The 5 Biggest Production Challenges In Making Gymkhana 7

Image via Complex Original

"Scouting locations and figuring out what we're going to do at each spot for SEVEN was definitely a challenge. You go onto scout with certain ideas in your head about what ideal areas would look like and then you get there and they're wildly different than the photos. So you work as a team and you figure out ways to adapt and improvise and utilize the space, or, you bail and keep looking. It can take up to 5 scouting trips to a city to really lock in your locations for one of these videos, it's a ton of work!"

"Nailing the shot is always a challenge. Sometimes you'll drive the line perfectly right off the bat, but the one camera operator was punched in too tight or worse yet, his battery died during your take! That can be hugely frustrating and it's definitely happened several times thru the making of these videos. But it's challenging regardless because you'll do a run and go back to review the shot and then realize that maybe the angle would be better if you moved the camera 5 feet to the left or 10 feet to the right, etc. The one scene we nailed in one take and were satisfied with on Gymkhana SEVEN was the scene at Randy's Donuts. In, out, done!"

"Getting my gear to and from set each day is also a challenge. I travel almost 70% of the year, so I'm fairly meticulous in how I pack and how I travel since I do it so often. Luckily, I've got a sponsorship with Incase—and I go way back with two of the main guys there, one of whom is Damon Way who helped co-found DC Shoes with me back in 1994—and they provide me with an amazing array of options and gear when it comes to staying organized on the road. For something like Gymkhana SEVEN, I used their EO Hardshell Roller to get my driving gear to and from set each day and I carried their Pro Pack camera bag (On sale today here) to help get some of my GoPros and other gear for the day over and back as well. There's so much going on every minute on set that it's hugely important to me on a mental level to be neat and organized going to and from takes and locations."

"Sleeping is one of the harder challenges and on Gymkhana SEVEN it definitely was. It sounds crazy, but there's not a lot of time to sleep on these projects! We arrive to town typically coming from a race event so I'm already tired and then we go right into filming. That means up at least an hour and a half before we leave the hotel so I have time for a proper breakfast and to let it digest, then it's out the door so that we're on set and ready to film as soon as the sun is up. You then shoot all day until there's absolutely no sun left, head back to the hotel for some dinner, review the plans and shots for the next day and then try and sleep as much as you can until you do it all over again - for five days. It's a ton of fun but it's also brutal physically."

"Editing the video was probably the single hardest challenge of making Gymkhana SEVEN. Normally I'm able to spend a few days with the editing team at the studio and we can make changes in real time together as a group. This year my schedule didn't allow for that and I was having to watch versions on slow internet while in Spain in between races and then sending notes via email. With the difference in time zones—the company we work with on these is based in California—we lost a lot of time, so that was both challenging and frustrating. Fortunately, in the end we were able to overcome all of that and the end result is something that I'm really stoked about."