Making the Cut: Skate the Museum
Senior Creative and ‘Skate the Museum’ Director Caitlin Black takes us behind the scenes of this incredible project.
We’ve been on the receiving end of some wildly exciting briefs from Red Bull in the last couple of years at Cut Media. Capturing a world-first FPV drone shot in Chile? Done. Watching kitesurfers jump over a massive ship in South Africa? Been there.
Around the same time we delivered that kitesurfing project, Red Bull UK reached out with an idea that sounded unbelievable but also so Red Bull: could we take some of the world’s best skaters and give them free rein of the Natural History Museum, at night?
It was like being a kid visiting the museum for the first time again. Total excitement. This was going to be one of those once in a lifetime projects you can guarantee will never be done again.
And I couldn’t wait.
Can we jump a dinosaur?
Location confirmed, the first question was ‘what can we do with this space?’ Having already been confirmed by Red Bull to star in the film, we brought along Leticia Bufoni and ramp builder Joe Ciaglia to let them tell us what they wanted to skate.
We knew that the main atrium offered so much potential. A huge space, we’d be able to build custom ramps without putting too many priceless artefacts at risk. Being so iconic, it would also be the perfect place to host our final shot: something special where the audience would think ‘how did they get this?’
“To a core audience, it’s really obvious when someone makes a skate film without much knowledge of the sport”
Key to the film performing was getting the right style. The lo-fi, analogue style of skate is synonymous in a way that few other sports hold. While exciting for us to explore this world in what is our first skate film, it comes with its own pressures.
To a core audience, it’s really obvious when someone makes a skate film without much knowledge of the sport. That’s why we work with specialised filmmakers to make sure we’re always speaking authentically about the sport we’re working within.
The challenge for us was to engage core fans with a film that would represent the once in a lifetime feel we had on set, while still remaining accessible to Red Bull’s massive wider sports audience.
The aim was to capture a wide mixture of content, ranging from athlete-led user generated content through to a showstopping final shot. Did someone mention a 60 camera array?
Our athletes
One of the project highlights came through working with four incredible female skaters. Leticia is a legend of the sport with 6x X Games gold medals. Lore Bruggeman and Aldana Bertran are two growing names on the scene.
Then we had Margie Didal.
Margie was originally lined up to skate in the film, but unfortunately pulled out due to injury. What we lost in her skating ability, however, was more than made up for with her energy on set.
As our unofficial hype girl, Margie kept the athletes (and crew) going through the night while also getting stuck in as a camera op, adding a new dynamic to the shoot.
Despite her lack of experience with camera in hand, Margie turned out to be a quick learner and her knowledge of skate helped bring a new angle to our shots. When aiming for that user generated feel, there’s nothing more natural than giving the athletes a camera and just letting them have some fun. The true meaning of a skate session.
The kit breakdown
Want to shoot a really wide mixture of user generated and polished content? A wide selection of cameras might help.
Pretty lucky then that one of the partners for this project was Canon!
Usually when we’re making a kit list, we’re working out what can be covered with our in-house kit and supplementing any requirements with hires. For Skate the Museum, Canon told us to head to their website and pick what we wanted. No limits.
It was like Christmas Day for the creatives!
What it allowed us to do was experiment with lots of different shooting styles. On set we had a Canon C500, 2x C300s, a C70 for gimbal tracking, and the XF605 camcorder with fisheye lens for the classic skate aesthetic.
Also on set were a couple of PTZ cameras which were great for overview shots and creating the crash zoom effect (seen at 03:00 in the main film).
We also brought in 4x Powershot V10 vlogging cameras to give to the athletes and let them shoot their own angles, including while skating alongside. Perfect for bringing audiences right into the action.
P.S hear more about how we brought this film to life with Canon in their Shutter Stories podcast:
One special night at the museum
For this once in a lifetime project, we needed a closing shot worthy of our location and the level of ability our athletes were bringing.
The idea of an array-style originated from classic skate photography, where complex tricks that happen in the blink of an eye can be captured by a single image. Combining with the theme of evolution that led throughout the project, we had an idea.
So there we were in the main hall. In the middle, a huge ramp that would send our athletes over a raptor. Surrounding them, the 60 Canon DSLRs that would bring this shot to life.
Taking over 3 hours to set up, we gave ourselves the whole night to experiment with this shot. And it was so worth it. From trail-like movements that resembled paintings to using flash to capture a single moment in time, we got a rare opportunity to try different things and make the most of this chance.
Even better, the software used meant that we could review each array as it happened. Great for us, yes, but even better for the athletes. It’s rare they get to see footage like that live on set but what it allowed them to do was push each other to really get the most out of the setup. Plus you could see the energy that came from them running round to the screen after every jump!
Unforgettable
I’ve used the line a few times, but there was so much about this project that made it once in a lifetime for all of us. The location, the athletes, the crew, the array; each element came together to make this a project to remember.
Going into it there was always this fear that with it being so big and special an occasion we’d struggle to make the authentic film we hoped for.
The reality was so different. Everyone came onto set with some incredible energy and enthusiasm for what we were doing, even if it was 3am! What an experience for us all.
