A month ago, I got an email saying I had been selected to a short list of Garmin employees to audition for a cycling product promotional video. I kind of considered it implausible because I don’t consider myself that much of a legitimate road cyclist since most of my riding is either casual or TT, but I figured I’d give it a whirl. I auditioned, and much to my surprise, they picked me. Two days of filming and a few weeks of editing later, here is the final product created to promote the Edge 520.

Here are a few behind the scene pictures from the video shoot:

Day 1 shooting took place on the southeast corner of Lake Olathe near Olathe, KS.

Mornings involved a lot of pre-shoot planning to make sure things worked when the camera rolled. The video shoot matra is “Hurry up and wait”, given that things need to happen fast and then they usually take a long time.

For the outdoor shots, maintaining the camera at a close and consistent distance from me was key to providing good framing and focus. That meant riding in close proximity in front of, behind, or next to a ’91 Ford truck up a gravel-strewn road. 

Day 2 shooting took place at the Red Lady Gallery in the West Bottoms district of Kansas City. 

The filming was done by Garmin’s in-house agency with the help of an external light crew. Team Garmin Cannondale cyclist Dan Martin provided the voice over and motivation in the poster on the wall behind.  

Special thanks to Scott, Rebecca, Paul, Owen, and Tommy in the Garmin Marketing Communications for the opportunity to be video taped while riding a bike. Thanks to my team leader Ben Morrill for giving me 2 days off for the shoot. I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to shoot a video like this again, but I am still pretty tickled by the experience and not sure how I got on the audition short list in the first place. Sometimes it’s better to just roll with things.