Why Do Mountain Bike Films Do So Bad?

I'm curious to hear what all your thoughts are, what you like and dislike about mountain bike films as of now? What would make them better?

For the people who don't buy mtb films, why not? What would have to change for you to buy one?

I'm just wondering because I may or may not be making a film, and if I am I don't want it to turn out to be like every other film out there and not do well. So I thought I would ask the people who would be watching it for their advice.

This would not be a low budget film

Thanks for any opinions/comments!

very small market

/end thread.

Define "do so bad". Take The Collective/Roam..both were HUGELY successful in the mtb world but were largely a failure when compared to "real" movies.

I buy mtb films just not a lot of them…why? I find most are of little interest to me.

I like dh/racing videos. We own 3 freeride movies; the collective, roam and stripped. Everything else is race driven.

Why do i buy what I buy? Because I love watching race footage and the non-race coverage is still full of amazing riding and fun times.

The market isn't really small though. About 2,000,000 people ride and own freeride/DH bikes in North America alone.

To tell you the truth, the Collective/Roam aren't much of a success. I wouldn't consider selling to 1/30 of the riders in the sport all that great. Look at surfing, the best films have sold millions to people who don't even surf.

grommets pretty much want a snowboard movie but with bikes.

but seriously does anyone actually have time to watch a bike movie more than a few times???

edit: other than stripped of course

I would consider what the collective is doing a success…considering they have won awards and forced a complete change in the pace that bike movies are being done..one should definitely consider that a success. It definitely goes well beyond monetary ROI (cultural shift ROI would be far more important to me).

Surfing will always be far more successful money/exposure wise. The sponsors have more money and are willing to put in as much as it takes…there is national/international coverage of almost all events and the sport is not seen as a renegade sport anymore. Bad comparison.

I'm not going to vote cause my ideal video isn't up there…..Epic freeride. I like to ride where other people, just like when I hike or climb. I love watching guys rip it up in locations where peoeple don't mountain bike, plus a multi hour hike-a-bike makes the ride down that much sweeter.

I'm not going to vote cause my ideal video isn't up there…..Epic freeride. I like to ride where other people, just like when I hike or climb. I love watching guys rip it up in locations where peoeple don't mountain bike, plus a multi hour hike-a-bike makes the ride down that much sweeter.

There is an "other" option

I would consider what the collective is doing a success…considering they have won awards and forced a complete change in the pace that bike movies are being done..one should definitely consider that a success. It definitely goes well beyond monetary ROI (cultural shift ROI would be far more important to me).

Surfing will always be far more successful money/exposure wise. The sponsors have more money and are willing to put in as much as it takes…there is national/international coverage of almost all events and the sport is not seen as a renegade sport anymore. Bad comparison.

Would you have considered the Down videos as a "huge success"? They won awards for their time, but I still wouldn't have considered them as a success unless you are comparing them to what has been done before. They were better as is the Collective now, but the numbers are still not close to impressive. This all depends on how you define successful. I liked the film, as did you, so they were successful on that level. But the fact that such a small number of the mountain biking population did not buy the film would ultimately be considered as a failure on that level. I'm not saying that it was a bad film, because it wasn't. It just wasn't good enough to sell to even a tenth of the MTB DH/Freeride population.

There are obviously some problems with the films that are currently available, and many of you will disagree, but there is no reason why there can't be a mtb film that attracts more mtbers..

I would like to ask the people who don't worship the Collective/Roam/Disorder what the problems are with these films and others, and why they wouldn't buy them, and what would have to be changed in order to appeal to you.

It is more fun to ride than to watch. /thread

It is more fun to ride than to watch. /thread

except I like movies like "between the tape" because they pump you up for riding… except it was a little repetitive

mo nakid chicks.

Tired of 20 minutes of backflips and tables. Surf videos tell about the people vibing to the sport and have low key music. Mtn bike vids are in your face with 2 second clips of backflips to cheap metal (usually).

putting people like carlin dunne in movies contributes to them not doing so well