FreeRide Mountain Biking Aerials - 2013 Reel

TJ Sheridan heads to the Utah desert to film three local freeride mountain bikers as they hit their favorite trails. Filmed from a custom built remote control multirotor with gimbal-balanced GoPro Hero3 camera, this film showcases TJ's flying & editing skills, and the bikers willingness to risk it all for the thrill of the ride.
Featured in this video are the amazing KC Deane (blue shirt with green bike), Logan Whitehead (yellow outfit), and Cody Kelley (Red Shirt).
Due to music copyright for the Alterbridge "Cry of Achilles" song I used (because it's beyond awesome), some international viewers will be blocked. The video is also available on Vimeo here:
vimeo.com/83013652
Go to www.birdseyevideos.com for more about my flying services.

[@DragonFlyAerialsLLC]

Incredible riding, flying, choreography, editing...the whole package...outstanding job!

[@michaelkunst9017]

I live in Utah, and didn't know that place exists. Awesome video!!!

[@timewithpapaandpiya]

Todd. Our mutual friend Dave Mooy turned me onto your work tonight. I, in turn have shared this with half a dozen people tonight. Love, love, love your work oh talented one!!

[@KJ4CTZ]

Awesome as always. Very nice job.

[@lu7432]

Hey Todd, Thanks for all the great Videos I am from Utah also and fly the grim reaper, have been doing some line of sight videos with you as a roll model and like to use your videos as a goal to some day get close to the quality.. so excited to see more videos on the way, Happy Holidays :)

[@dms2610]

Loving it, great work and sweet edit

[@calidave88]

More superb work Todd!

[@JDDupuy]

kick butt video! Great job...............

[@perfectlylonely]

Thumbs Up for the riders!

[@toddsher2112]

Amen to that! Great riders, and also great guys!

[@hoverstate_]

Wow, simply amazing. Great flying. Hope to be at that level one day. As of right now I'm using the Dji phantom V1.1.1 with gopro hero3+ black edition. Keep up the good work.

[@Soldier53flyer]

The Olympic games should be sponsored, and held there and this should be the only place to ride for the brave! WOW my heart is still pounding. :-0

[@toddsher2112]

The sequences with Logan Whitehead (in the yellow outfit) were shot right next to the Red Bull Rampage competition site, which is essentially the freeriding mountainbike "Olympics". If you haven't seen Rampage, search on KZbin and you'll see some REALLY insane riding.

[@Soldier53flyer]

TJ Sheridan Thank you I will.

[@4SeasonsPowersports]

Killer video. It was great to meet you at the film festival. Keep up the good work!!

[@toddsher2112]

Great to meet you too. It was my hope in going to the festival that I'd meet some other local aerial pilots, so thanks for showing! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[@neato4u]

Fantastic!

[@christianperry7527]

Great job Todd!

[@toddsher2112]

Thanks dude! Lemme know when you've got some time to head out and film. I'm itching to go!

[@RolexDSSD]

Sick.

[@peppercat262]

Excellent flying. The framing blew me away at that speed. You've built yourself one excellent rig - impressive camera decoupling. 2.7K or 1080?

[@toddsher2112]

Paul, thank you sir! Glad you enjoyed it. Framing shots on a 2-axis camera rig like this is a challenge and requires a lot of practice, especially since I'm controlling the camera myself rather than using a second camera operator. But what that does is empowers the pilot/cameraman to make split-second decisions about framing and flying at the same time, and execute immediately without discussion. The downside is if you make a bad decision in the flying, the camera operator can't compensate for that independently. :) I film in 2.7k for that reason, it gives me control in post to pan/scan and crop the edits and smooth out little hiccups in the flying. It also gives me latitude to do image stabilization in post to clean up air turbulence or a twitchy thumb. :) The entire opening sequence of this film was filmed in very turbulent air, 30 mph gusts, so 2.7k is critical to getting good footage on windy days.

[@bophoto]

WOW WOW WOW.. TJ that is absolutely amazing work, one of the best aerial reels I have ever seen. Incredible dynamic camera moves, curious do you use the goggle head-tracker for tilting the camera.? (I just started playing with that for single operator quad gimbals)

[@toddsher2112]

:) Nope, no head tracker, though that'd be cool. I've always wanted to try one, just haven't really felt a need. I have the tilt programmed on a slider.

[@bophoto]

TJ Sheridan Amazing work regardless how it was done. the pan and follow on that jump is incredible well done. Bout the head-tracker, I use it with the zeuhf, plug-n-play, and easy to understand, simply look up or down to frame a shot.

[@toddsher2112]

Bo Lorentzen The problem I have with head-trackers is that when I fly, I tilt my head all over the place... I lean my whole BODY into moves and maneuvers. The experience is so immersive I have a hard time NOT doing it. Plus I don't want subtle head movements messing up an otherwise stable and locked down camera position. Head-Trackers are great if you're flying for fun, but I'll wager if you want your camera stable and locked in, putting a head-tracker on a guy like me would just make a mess of the video. :) I also frequently lift my head to look under my goggles at the actual aircraft or the terrain so I can get bearings and make decisions on the flight direction. That'd completely mess up shots.

[@bophoto]

LOL.... +1 to that.. the FPV tweak. Pretty much Im running into related issues, if you turn too much then the tract have to be reset. Just wait until Greg (fatshark) finally release his 70deg FOV goggles, immersive will be off the scale.

[@toddsher2112]

Bo Lorentzen Seriously! That's why I'm still using my old HeadPlays, for the wide FOV. And because I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for those new Fatshark HD's to come out. I love that he cares enough to delay until the product is really tuned before putting it out, but the wait is killing me.

[@jsleuth11]

Holy hotness!

[@Soldier53flyer]

Free Ride to he!! with taking Ease! you guys Rocked it! Great riding, and flying! Man that looks fun! Did it take you all day to get to the top?

[@toddsher2112]

Took the bikers a long time to hike up in some of those spots, but I just stayed down at the bottom and flew my camera up on the hovercraft when they were ready to ride. :) I'm lazy that way.

[@Soldier53flyer]

TJ Sheridan But what a ride! and a good flight! I done a lot on a dirt bike but never with out a motor, I'm lazy like that too! lol Great job to all!

[@toddsher2112]

Soldier53flyer I wonder how much more difficult it would be to film a guy on a motorized dirt bike. Haven't tried that yet. The speed will be harder to match, I'm sure. But imagine the JUMPS you could film! And you could film guys riding UP stuff instead of only DOWN it. It's much easier for a pilot to ascend than descend with a hovercraft, so that part would be cool.

[@jsleuth11]

Super stuff. What tools do you use to edit/colorize/de-shake?

[@ErikJohnsonFMA]

great video! do you have a co-pilot aiming the camera on your flying rig?

[@toddsher2112]

Thanks! And to answer your question: nope. I'm a one-man operation. Takes some practice to fly & compose the shots, but it's incredibly fun.

[@trailtreker7002]

Music with words killed the video after about 1 minute in ........stick to sound tracks that are majestic.

[@toddsher2112]

This happens to be one of my all-time favorite rock songs by one of my favorite bands, and it perfectly fits the subject matter! While I also prefer majestic soundtracks for most aerial cinema, as you know if you've seen my work, this one was an exception. These guys risked life and limb to get good shots, so they deserved something to match their energy and dedication. Their sport is not well served by peaceful soundtracks. That's my opinion of course, but since I'm the one making the film, that's the one I'll go with. :) Cheers, and thanks for watching.