Pure Sweet Hell

Once upon a time I used to ride bikes, I did road racing, time trials and rode the wooden banked track at our local velodrome in Manchester. That was a long time ago, long before filmmaking, long before my bad knees (I've long since hung up my wheels).

When I learnt that a Super 8 film had been made about cyclocross (the only cycling discipline I never raced in, but often watched in wintery muddy fields) I was excited to say the least.

For those not in the know, cyclocross is a largely underground branch of the cycling fraternity despite it being over 100 years old. Races consist of laps of a short (2 to 3 km) course featuring roads, wooded trails, grass, steep hills, banks and man made obstacles, requiring peak physical fitness from participants both on and off their bikes. Events are held in the Autumn and Winter and riders use heavily modified road racing bikes for the gruelling combination of mud, sweat and gears.

Pure Sweet Hell is an hour long documentary focusing on the North American 'cross scene, made in a reverential style combining an old school surf and skate aesthetic with the grace and beauty of seminal cycling films such as A Sunday in Hell (which follows a classic edition of the gruelling Paris - Roubaix Spring Classic Race) and The Impossible Hour (Ole Ritter's attempt in Mexico City in 1974 to set a new record for the blue ribboned track based time trial).

Santa Cruz residents and Pure Sweet Hell producers Brian Vernor and Willie Bullion are both long time cross racers, Brian has helped build courses, and Willie has managed several high profile teams. Their aim was simple - to do something personal which reflected a commitment to the cyclocross community, hence their Super 8 epic, Pure Sweet Hell.

The film is told from an insider’s perspective, travelling to 'cross competitions throughout North America, and gels vintage photos with Super 8 colour and b&w footage, following luminaries such as Justin Robinson, Gina Hall, Barry Wicks and Rick Hunter through their gruelling, almost ritualistic endeavours.

Shot entirely on Super 8 the film perfectly captures the sights, sounds and essence of this punk rock cousin of mainstream cycling. There are no team masseurs, no support vehicles, there's little sponsorship - this definitely ain't the Tour de France. What it is is dirt, mud, skill, brute force and beauty, all passionately captured within the little frames of Super 8.

After having watched Pure Sweet Hell on a wet and rainy day in February (perfect conditions for this film), I tracked down filmmaker Brian Vernor to ask him some questions about 'cross, Super 8 and the making of Pure Sweet Hell.

How long did it take to make the film?
The film took three years from the very first shoot to the production of the DVD.

What film stock did you use for Pure Sweet Hell, there's a combination of textures and looks throughout the piece?
We used all the major reversal films, Plus-X, Tri-X and Kodachrome as well as using other Kodak reversal stocks. All my favourite parts happen to be in black and white, although I think some colour is a very good thing.

And who did your film processing?
The Kodachrome was done by Kodak, and all the other color reversal and B&W films were processed at Yale in Hollywood.

What telecine process did you use prior to editing?
We used a couple labs and none of the transfers were supervised. We had a very limited budget and this could have easily run into serious money, money we didn't have. I can't really say what the technical side of this was, but there are obvious differences between the transfers in the film in terms of sharpness, contrast, saturation between the various segments within it.

How did you go about editing and producing the DVD as its an ultra slick package?
All our editing was all done at home on a Mac, using MiniDV outputs from the telecine process, this data was then imported to a hard drive. The editing process was painful - a complete learning experience. I actually bought a computer for the first time in my life just to do the editing.

On the finishing side, the packaging was sort of fun but still a lot of work. My friend Shawn Petersen aka The International Friendly (who also designed the website) did the design and I had a lot of input. We wanted the packaging to reflect the spirit of the film, and we're hoping that people see our efforts as timeless - the choice of Super 8 wasn't a retro thing at all.

How easy was the DVD production process - getting your finished film through the production process?
This is a process I have no interest in ever seeing again. All computers, all tech, no fun. That said, friends came through in a big way. Geoff Albert approached me at a screening and offered to help because he is a really nice guy. He does big $ film compression, authoring, etc. and just said "Don't worry about it." We kept it simple regardless.

On the packaging side of things I had a lot more fun. Print processes are something I have more experience with and I liked developing the artwork for the packaging. It's something that says a lot about our film.

How has the film been received?
We've always measured it's success by the reactions of people who know the subject (which has been very positive), but it's also important to break out of the bike community and for the film to be accepted by a larger art and film community. Being included in the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (last month) was huge for us.

What have the US cyclocross community thought?
A lot of people in the community have thanked us, US cyclocross is very grass roots sport and strugles for acceptance (and funding), many folks were happy to see something which acknowledges their passion.

I'm presuming you ride 'cross as the attention to detail is spot on?
Riding bikes is beautiful. Racing 'cross is beautiful and ugly at the same time, it doesn't get any better than experiencing it!

Is there anything technically you'd do differently having being through it all once?
Everything - shooting 24fps, maybe some negative films, cameras with better gates, it would have been nice to know editing software better before starting, more emphasis on sound during production. Making an hour long film was a huge learning experience, I like the finished film and know a lot more from doing it.

Was this a one off Super 8 flick or do you have others planned?
Oh yeah, there's more to come.......


DVDs of the film (in NTSC only) are available from the Pure Sweet Hell website at a cost of $20.00 which can be paid via PayPal.

As sports films go Pure Sweet Hell is both fantastic and fascinating, and the DVD presentation is first rate. If you're in the market for adding some underground Super 8 sports to your film collection, you could do no better!

I'm feeling the need to get back in the saddle!

Giles Perkins

technorati tags - super 8 | cyclocross