Will Stroud, age 31, from Raleigh, North Carolina, Greenhouse BMX team manager and video producer
gear-
Panasonic HVX-200 with Century Xtreme HD Fisheye
Canon 7d with various prime lenses and Canon 17-55mm zoom lens
Macbook Pro with Seagate & Lacie external drives for traveling
Mac Pro Desktop with 30″ Apple Cinema display for my home office
Arri Lighting kit
Bogen & Libec tripods
Filmer board
I try to keep a pretty basic/minimal setup gear wise. It’s not about having all this fancy equipment; it’s about what you can do with what you have…
what got you into video?
I seemed to always get hurt riding around my late high school/early college days. I’d still go to the trails a lot when I couldn’t ride and I decided to pick up a camera to document my friends riding and having fun in the woods. I quickly became very interested in learning more about cameras/filming as I was also really into watching every BMX video I could get my hands on. That was back in the VHS days before DVDs or web videos…
what inspires you to create?
A lot of things inspire me. I try to surround myself with smart and creative people and feed off their passions/ideas/work ethic. I work pretty closely with all the guys at Greenhouse in Ohio and they are all smart and creative individuals and I have much respect for those guys. I also find inspiration in just everyday life activities. I could be driving my car, playing with my kids or just watching a nice sunset and I will find that ideas just randomly pop into my head…I try to write everything down as I’m pretty forgetful.
what are your ideal conditions for filming?
If I could strike a deal with mother nature then the ideal conditions would be for me to have magic hour lighting for an entire day of shooting at a dope spot…..that would be pretty amazing wouldn’t it?
what problems do you often come across as a filmer/editor?
Security guards, bad weather, spots are crowded, filming at some spots during weekdays versus weekend are all problems most filmers have experienced at some point. It’s just part of filming BMX and you have to accept it. As an editor problems can be that you might not have enough footage for the song you want to use, or you make an edit you’re really proud of and you learn that someone else has used that song right before you drop the edit.
any favorite spots to film at, people to film with?
I love filming at any spots with smooth surfaces for filming lines while skating, and spots that you can take your time setting up cool shots where you’re not going to get the boot from security. Can’t think of any specific spots at the moment but the entire city of Barcelona comes to mind. There are so many people I like filming with that it would be hard to list them all, but here’s a few people that I’ve recently filmed with that was a good time: Chris Doyle, Tony Neyer, Drew York, Biz, Corey Martinez, Garrett Reynolds, Chase Dehart, Dakota Roche, Nathan Williams, Sean Sexton, Bruno Hoffmann, Dave Thompson, Brian Yeagle, Lima, Dan Lacey, Van Homan, Brian Kachinsky, Josh Harrington, Dennis Enarson, Seth Kimbrough, Christian Rigal, Scotty Cranmer, Harry Main….this list could go on forever and ever…. I really just enjoy filming with guys that care as much as I do about whatever project we’re working on.
is there a particular clip from a video that youve seen that you always think about?
Yes, there is a clip that I filmed of Nathan Williams in Barcelona a few months ago that sticks out in my mind. The spot we were at happened to have an escalator right next to it so I used it for the shot and it came out amazing. Our timing was perfect and it just so happened to be magic hour so I was lucky we rolled up to that spot at the perfect time to make it happen. I’m going to save it for the Cinema DVD.
any tips or advice to n00b filmers?
My advice to anyone getting into filming BMX is to just film your friends riding as much as possible. Watch your footage and take mental notes on what you could do to make your footage look better next time you film (camera settings, shot size, framing, etc). And once you start editing your footage to music you’ll probably have ideas for shots you wish you had that you can remember to film for your next project. Learn from your mistakes, critique your own footage and ask questions. Trial and error is the best way of learning. Also, there are endless camera forums online that can give you tech support if you run into problems or just have basic camera questions.
Push It A Stop 