"The Calling" Shadows premier bmx video

Jan 23, 2006

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 9329 times

When I put the Shadow Conspiracy DVD in the player I was expecting some weird stuff. For some reason the "different" ad campaign and commercials around the Shadow brand made me think that way. I'm glad to tell you that my expectations were wrong. Sure, the team rider intros had this Shadow vibe to them with red lighting and CSI like editing but soon after it was straight to the BMX bike for lots of street riding and also lots of dirt.

The dirt part was a nice surprise. I didn't know all the team riders (Alistair Whitton, John Jennings, Joe Simon, Byron Anderson and Ryan Sher) could shred it on dirt too. The most part of the video is real street stuff with lots of rails, banks and ledges. With the riders coming from all corners of the USA the video had different spots too. Sometimes they even took it to the roof to film some exclusive footy. The trips that the team has done has also contributed to never seen before riding spots. The editing had a strong UGP feel to it. I remember that back in the day UGP came out with a video that was just fresh. This one is the same. Basically the DVD gives every team rider a section with friends and flow parts in between. These parts take you all over the world with sections from a.o. Kenji (Japan), Dimitri Ivanov and Alex Dropsy (France) and Owain Clegg (UK). Again, new spots to drool over.

The music is brilliant and the extra's are worth a watch (or two). The photo section is well done how they make the photos alive by adding some camera/photo movement. The crash section is harsh. The trails section is sweet (I love it). The extra riding is worth checking out and still has a bunch of bangers that didn't make the cut to the 27 minute main video. You can watch the Shadow Conspiracy commercials once again to understand what I was on about in the beginning of this review. I never really got into the ads but I sure am into this video.

BdJ