Mega by Day, Mega by Night
Reimagining the world-famous Megavalanche race
The challenge
Chain Reaction, one of the world’s biggest bike retailers, challenged us to visualise their repositioning to a pure mountain bike focus with a film that speaks directly to the core fan.
The brief was simple, but the ambition was Mega.
Work with the Continental Nukeproof Factory team riders
Feature Chain Reaction’s partnership with the iconic Megavalanche event
Show us something we’ve never seen before
So, how did we take those ingredients and bring a special campaign to life?
Day and night
Watch any videos from Megavalanche, and you’ll understand the chaos of the race. Hundreds of riders set off together at the top of a glacier, riding down a mixture of snow and trails, thankful to get down in one piece. Complete carnage.
So, how could we show the event in a different light? Well, as it turns out, a light was the answer.
From the mayhem of the mass start, we stripped it all back to feature two single riders descending at night, illuminated only by a drone carrying a 1,000-watt LED light.
The riders—rising stars Ronan Dunne and Louise Ferguson—would battle limited visibility and a fair lack of sleep to send it down the Alpe d’Huez trails in almost complete darkness, match cut with their daytime action.
An amazing concept. But this wasn’t going to be a straightforward shoot.
Making it happen
This project was a massive win for the pre-production team.
Thought shooting up the top of a glacier was hard to plan? Try doing it at night, with no cable car access and only the most basic shelter, while watching a thunderstorm rolling its way in from Italy.
Not to mention the two elite athletes who didn’t want their seasons ended by a sleep deprivation-induced crash!
Big props to our amazing producers who managed to pull off the remarkable and make this shoot fly by with a puncture and frozen drone batteries being the only minor hiccups.
A truly Mega shoot for everyone involved.
