Shooting for nostalgia The Taunton Tape By Tyler J. Manning

Aug 31, 2020

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 3505 times

Four years worth of filming across the South-West of England came together for a project that was conceived from nothing more than a joke between two friends who were, at the time, taking a break from filming a suicide-no-hander clip at the bottom of a four stair. “We might as well make a DvD at this rate,” one of them laughed, as he picked the ends of his worn grips. “We’ve stacked enough clips for one, I tell you that!”
“Why don’t we then?” suggested the other..
“That's a mad idea, lad… What would we even call it?”
“Um, I don’t know. The Taunton ‘something’, I guess.”

This marked the beginning of the end for the free space on my hard drive, for as soon as the word got out that we were planning on shooting a DvD, the clips began to roll in faster than I could sort through them. From Unit 23 in Dumbarton to Dean Lane in Bristol, we filmed everywhere, from the small decaying skateparks in the middle of Cheddar to the legendary UK street spots like the Bristol hip - and we did all this while jibbin’ on every curb, bus stop and bench along the way.

Many of the clips that you’ll find in the video were shot throughout Taunton and its single skatepark, and though we thought we had dried out our local spots of all their potential, we somehow managed to come up with new and innovative bangers, such as Chandler Brittain’s tightnit tyer ride at the back of the Somerset cricket ground, landing at speed and dodging the murky canal by little to nothing (03:06). Or what about Nate Komane’s grimmy switch feeble easy 360 - it reminded me of something out of an Animal edit (13:42) - and how could I forget about Sam Burditt’s switch smith, up, nose manuel, drop smith, easy 360 out (23:00). Through all these savage clips and the pain to both bank account and bones that they brought, we knew that this video was never going to be the next Deadline or Monster Mash, but it didn’t matter, because we never went out to shoot something for the masses, we went out to shoot something that we wanted to remember - and we had a hell of a time doing it.

What was your motivation to make a full length BMX video?
Tyler J Manning: I think what it came down to was the idea that we were never going to be riding our bikes forever, so we knew we had to capture as much as we could while we could. I guess I could also say I personally did for the nostalgia trip that was awaiting me in my fifties.

In the world of Insta clips, do you miss the full length videos?
Tyler J Manning: Of course I miss full length videos, but I think too many riders want the instant satisfaction that instagram provides instead of waiting for the grand pay off that a video part provides.

How much talent (riders) do you have around to shoot with?
Tyler J Manning: There's been plenty, but unfortunately there aren’t many that I know of that still ride anymore. There is one rider you should keep your eye out for though: Sam Burditt (@samburditt) he’s been working on something for a while and I just know it's going to be well worth the wait.

How many spots do you have on disposal in the South-West of England?
Tyler J Manning: South-West has too many spots to count, but for our home hub of Taunton, there aren’t as many as we would have liked over our shooting period.

Is the weather generally better in your area? Did you have to reschedule many sessions?
Tyler J Manning: No matter the weather there was always a session to be had, whether that was having a session on a single manual pad under the cover of the multistory car park in the centre of town or on skate 3, dropping triple backflip christ airs at the mega park.

Music pick. You've got some great songs in the video. Rights free?
Tyler J Manning: Rights free!? Hell no. One of the riders in the tape, Nate Komane (@natee_kom) is a really talented music producer when he wants to be, so really, I should have had him cook up some beats, but instead I chose songs based on the personalities of each single rider.

What equipment do you use for filming/editing?
Tyler J Manning: I made do with what I had around me, and that was a Canon 600D with a Samyang 8mm fisheye, a Helios 44mm F/2, Canon 18-55mm and a macbook pro with final cut Pro.

Do you have any new projects in the works?
Tyler J Manning: Yes, there is a little something in the early stages of pre-production but unfortunately that's all I can say. (Non Bmx related.)

Where can people check out your videos?
Tyler J Manning: My instagram will be the main source of project information: @tylerjmanning

Last words?
Tyler J Manning: It doesn’t matter what you film with or how good your editing skills are, or whether you can backflip or ice hard 180, because at the end of the day, you should just go out and make something you're proud of.

A special thanks goes out to Bart de Jong for being the man and letting me write this article.

The Taunton Tape
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