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The annual King of the Hammers film is due out any day now. I was privileged to see an advance copy of it, and have written the following review. I highly recommend it. Please share.
A trailer can be seen here;
‘Element of Survival’ - Hammerking Productions and HeavyMetalConcepts
Having attended every KOH since 2008, I’ve watched the growth of the sport, the growth of the organization and the growth of the technology which includes the annual documentary that chronicles the event. In the past I’ve been less than impressed with some of the movies, but have not really been vocal about any perceived shortcomings as it was an emerging sport run by people that had little to no experience in producing films, and after all, they did it and I didn’t. All of that has changed; Element of Survival is two hours of awesome high-speed camera work, behind the scene profiles of some top racers, and some great coverage of all the events outside the main.
The opening montage is a mix of footage from the qualifying course, race footage and lots of helicopter shots, backed by an original song from Zero Sum. My review was from a lower quality youtube clip, but it was still immersing and the audio track was well balanced, I can only assume the finished product will be better, probably much better. Some may not find this important, but as I make my living providing sound and video, it can be a deal breaker for me, but most of the time in the film I was just enjoying the content and not looking for errors, (I’m not the best person to go to the movies with).
As you might expect Element of Survival is laid out mostly in chronological order, so the King of the Motos is the first coverage and I could only shake my head in amazement at the skill and endurance those riders need to complete the course. It was a nice mix of overhead and closeups…as in the riders boot almost comes in contact with the camera on occasion.
The UTV, EMC, Spec and Legends class coverage was balanced as well, with some driver interviews, and a good primer on what the different class regulations are, and how some drivers of note are racing in two or more classes throughout the week.
On to the main event. I never got tired of the rooster tails of dirt in corners, or dust trails in the high speed desert sections. If you pay attention, there is some nice editing in the way the coverage switches from ground level or in-car to heilo shots, the crash of Big Ugly during qualifying is a nice example of this. Also the in-car GoPro footage is great, and the audio from the driver to the co-driver is clear. The Miller Motorsports and Bomberfab teams provide some good comedy at 80mph, oh and Flash and Mustard Dog provide a bad example of driving safety.
The interviews with the drivers proves that this has become a very serious endeavor, but the fact that they all know each other by first name, and more than a little about each other shows that it’s still a great sport for the sportsman racer, and that just about anyone can be a part of it.
If you know nothing about the sport or know someone that wants to be a part of it, then this is a great first step. Or, if you’ve been going out to Johnson Valley forever or know some of the players in the sport, it’s great to see them on film doing what we’d all love to do.
A trailer can be seen here;
‘Element of Survival’ - Hammerking Productions and HeavyMetalConcepts
Having attended every KOH since 2008, I’ve watched the growth of the sport, the growth of the organization and the growth of the technology which includes the annual documentary that chronicles the event. In the past I’ve been less than impressed with some of the movies, but have not really been vocal about any perceived shortcomings as it was an emerging sport run by people that had little to no experience in producing films, and after all, they did it and I didn’t. All of that has changed; Element of Survival is two hours of awesome high-speed camera work, behind the scene profiles of some top racers, and some great coverage of all the events outside the main.
The opening montage is a mix of footage from the qualifying course, race footage and lots of helicopter shots, backed by an original song from Zero Sum. My review was from a lower quality youtube clip, but it was still immersing and the audio track was well balanced, I can only assume the finished product will be better, probably much better. Some may not find this important, but as I make my living providing sound and video, it can be a deal breaker for me, but most of the time in the film I was just enjoying the content and not looking for errors, (I’m not the best person to go to the movies with).
As you might expect Element of Survival is laid out mostly in chronological order, so the King of the Motos is the first coverage and I could only shake my head in amazement at the skill and endurance those riders need to complete the course. It was a nice mix of overhead and closeups…as in the riders boot almost comes in contact with the camera on occasion.
The UTV, EMC, Spec and Legends class coverage was balanced as well, with some driver interviews, and a good primer on what the different class regulations are, and how some drivers of note are racing in two or more classes throughout the week.
On to the main event. I never got tired of the rooster tails of dirt in corners, or dust trails in the high speed desert sections. If you pay attention, there is some nice editing in the way the coverage switches from ground level or in-car to heilo shots, the crash of Big Ugly during qualifying is a nice example of this. Also the in-car GoPro footage is great, and the audio from the driver to the co-driver is clear. The Miller Motorsports and Bomberfab teams provide some good comedy at 80mph, oh and Flash and Mustard Dog provide a bad example of driving safety.
The interviews with the drivers proves that this has become a very serious endeavor, but the fact that they all know each other by first name, and more than a little about each other shows that it’s still a great sport for the sportsman racer, and that just about anyone can be a part of it.
If you know nothing about the sport or know someone that wants to be a part of it, then this is a great first step. Or, if you’ve been going out to Johnson Valley forever or know some of the players in the sport, it’s great to see them on film doing what we’d all love to do.
