Interviews by Butterlegs.

Full-length video projects have been thinner on the ground recently, so it was rad to hear that Colony had been working on a new one, Take a Ticket for a while. Their band of ramp riders, whilst heavy-hitting, are also very diverse which made me even more stoked when I learned that this new video would be focusing exclusively on transition. A ramp-focused video is a pretty unique endeavour at any time, but especially in 2020 so we thought it prudent to reach out to those involved to get a peek behind the curtain. The crew absolutely went in for it, so read on to find out more about how it all came together.

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ZAC DANGERFIELD

Is this your first time filming a part for a full-length? Yes it was, super stoked to be apart of it all. Something I always wanted to do when I was growing up.

Did you start out with a list of things to get done, or wing it? Mostly winged it, had a couple ideas I wanted to get done and it was good to get them plus the others that weren’t planned!

Did you choose a particular ‘theme’ for your section? No theme really, just did what I enjoy doing on a bike for TAT.

You’re regularly uploading some insanely technical stuff to the gram from your local, Morayfield, which also features pretty heavily in your section. Did you find it tough to come up with new lines, or differentiate which clips went where? Well thank you! Yeah it was a little tough, I wanted to do something I hadn’t tried for the gram and when we started filming for TAT I kept a couple things aside. The one Coops and I got (2nd last clip) was the must do on my list at Morayfield!

Your last clip is one of the most precise things I’ve ever seen, how many tries/how long did you spend on it? Haha! thank you! We were there for about 20 minutes then I jumped straight into it, I think I got it done around the 10th attempt mark. Not to mention I gave myself a great head knock on that subrail a couple years prior.

Favourite trip/spot? ACT Jam was definitely an awesome trip and had some pretty sick parks!

Is there anything you wanted for your part that you didn’t get? I definitely wanted/wish I got more clips with my TAT part, thanking this pandemic for that one.

What was your favourite moment during filming? Definitely would have been the day Chris James did the Elanora loop, that was next level!

JAYDEN FULLER

Is this your first time filming a part for a full-length? This part is the second DVD part I have filmed , I tried to keep this part manly bowl riding ! I’ve been enjoying riding bowls for the last few years and there’s so many creative opportunities that come with them .

Did you start out with a list of things to get done, or wing it? I went into it with a set of clips I wanted , then it just came down to finding the right spots or setups to do them . Sometimes we would be at a spot too and after riding for a while ideas would just pop up, so we would take those opportunities too .

Did you choose a particular ‘theme’ for your section? I wanted a transition style section, for the style of tricks I had in mind bowls really help show case them !

Front tyre slides are scary and don’t feel like they make a lot of sense, how the bloody hell did you get so good at them? It’s definitely a scary one at first , once you figure out the motion they become less intimidating , I try to do them every session so when it comes to doing any big ones it isn’t as scary .

You rode a lot of bowls in a lot of different places for your section, which one stood out the most? Brunswick bowl in Melbourne was a real treat while filming for this, managed to tick off 2 tricks I wanted and in a line too , super stoked how that session turned out !

Is there anything you wanted for your part that you didn’t get? For the most part I got everything I wanted , there’s always that want for more, but supper happy with what we got in the end !

Is there any trick your can’t do a table into our out of? Haha anytime when there’s limbs coming off it gets tricky , but most of them work out well !

What was your favourite moment during filming? Any time any of us pulled a clip that took awhile or were really hyped on , just seeing how happy BMX makes people and getting to share those moments , it’s supper motivating and made the whole project enjoyable !

 

CLINT MILLAR

First up, who’s idea was the video? I kept bugging Cooper saying we needed to do another DVD for about a year. I loved the experience of doing The Colony DVD and that was ten years ago now. But we both knew how much work that is so he kept ignoring my late night, beer influenced texts about it. He finally gave in though! Haha! So the idea was set and filming started.

You’ve had a ton of sections over the years, were you always going to have a part in this, or did the footage just keep rolling in? Yeah I always was going to film for it. I have a lot of passion for riding still after all these years and my bucket list of tricks is ever growing. This was to be that section to rival my “Coppin’ It Sweet” section but as things went, it didn’t quite turn out like that.

