Anthill Films: "Follow Me" Premiere

Last night the Airborne Flight crew were all in attendance at the premiere of Anthill Films' new HD freeride mountain biking movie: Follow Me. Tickets were only $10 to get in, so we all jumped on them, with most of us preregistering online, and some buying them on the first day of the Sea Otter.  It's a good thing we all did, because they quickly sold out.

The premiere was held at the Grand Theatre in Monterey, which was a beautiful building styled like a castle.  (You know that theatre had to have made an impression if I referred to the building as "beautiful.")

About the Movie
The movie itself is a work of art!  The cinematography is captivating, and the skill of the riders in the film is unparalleled! With locations ranging from Baja Mexico to "The Shore," to New Zealand, it was definitely filmed on an international level.  The locations chosen for the film were mostly world-famous, except for possibly the segment filmed in a pro's backyard.  But did he ever have a gnarly backyard!  It needs to be seen to believed, and if you pick up the movie once it's out on DVD, you can check it out for yourself!

One of the high points of the film was its length.  Some of the skiing and mountain biking films that I've watched seem to drag on forever, showing the same sort of shots over and over again.   Follow Me is definitely long enough to warrant a DVD purchase, but at 45 minutes it is not so long as to lose your attention with all of the epic shots of riders throwing impossible airs. 

Probably the most significant factor that kept the movie fresh throughout its whole length was the variety of the shots and riding included.  Some parts featured big airs on dirt jumps.  Others were speedy chase scenes through deep forests.  Still others were filmed in bike parks, the wilds of mexico, and exposed, rutted out singletrack in New Zealand. 

The skill with which these shots were taken and edited together was impressive.  There may be a couple seconds of helmet cam footage, then a running cable cam shot, a shot from a helicopter, a shot from someone just standing right next to the trail filming, and then one from a camera set on the ground to capture an interesting angle.  These different clips were edited together with such skill that the whole length of the movie was just a beautiful mountain bike gnar fest!

Atmosphere of the Premiere
While watching this movie at home on your HD flat screen is bound to be a trip, the way that you really need to experience this film is packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a theatre with a thousand other die-hard mountain bike fans.  That place was off the chain! Whenever a rider would throw a trick or stunt that was truly noteworthy or insanely dangerous, everyone would cheer, gasp, clap, or shout at the top of their lungs in turn. The atmosphere was unbelievable! 

One other item of interest that I really noted and was impressed with was how down to earth the professional riders in the film were.  We had been running into different massively famous pros and ex pros all throughout Sea Otter, including some of the ones in Follow Me. Right after we sat down, we quickly realized that several of the featured riders were sitting right in front of us.  What really impressed me was how they took the praise of people screaming their names in stride, but did not seem to get all cocky and full of themselves at all.  No, these guys were real people with a good dose of humility.  They are just fortunate enough (and work hard enough) to be so dang good at riding mountain bikes that they can make a living from it.


I am so glad that I was able to show up and have the experience of watching this incredible movie with a thousand screaming fans and the pros that made it!  I've embedded the trailer below.  Be sure to pick this up on DVD once it's available!


Follow Me - the Teaser from Anthill Films on Vimeo.