Loosedog, Iago Garay, Mitch Roplato and Romain Paulhan head to where the air is rare to rally some volcanic dust in Chile ahead of the the Andes Pacifico.
We chat to Sam Needham, the man behind the lens for Santa Cruz’s latest shredit, Into ‘im Chile, about how the trip came about, why Chile is such a good place to shoot and the challenges that come with it.
Photos by Adrian Marcoux.
How did the Chile trip come about?
The trip was Iago’s baby, really. He’d wanted to go and ride some of the places our trip took us too for a good while. Andes Pacifico was the carrot on the end of the stick and this road trip was the perfect pre-race warm up for us Northern Hemisphere chaps. Iago had the locations planned out, based on past race experience and local tip offs. All that was needed was getting the band together.
Did you have much creative freedom for this shoot?
We pretty much had total freedom to do what we wanted for this. That made it fun and a nice challenge. I went into it with a pretty clear idea of how I’d shoot it and I came out the other end with a totally different piece. With no limit on length, it was enjoyable putting together a film that was slightly longer than what I’d usually put together.
The edit was equally as enjoyable as shooting for this one too. Trying to convey the fun we had on the trip was key and it having a stack of incidental phone clips really helped that. Music selection was a good part of this project as well. There are four tunes in the film that I heard and knew I wanted to include.
Firstly Goat – Goatman. I’ve been a fan of Goat for a while and I could picture the intro to the film so well along with the sample at the start of the track. Next up was Pick Your Shots Clean by Pedestrian. Spotify actually threw this up for me in Discover Weekly. I had the playlist playing quiet in the kitchen and this tune came on and all I could hear was a muffled bassline. That’s it and I already knew it would be a perfect fit. Now I can’t help but picture Loose smashing that first turn every time I play it.
Pucon part two, was Fallout by UK based Styly Cee & Cappo. Joe Bowman had used one of their tracks on a Five Ten film. I’d not heard Styly’s music before that, but was a fan off the bat. There’s just something about those old school, original and well sampled beats. We had such a good session on the volcano that night, that a tune like this seemed to work so well.
Lastly, was DJ Madd’s, Ring The Alarm version. This was so good to use actually. The party never stops in Pucon and Tenasaw’s Ring The Alarm was in our heads all week along with Bam Bam by Sister Nancy. I remembered about the tune when I was digging through my vinyl the other day. I think it does a good job of getting the good times across.
Did you approach this any differently shooting for SCM as you would shooting for yourself?
I’ve never been much of a run & gunner when it comes to shooting film. Not for any particular reason, but it’s just not the style I’ve honed over the years. This trip was all about keeping the camera rolling, shooting looser, shooting everything and anything. Worrying less about kit and worrying more about getting good audio and those little moments that tie the solid riding together. Quite different to how I’ve usually worked.
I was worried about doing the crew justice going into the trip. I was puzzling about how much kit to take and what I needed, especially as we were doing a good bunch of riding and traveling on this trip and it was only me (and Adrian Marcoux on stills) shooting.
The eve of day one and I remember looking at all my shit. Cameras, lenses, gimbal, drone, batteries, tripod and so on and thinking ‘what the hell do I or don’t I pack’. That first day shooting was so refreshing. I took one camera, two lenses and a little tripod and that was golden. In fact, I didn’t change my set up bar adding a drone all trip. So, to answer your question I guess I did approach it differently but that was what the brief was calling for. It’s important to be able to switch and swap up the style I think.
How long were you shooting for?
I think door to door, my trip was 11 days. Shooting wise, I think we did 7 days on the road in the end. It seems like a long time shooting, but we were moving quite big distances between our destinations.
What were the challenges of shooting in Chile?
The light and the dust. Mid-summer light in the Southern Hemisphere gets harsh. We were there to ride and have a damn good time doing so, so I quickly forgot about the delights of waiting on the best light to fall and just enjoyed capturing the boys going full chat wherever the sun may be. The dust was killer too. Cameras and kit take a beating in that stuff, not to mention our lungs. By the end of the week, you could pretty much guarantee the whole house would be up coughing up a lung at 3am (in hindsight… don’t worry, we didn’t have a fever).