Did you start out with a list of things to get done, or wing it? I winged it probably too much to start with. Thought it was all just going to come together. But that was not the case. In the last 2 months with Covid-19 being a thing, it all came down to 6-8 weeks riding my ramp.

Most of your section is filmed on your idyllic backyard set-up (which I’m incredibly jealous of). Was this by design? Not entirely the plan but the way it played out, filming elsewhere just wasn’t happening. I seriously love riding the backyard. When I hit up Coops if I could just film in the backyard I figured he was going to say a flat no. But he said yes. Stoked.

Favourite trip/spot? Besides the backyard, the Europe trip last year was awesome. Getting to go to Luxembourg was a treat. Even though I didn’t get one clip there it was a fun trip with the boys.

Did you break out anything you haven’t done in a while for this one? A few things were never done for me before but for the most part I didn’t get much done of what I had hoped. Filming got cut short on my last deadline weekend when I crashed and tore my LCL (not the bad ligament to tear) in my right knee.

Is there anything you wanted for your part that you didn’t get? Yeah heaps…. that will be for the next section. Will start filming that as soon as I can start riding again.

Who’s pick was “Im Still Standing”? Haha That was mine. I love 80’s music and it came on one night and it just resounded with me. The fact I’m still riding now and having as just much fun with it all, makes it so funny.

What was your favourite moment during filming? To be honest the last 6-8 weeks were stress full as hell for me. I had left it all too late and the pressure was mounting. But I kept pushing hard. Pat and Jayden were champs for filming for me. I was bummed, really bummed when I got hurt and had to call it early.

But overall the good memories spent with the guys on trips like the Europe trip were the highlights.

The mini premier we had at my place with the boys was awesome. Just wish we could’ve done a full premier but Covid had other plans.

I have to thank all the team for going in on this project. Zac, Jayden, Jake, Paulo, Koby, Marcel, Kostya, Dean, Pat, Alex, Chris and Cooper. Thank you guys. You all rule.

Thanks to Glen & Steve in the warehouse.

Thanks to my family.

Biggest thanks to anyone that has ever supported what we do with Colony, bought any of our products, came to one of our jams, watched one of our videos or just rode with us over the years.

Thank you BMX.

PATERICO FALLICO

ALEX HIAM

Alex, you’ve had a bunch of sections over the years. Did you set out to do anything to make this one different? I wanted this one to showcase my strengths.

Did you start out with a list of things to get done, or wing it? Winged it big time.

Did you choose a particular ‘theme’ for your section? I wanted a mix between Bowl riding and technical tricks.

That line at Bateau was gnarly, were you sweating that one? Thanks, the only thing I was sweating was the manual, I’m not the best at them.

Favourite trip/spot? Favourite trip during this was one with lil Dovey, J-dog, Cooper and Dean Anderson. We road tripped from Brisbane – Sydney during the middle of summer – I have done this many times but surprisingly hit a bunch of new & old spots I had never been before. Theres nothing better than Road tripping through AUS with ya mates, it was to hot to ride so we had most the skateparks to ourselves haha.

I loved watching your section, at the end of almost every clip you can see your massive smile; it’s infectious. How do you keep that flame through struggles and injuries Haha Thank you , That gets me stoked hearing my riding could make someone smile.. It’s my friends & The BMX community that keeps the flame alive..All my brothers and sisters that ride, Motivate me and Also respect to All the great sports people/ artist/ musicians out there that continue to raise the bar & Fight for the things they love !!!!

Is there anything you wanted for your part that you didn’t get? Yes a couple things that I will aim for next time.

What was your favourite moment during filming? Favourite moment would of been Driving around with Cooper in Melbourne getting some of the final clips.

CHRIS JAMES

Is this your first time filming a part for a full-length? Yes it is, I have filmed web edits before but this one definitely felt a lot more special to me and put in a good 24 months of riding and filming.

I wanted to put in 110% into this project and try things that hadn’t been done before and even things that I had never tried before myself.

Did you start out with a list of things to get done, or wing it? No I just wing it! Every new park that we would go to I would feel it out and just ride how I enjoy riding my bike and hopefully get a cool clip out of it.

