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Revel Co.'s Rupert Walker is pushing the limits of mountain bike filmmaking
Rupert Walker and Brandon Semenuk partnered to create Revel Co. five years ago. With the release of their latest collaboration, Parallel, Walker gives us a look inside the production company.
Five years ago, Rupert Walker was feeling creatively stagnant while working for a large corporation. Then, he had the opportunity to film with mountain biker Brandon Semenuk. It was their first time working together and the pair quickly developed a strong partnership that led to them forming production company Revel Co.
Brandon Semenuk and Rupert Walker
© Anthony Smith
On the genesis of the company, Walker recalls: "We just wanted to come together to create exactly what we wanted to create, with no limitations."
For the release of their newest edit, Parallel, Walker took some time to talk to us about what life behind the scenes with Revel Co. looks like and how his life has changed in the last five years.
What about Revel Co. makes what you different to other video production teams in the industry?
We don't do much client work. We do some high-end commercial stuff, but for the most part what separates us is that when we're creating, we're just creating for ourselves and that final product. At the end of the day, no one else has a say about how the final video looks or feels. It's all our decision. We run with everything.
We're very fortunate to have the clients that we do. This year will be for Red Bull and they enabled us to basically just create with no limitations – to just let us be Revel Co.
Rupert Walker holds court on a footage review session
© Ian Collins
What's your process for working without parameters. How do you narrow down or focus in on your ideas?
Honestly, we just throw around ideas. Sometimes I'll have an idea and we'll just be like, 'Yeah, that's awesome. Let's just do it'. Sometimes Brandon will have an idea and we'll go out and do it. It's really straight forward.
Our concepts can be pretty vague when we first jump into a video. They start to really take a shape of their own in the post-production and editing process. I'll just sit and edit for weeks on end to turn a bunch of random clips we accumulated over maybe three months into a full-blown concept that makes sense to us.
Semenuk and the team review the shots after a run
© Ian Collins
A lot of your projects have pretty intensive behind-the-scenes logistics. Who manages all of that work?
The way that Revel Co. is structured is that Brandon essentially produces everything. He takes care of getting permits for locations and finding locations. When it comes to mountain bike features, he's really – and not to sound cliché – a visionary. He sees things, he sees land, and he can form his riding features into just the most creative, ridiculous features.
For me, it's really great. Because I know that he's got that taken care of, I can really focus on how I want the video to look and how the concepts are going to come together and make sense to the viewer. I can deal with all the post-production, directing, editing and the shooting.
Building the right lines is a team effort
© Ian Collins
Have you ever missed a shot and how do you manage the pressure of it?
I've definitely missed shots before. It just happens when you're filming, but I never miss a major move.
A lot of times, when Brandon is getting set-up to do something that's bigger and more intense, where you can't miss it and – I hate to say it – we'll almost look for more of a stock angle that just shows the trick as best as possible and where it's almost impossible to miss it. When it comes down to doing tricks that have never been done before, or that could result in serious injury and he's only going to do it one time, it's not worth the risk of missing a shot to get an insanely artistic image.
Brandon really operates on his own schedule when it comes to doing his tricks. So, when he's ready to go, it's go-time. Beforehand, I'll scout everything with whoever we've got helping to film and we'll make a plan. When we're shooting riding, I take a very instinctive approach. As soon as I see a feature, I think about what trick Brandon's doing and what angle to shoot it from. I know exactly where to go.
Unorthodox angles are a part of the process
© Ian Collins
How has creating Revel Co. pushed you creatively?
I feel like I can really apply myself and I can really express myself how I want to. I just like doing my own thing at the end of the day. I don't really like answering to people. Neither does Brandon, frankly, which is why Revel Co. is what it is. We're both stubborn, we both do what we want and make the product that we make together – we really don't care what other people think of it, because we like it.
Both halves of Revel Co. sync up for the shot during the filming of Aim
© Toby Cowlley
What have you learned from working with Brandon?
I've learned to be patient. When Brandon’s getting ready to do something super gnarly, it's totally up to him. I can't ask him to do those things, he has to choose to do it. If I'm going to be documenting it, I have to be there to support it and be patient through the process.
This stuff doesn't just happen overnight. Brandon thinks about riding and about doing tricks probably years in advance of him doing them. My role is just trying to adapt to the creative process and understanding that I can't miss moments when things get really heavy.
Rupert Walker and Carson Storch on location during filming of Land Escape
© Peter Jamison
Where do you draw inspiration from?
I love mountain bike content and I love watching my good friends who make videos. I also respect it. However, I think I get my inspiration from really good commercials – ones that feel like it's almost personal work, but that's representing a bigger brand. I really like that kind of stuff.
I like short films, short narratives. I get really inspired by music and certain songs. When I hear a vibe or a melody, or just a song that connects with me, it tends to inspire images. I can't really listen to music these days without trying to put it to a video in my head, which is why sometimes I'll just resort to really bad rap music, because I know I'll never use it in a mountain bike video.
To date, what's your favourite Revel Co. video and what was your favourite to work on?
I think my favourite Revel Co. production is a video called Gallery. There are so many different frames in the video and it's just footage that I collected of Brandon, my girlfriend and of my other friends. I basically mashed everything into this one video called Gallery.
Throughout the film there's all these different screens and different cool edits, and at the end, I kind of superimposed a pullback. It reveals this crowd of all my friends in the video watching the film. It's almost like an Inception moment, where it's like a film within a film type deal.
As for the most fun Revel Co. production for me, we did these Subaru Canada car commercials. I really enjoy doing those, because we had a big crew. It's a big job and everyone depends on each other on those shoots. It's just a lot of fun to crush a big job in two or three days and have everything go as planned.
With those big shoots, or any big productions, what does a day look like for you?
It really depends. We really like shooting in flat light, so if it's flat light, we pretty much try to shoot all day until we either run out of batteries, or until Brandon runs out of battery and gets exhausted.
If we're hunting for a certain kind of light, like, for example, on the production of Raw 100 that we're working on right now, it needs to be a certain kind of light that we can only really get in the morning or evening. We try not to make any compromises. If we're going for a certain look or aesthetic, we make sure that we get it.
It really doesn't matter how long it takes us. We just really strive to have our stuff look the best it possibly can, whether it takes all day, or whether it just takes a morning session to get what we need.
Brandon Semenuk - Raw 100
© Scott Markewitz/Red Bull Content Pool
How do you see the role of Revel Co. in pushing the creativity in mountain bike films moving forward?
We try to separate ourselves. We're in a fortunate position, because by just having Brandon's talent on a bike, it already separates us from so much mountain bike content. He's always trying to do tricks that haven't been done before and he's always thinking of creative ways to do new moves and build new features. I'm very fortunate to be part of that, because Brandon is one of a kind when it comes to building these courses and the builds for videos.
Creatively, we just always want to be doing something different. We take inspiration from skateboard films, from BMX and from things that aren't mountain biking, like commercials, as I said earlier.
