perfect that line. Luckily a number of pieces really fell into place.
First, the Kawasaki Road Racing Team really opened up their doors and let us get ‘inside’ with them. The kind of access they offered us was awesome and their sheer attitude towards what we were trying to do was amazing. They really ‘got it’.
Nick Ienatsch came to play each and every day that I spent filming him. In my mind he really was the glue that connected the dots in the show. Not only was he incredibly articulate, but he simply had such a presence when presenting complex concepts. But more over, I’ve never met a more upstanding and good spirited person. Some people mention safety, Nick believes in it. It’s as much of a religion to him as riding and while I’m sure there are people who might knock that sort of evangelism, I really respect the heck out of it. It’s one thing to talk, it’s another to walk the walk. Especially in a society that seems hell bent on keeping safety away from motorcycling.
The Suzuki Team did a heck of a job squeezing us into Mat Mladin’s tightly wound schedule. Going into the interview with Mat, I had no idea what to expect. Once you hit the level of superstardom that he has a whole lot of stuff gets written about you – both positive and negative. It’s hard to know exactly what to believe. My sense was that at first Mat was treating us like any other PR interview. But as we went deeper and deeper into the not so normal questions, like ‘what is countersteering’ and ‘what’s the attraction to riding’, he really opened up. The non-riders who’ve seen the show all rave about him. Personally I think it’s the accent, but what do I know.
I thought Jim Allen from Dunlop was a kick. Not only is he really cool, but as the godfather of tire tech you’d be hard pressed to find someone who can speak about tires from such a wealth of knowledge. The man has been doing it a long time and really knows his stuff. I personally thought his segments were some of the best in the show – of course I’m always talking about tires and traction so I suspect that’s not such a shock – but he did an amazing job of explaining things that most people either don’t know or realize.
Finally, Reg Pridmore and his crew gave us cart blanc access to the CLASS School – far more than is currently in the cut of the show. I’ve poetically waxed on about Reg and his group in this blog before, but I really admire what they do and how they do it. I would imagine that today Reg is more famous for teaching than racing. In my mind that says something about him and his priorities and I really admire that.
There are a host of other folks who also deserve an immense amount of credit and thanks. I suspect it will be better to thank the vast majority of them in private however all of them played pivotal roles in helping to create the show. The more positive reactions to the show I read, the more blown away I find myself feeling. I don’t know where we go from here or what happens next, but it’s extremely humbling and rewarding to know that at least for this one particular show folks who are as passionate about riding as I am found the show fun, enjoyable and entertaining. In the end, that’s what matters. It’s just TV after all.
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