Did you choose a particular ‘theme’ for your section? Yes the theme was to go big or go home haha.

Some of your clips are straight up stuntman shit. There are lines in your section that I wouldn’t even see, is there something you look for when you go to a new park? I try to think out side the box and find the biggest, stupidest gaps or transfers or quarter pipe I can find and try figure out how to go really big and what is the best way to get out of it if it doesn’t work!

The Elanora loop has been talked about as long as the park has been around; what made you think it was possible, and how long did it take to psych yourself up to hit it? I’m so happy to finally get it done ever since I moved to the Gold Coast 7 yeas ago I have dreamed about doing it. I basically told myself it’s not even a trick you just need to go fast hold on and commit and you will do it. So every time I rode there I would always look at the best possible line to get in to the loop. So we picked a date that I was going to do it, word got out and when we rocked up that morning all my friends were there to help and support me and because of that it made it a lot less scarier to committed and send it!!!

Favourite trip/spot? Germany was definitely one for the memory books one of the best trips I’ve been on.

Is there anything you wanted for your part that you didn’t get? Well because I had surgery at the start of the yeah I missed out of a few months and was hoping to get a few more clips to polish up the video but because of the whole COVID 19 we were unable to film and travel.

What was your favourite moment during filming? Just getting to film with all my friends all over different parts of the world I’m very blessed to be apart of the Colony family.

 

COOPER BROWNLEE

This is far from your first full length, but it’s pretty different to ones you’ve done in the past. For starters, this one is exclusively transition footage. Was that a conscious decision, and why? To be honest, the plan of attack changed a few times along the way. Originally it was going to be a mix of everything, but then if you look at our team, there is a lot of riders so it would have been a stupid long video. So then the plan was to have 2 different videos, one for transition and then a seperate with the crew that ride more street stuff. But as it often happens, things don’t go to plan… With injuries, shitty weather and then Covid those video parts were falling behind the other sections so it didn’t seem right to sit on everything so we released Take A Ticket and now we’re just working on individual parts right now. Like Tim Storey’s and Polly’s latest videos.

Why go straight online? A few reasons, cost of duplication isn’t cheap and I feel it’s only the hardcore collectors really appreciate a physical copy. Plus in this day and age I feel it just makes sense to drop it online because of the reach you can get around the world. It did suck not being able to do a premiere for it though. I know Clint has mentioned wanting to do a short run of dvd’s for the team and anyone else that was keen for a copy so it may happen still.

Was it always going to be a full-length video? Yeah, as Clint said I was against it mainly because of the time it would take and to sit on that amount of footage for a year seems like an eternity these days. But he convinced me so we ran it and I am stoked we did.

Did filming an all-tranny video have any unique challenges? I have filmed more street clips my whole life as it’s the style I ride and at first I was skeptical on how to make it look interesting from a visuals perspective because a lot of parks can look boring as hell when it’s just pure White concrete. Fortunately the guys all have unique riding styles which helped a lot. outside of that I took it as a challenge to make a transition full length which isn’t done often these days and wanted to try and use more filming techniques to help mix it up when watching it. I didn’t get to do everything I wanted because of the lockdown but I am still stoked on the end result and it has me thinking of more projects like this that we can do in the future.

Who was the easiest person to film with? No one really stands out more than another, everyone is different though. You have guys like Alex who has been filming sections since he was super young so he has a good understanding of how I work, then on the other end of the stick you have riders like Jake Wallwork who haven’t really filmed for a video part at all so they way we approached it together was different than I would with someone like Alex or Millar. All the guys are super motivated to film so honestly if the motivation is there, the rest just falls into line.

Colony has a deep roster of ramp shredders, is there anyone on the team you wish could’ve had a section? Nathan Sykes most likely, he isn’t riding as much these days and lives on the other side of the world so it was never going to happen but I have some great memories filming with him so that would have been some icing on the cake.

Thanks mate, any last words or thanks? Mainly thanks to the crew of riders I film with, not just for this video but everyone. They are great to film with and always open to suggestions which makes my job easier. Let’s keep it going.