What’s the best thing about shooting in Chile?
The trails and the people. Both are beautiful. Locals and fellow riders genuinely can’t do enough to help out and point you in the right direction. They are such warm people and you can guarantee when they invite you for a BBQ post ride, you’re in for the long and fun haul. The trails too. They are a delight to ride, to shoot, to be on. We rode a lot of varied trails in our trip, each location had its unique flavour, but everywhere we stopped delivered the goods.
What did each rider bring to the table?
Where do I start. The crew was golden. Iago, the chief and Dad of the trip kept us all moving forward. We’d have probably got hung up in Pucon for the whole week (nothing wrong with that) if it wasn’t for Iago keeping our road trip moving and showing us the good stuff. Calm, collected, keen for a session and king of style in the air. Even when he takes it to the nose.
Loose… His energy is infectious. There’s no one who goes harder when it comes to getting something nailed too. I love that about him, he’ll go and go and go until he’s got it. Loose is master of the session and he made sure we had the best sessions going on the hill. That energy of his spread between the whole crew and kept us all buzzing.
Paulette, The Steel Baguette, The Silent Assassin. Romain, is a wild man. Best bit about Roman is he won’t say a word about what he’s planning and then he’ll come out of nowhere and hit a burly gap or huge line right in front of us all. Fast as f*ck. Smooth as f*ck. That’s Romain Paulhan for you.
Mitch. One hit wonder. We joked at the start of the trip that Mitch only does one take and that’s it. It turns out that the first time Mitch hits a line, is the time you need to have the camera rolling. The man has so much talent on a bike. So smooth and always looking for an inventive take on the trail. I could watch that clip of him nose manualling to table over and over and over.
The crew together was so good though.The sessions we had on the trail were some of the best. Aside from the riding, it’s all about the fun you have right? I don’t think we stopped laughing all week. It doesn’t matter where you are in the World as long as you’re making the best of your time. That’s what road trips are all about.
What was your favourite spot to shoot on the trip?
That’s a hard call. If I had to choose, I think it would be Pucon. We only saw a small portion of the riding there in the end, but what we did ride was up there with the best of it. I remember our first night there, we walked into town to grab food (and pisco) and you could see the volcano glowing at its peak which was pretty surreal. Pucon had it all. Good trails, good people and a good party at the end of it all. It made for a fun time.
Where did the title come from?
There is always a phrase, word or tune that always sticks with the crew on a road trip. The one that kept sticking for us, thanks to Loose (and originally Dan Paley) was ‘Into ‘im Billy’. We’d all pipe up saying that phrase any time something rad or funny seemed to happen. It just seemed to make a good title, maybe because it had relevance to the trip for us. Adrian then said we should call the film ‘Into ‘im, Chile’ and there it stuck. We had a winner.
What kit did you use for the shoot?
The bulk of the footage I shot on my Sony FS5 with a few select lenses. Mainly my 14mm, 24-70 and 70-200.
A load of the incidental footage is either shot on my Sony A7sii or our phones. All the audio is captured via a Rode Videomic Pro+ and I used my drone a little bit too, but didn’t rely on it.
Best bit of kit was a mini tripod we had cut to length just before the trip. Standard video tripods are always pretty long, so they can be a pain to ride with. We cut down some Manfrotto video legs and made a pretty sweet stubby video tripod ideal for riding with.
I took a gimbal too, but it didn’t get used once. I enjoyed just shooting handheld and on tripod mostly.
Favourite moments?
There’s too many to list really. From that first taste of the dirt in Huilo Huilo, through to being convinced by the muffled, distant beat of music second that we should go and party rather than stay in. Descending in pitch black off a volcano. Finishing a good day of riding with a refreshing Michalada. Witnessing the boys make the trails talk on a daily basis. Riding out a 2 hour, late night power cut in Pucon with the locals. Road trips are full of moments for the memories.
