When it comes to hobbies, it's safe to say that my brother is of a completely different breed. I shoot film, he shoots deer. I build cameras, he builds flame throwers.

I've envied the DP's who've been riding the Red Bull wave, experiencing such an incredibly niche market of creativity. From Robbie Madison's "Pipe Dream"  to Johnny FPV's "One Take Freeride", these individuals continue to redefine the genre. Although Justin's skills may not have him tearing up the side of a mountain, I've been dying to pull an edit together of a rebel-like personality.

My good friend and drone operator, PJ Mozingo of Concept2Motion, picked up a few toys that we've been itching to push to the limits: the Freefly Alta 8 octacopter, the Freefly Wave High Speed Camera, and the RED Komodo. Only a few weeks prior, PJ introduced me to Elliot Spaudie of Birds that Fly who is an incredibly skilled FPV pilot. He's one of the few operators I know personally who is taking FPV away from the racing course and welcoming it into the commercial space. With these two on board, I knew that we had the ingredients for a heart-pumping montage.

On the day, we had little time to work. Cameras were cold, the 5:30pm sunset was upon us, and you quickly forget just how fast batteries drain when exposed to the elements. Elliot managed to get around 4–5 minutes of flight time while our Alta was clocking in around 5–7 minutes. Justin would pop in his bluetooth ear bud and would take direction from me at the shore. Elliot was determined to get under Justin's front wheel during one of his wheelies. Elliot secured one of my favorite shots of the entire edit as he grazes Justin's front tire by mere inches. Such a kickass sequence.

The Alta took flight next. PJ piloted the drone while I operated MōVI from the side lines. Justin and Josh, still on call, made their rounds. While we covered our top-down, birds-eye-views of the lake, we also wanted to get close to the action as the guys barreled toward us. Seeing a wheelie popped at 422FPS never got old.

We knew we had to concoct a story out of this montage to help set it apart from other high-intensity montages. I enjoyed tinkering with the idea that no one would dare go outside on such a frigid day, let alone the frozen ice on a dirt bike. The idea of using local news clips in the edit's hook hit me like a ton of bricks. I envisioned Justin and Josh waking up in the early morning to listen to the weather forecast. Phrases like "Stay inside" and "Don't go out today" led to more specific phrases like "No ice is safe ice" and "Enter at your own peril." I loved the concept of seeing the barren open landscape and watching these two rebels break the silence with their screaming 200cc engines. You tell them one thing, they'll do another. Sometime a story doesn't need to be more complex than that!

The biggest difference from our previous experience on "Ice Bikes" is that we couldn't be tied down to one single location. In comparison, the Silver Lake Park dunes were massive and featured so many different locations of interest. We found an effective way to fit every bit of gear into our Dodge Ram pickup. We would land at a location, unfold a plastic table nearby, setup, shoot, teardown, and repeat. Unfortunately, that weekend was frigid in the lower 40's–50's. Pair that with the winds coming off Lake Michigan and it quickly became a nuisance.

Before we made our way out to Michigan, we pulled together yet another creative treatment, just to make sure we were all rocking the same vibes. Similar to "Ice Bikes," a lot of the visual tone was to be based around the BPM of a potential soundtrack. I originally found an excellent track by Saint Mesa, titled "Murky," that embraced the moody and brooding tones of the desert. This would ultimately contrast against the epic marching-band nature of our previous edit. I considered doubling-down on the lyrics of "Murky." "Led by fire, led by fate, Murky water covers all." In a way, I envisioned the gritty sand of the dunes being mixed into the fresh waters of Lake Michigan. Justin and Josh were coming in and disturbing the peace bykicking even more of this dirt and grime up into the environment, clouding up these murky waters even more. This would be reminiscent of their rebellious nature in "Ice Bikes." Although we decided against this soundtrack, we loved the overall atmospheric suspense brought from "Fire" by Saint Mesa. It fell right in line with high-highs of the FPV shots and the low-lows of the Freefly Wave sequences. Surprisingly enough, the lyrics "I see fire..." contrasted the ice in "Ice Bikes" perfectly. The more I looked at the slow motion footage of their bikes fish-tailng sand into the air, the more I related it to a flame "coming from below." We may have gotten too meta here. But at the very least, I figured that the Robert Frost poem, "Fire and Ice," would be an easy metaphorical bridge between the two films.

Frankly, it's fairly easy to pull together a high-intensity montage. Find the music that suits the tone and start finding relationships between clips. The more challenging aspect, and arguably the most important, is weaving together a narrative out of thin air. Even though their story is fictitious, it's a great exercise building a character arc around a basic concept. Intro your story with an interesting hook, establish your environment, introduce your characters, and take your audience for a ride.