Vol. 10
So you think you know your history? This month’s Cut Culture is putting that to the test with a cinematic journey through the ages. It's also time to separate the real fans from the plastics, as we’re sharing a BTS look at our latest shoot with a brand that embodies proper football heritage. Topping it all off, we’ll give you an intro to one of the talented bunch who made our 5-day Mitre mission across the UK the success that (we think you'll agree...) it undoubtedly was.
Cut Culture
Grab the Popcorn.
If, like us, your knowledge of Swedish film festivals isn’t quite what it could be, you’re likely unaware that the Göteborg Film Festival is world renowned for its historic predilection for bizarre PR stunts and promo campaigns. Previous years have seen a viewer spend a week alone in a lighthouse watching back-to-back films and people watching horror films in a tomb. This year, they’re launching the festival with this hypnotic masterpiece. The video in itself is something to behold even on just an entirely superficial level, but digging deeper and scratching beneath the surface just a little bit reveals a smorgasbord of cinematic history easter eggs. Indeed, so many easter eggs, that once you spot one you feel compelled to watch over and over in order to find them all - which in itself makes it an incredibly successful campaign idea. From Hitchcock, to Polanski, to Kubrick, to Lynch, to the Wachowskis (probably not so much for the most recent Matrix…) - there’s probably a nod somewhere in there to one of your favourite filmmakers. Top class. Now I just need to work out where Göteborg is and how the hell to get there.
Life Cycle.
We usually like to feature videos that have at least one unique element to them that makes them stand out from the crowd. Sometimes it’s the camera work, sometimes it’s the sound design, sometimes it’s a masterful edit - typically, though, it will pertain to some sort of technical production excellence. Not that this video isn’t technically brilliant in its own right, but what makes it exceptional is the environment in which it’s set. Granted, Mother Nature is largely to thank for that, but we ought not gloss over the skill required to highlight and amplify the sublime natural world in all its glory. Considering this was produced by Shimano, a cycling company, it’s easy to lose focus on Brett Rheeder racing through the foreground and just be entirely distracted by the background. However, as implied by the name of the video, the rider provides a representation of the continuous between all of these slightly different but equally breathtaking landscapes. And as impressive as the riding is, the camera work to do it all justice is simply on another level. Properly masterful work. It would be enough to compel me to buy a mountain bike, but the only place near me to ride it is an abandoned quarry, so maybe it’s best just to leave it to the pros.
BTS
A 5-person crew on a 5-day trip around the UK to capture the very essence of what real football means at its core. No sweat. And when we say no sweat, we mean that in an entirely literal sense, because temperatures barely creeped above 0ºC for the entire duration of the trip. And, not to be dramatic, when we got to Scotland, it couldn’t have been any warmer than -30. Certainly felt that way, at least.
From atmospheric council owned Sunday league pitches outside Manchester, to Edinburgh pub-based ‘Peace Talks’ between rival fans, to a potential FA Cup giant-killing, along with a stop-off at the legendary Wallsend Boys Club (former stomping ground of Messrs Beardsley, Bruce, Carrick and Shearer, to name a few) - we wanted to capture the full plethora of the game that any proper football fan can appreciate.
The highlight of our trip was getting to head down to the Silverlands to document non-league Buxton FC’s FA Cup 2nd round clash with League 1 Morecambe. It would have been even better had Buxton managed to pull off the unthinkable and turn them over, but sadly it wasn’t to be, as they crashed out following a 1-0 defeat in which they showed grit, heart and determination in spades. The chip butties weren’t bad, neither. Batman approves.
Check out some of the final films and stills along with some BTS gems below.
Radar
Oliver Dahmen - DOP.
Since it was such a Herculean effort, we thought it would only be right to give some shine to one of the core members of our monster Mitre mission. Introducing Ollie Dahmen, a DOP who had been working on bits for the BBC for years but has recently been moving more into fashion, sport and lifestyle content. He’s already built up a stellar track record, having produced outstanding work for the likes of FILA, Chanel, Balenciaga, Adidas, William Hill, Vogue and a load more that we won’t name drop, in the interest of brevity. And, more importantly (to us at least), he shot all of our Buxton FC Mitre work down at the Silverlands. At the time of writing, we’re also about to shoot some work with Ollie for Kappa, so keep an eye out for that in the near future (maybe even in next month’s Cut Culture…).