dust &summer mtb in Andalucia Spain

Dust & Summer

Dust & Summer from Harry Nesbitt on Vimeo.

A short mountain bike film, shot in Andalucía, Spain This was my first experiment with filmmaking - shot on my new Canon 60D while visiting my brother in spain. Credit goes to the riders, Pete and my brother Mark, for putting up with my sloppy directorial technique.

Also a big thanks to everyone else at Joyriders for a wonderful stay! And finally, a huge amount of credit is also due to Ben Howard for the soundtrack - Ben is an up and coming musician from Devon, UK. My brothers and I are all huge fans of his music and I hope this video helps to spread the word – if you like what you hear, his music is available on iTunes – download it now!

Location: Andalucía, Spain,Date: March 2011,Equipment: Canon 60D, 18-135mm, 50mm f/1.8

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I’m very pleased to finally present Dust & Summer – a short Mountain Bike video that I shot while visiting my brother in southern Spain. It’s my first real foray into the world of filmmaking, so it was a huge learning experience for me – I’ll be heading back out in the Autumn to film a longer documentary style film, so if you like what you see, stay tuned for more!

A little more info:

I’d recently bought myself a Canon 60D, mainly to replace my ageing 350D, but also with the intention of getting to grips with the HD video features. I’d heard a lot about the potential of DSLRs for video, but I really wasn’t prepared for just how amazing they can be! After all, by using an SLR you immediately have access to some of the highest quality and most affordable lenses around, and the ability to swap them out at a moments notice is a real benefit.

So this project was really born out of the process of learning to use the camera, but it naturally ended up developing into a more fully formed narrative as we went along. I hadn’t really thought of doing anything too fancy or cinematic, after all I only had a tripod and a couple of lenses – but I was keen to spend time making the most out of them. The fixed 50mm f/1.8 only costs £90, but delivers so much more than you would expect for that price. By stopping it all the way up and finding the right angles you can really emphasise the depth of field, adding that classic cinematic touch. For wide angle shots, I used the 18-135mm kit lens, which also became a really valuable asset due to the built in image stabilisation – without it, I just couldn’t have included any of the handheld or panning shots.

The final piece of kit that was a lot of fun to use was the time-lapse shutter – I spent more mornings that I care to remember trying to catch the perfect sunrise! But where better to do it than the Spanish countryside? Anyway, a big thank you to my brother and Pete, who allowed me to endlessly film them on their days off, and for putting up with my rather inexperienced directorial approach (which including turning up for the first days filming with only 20% battery life remaining).

And finally, a huge amount of credit is also due to Ben Howard for the soundtrack, without which the film just wouldn’t have worked – it made editing the film into such a fluid and exciting process. Ben is an up and coming musician from Devon here in the UK – I remember once seeing him performing in the high street in Totnes (my Mum’s hometown – shout out!), so it’s great to see him gaining so much success. My brothers and I are all huge fans of his music and I hope this video helps to spread the word – if you like what you hear, his music is available on iTunes – download it now!

http://www.harrynesbitt.com/blog/dust-and-summer