Over the last two or so months, Mutiny Bikes have been releasing a series of videos going by the title of “Cool Story, Bro”. These videos that are being produced by the one and only Richard Forne are a unique approach to a sea of web edits that are focused less on the riding, but more on the personalities of the team riders, giving you a look into what runs through their minds.
After watching a couple of these videos, I started wondering what got this series going, what kind of time and work is actually going into making them happen and what the future of the concept holds. I knew the only way to find out more was to track down Rich and get him to fill us in while he waited on one of the many flights he had to take between Israel, the U.K and the U.S. to make these videos happen. Luckily for us, we were able to get ahold of him and he was more than down to give us the answers we were looking for. Let’s see what he had to say!
Alright, Rich! How’s it going? Staying on the move?
Shalom. Trying to keep moving. It’s definitely keeping me on my toes but things are going great thanks.
Let’s talk a little bit about the Cool Story, Bro series you have been working on lately with Mutiny. How did the concept for this video come about? Was it something you came up with or a collaborative thing between Gaz, the team and you?
Gaz Sanders at MUTINY had been wanting to create a series of films that show the pro team riders personalities. Being on a Mutiny trip is like being in a soup comedy. Everyone’s hilarious in their own little ways and have amazing personalities so it’s great to show that.
I think it’s always a big risk to do a project that’s not focused primarily on riding but it’s an important part of Mutiny so I’m glad it happened.
What kind of planning goes into something like this? It almost seems like you kind of just showed up at each guys home base and organically let it fall into place.
Haha that’s exactly what happened ! Sort of.
A ridiculous amount of planning goes into these things, half the team lives in UK and the rest in US and everyone has a full time job or some other commitment so it’s never simple but it was important for me to film the full set and not just the UK guys. Gaz and Vikki did the bulk of the organizing and planning, I just helped out a little.
I wish I’d got to spend more than a week with each of them but I feel they still turned out as true.
How many videos in total will there be from this series. There’s already 4 out, right?
There will be a Cool Story, Bro for each of the pro team so 6 and then the final C.S.B which is what we’re working towards right now. We’re doing a bunch more riding trips so I’m looking forward to putting this one together. It would be pretty weird if all goes well.
How many flights did you have to make to get to each guy and how was it working from Israel? Any sort of airport madness or did everything go smooth?
Living in Tel aviv pretty much doubled all my flights to US and Europe as the cheap flights are never direct. In Israel there is always madness with security checks so I’d say I spent around 15 hours being questioned and searched since we started the project. Apart from that it’s all worked out really well.
Number of flights… maybe 20? I have three more filming trips happening so it will be around 30 by the end of C.S.B.
Roey had a few issues getting on his return flight from US as he was told he would not need a doctors note to board his flight with a broken foot. It turned out he did need one so with an hour to spare he had to sort that which looked stressful.
I’m currently in Lyon France to do Bedford’s C.S.B. Him and Sean have not turned up yet, haha. Heard they are stuck in Paris because they missed their connecting flight or something?
I know you put a lot of time into the editing and I definitely noticed a few things that stood out like the trippy overlays you did with Roey’s new edit. Were there any sort of things you wanted to experiment with for these videos?
Not really I was just trying to do my best to show what I experience with each rider. The films are very honest to each of their personalities and anyone that has ever spent time with Roey will understand this. There are three Roey’s in his personality, the bad, the good, and the insane. This is how his mind works.
I think the series speaks for it’s self. I love watching personality edits and insights on riders but there’s such a rigid format for them and everyone seems happy enough to follow it. We just wanted to make something fresh and original with a Mutiny vibe.
The films are very simple but I guess the way they are collated is quite complicated. A lot went into each one really trying to show some raw personality in a comfortable way. Monster Rally provided all the music so I had a really unique and great group of sounds to work with. Picking the sounds based on what I thought best suited each personality was a lot of fun ad really helped to set them apart.
These video so far have been primarily more focused on the rider and not the riding. Are you guys saving those clips for another project?
I think only having a week with each rider makes it a huge task to get something so detailed for their C.S.B and then riding on top of that. Saving clips for the end C.S.B MIX was the intention but things never work out quite as planned. We also had to deal with some of the coldest days I ever experienced in US. Teeth freezing wind that would turn the moisture in your eye balls to ice, it was horrific.
Right now we have a few other people filming in US for the end C.S.B and I have a bunch more trips so it’s all up in the air right now. The final thing should be pretty … cool
10 things that shocked you since the start of C.S.B
– Roey lost his mind
– Roey shared his brand new bottle of water with a homless man at the fish hook in Malaga.
– Roey broke his foot in the last week of US
– Robbo consumes his body weight in alcohol daily
– Bedfords family is French
– Justin’s ability to drink cinnamon whisky shots
– Brandon’s Lizard. That thing had never been let out of it’s box and it took me
three days to get the courage to unleash it.
– George Boyd is the most polite human you’ll ever meet.
– Boyd eats fish tacos at 9am from sketchy Mexican places
– Gaz sanders is the real American psycho… from Derby
That about wraps it up. Do you have any shout outs or thanks?
Thanks for the interest! It’s really great that people appreciate it when companies go out on a limb to try and do something new and unique. Thanks to everyone that’s supported the series, hope you enjoy what’s to come.
“On and off the bike this dude never ceases to amaze and inspire those around him. Liquid comes to mind when I think about Roey’s riding, it all looks so good and effortless. Get a little insight into the one and only Mathew Peter Roe.”
“Mellow he is not! Justin does whatever he’s doing cranked all the way to 11. From riding to holding it down as front man of his new band Hot Rails. It’s all or nothing for the Hemi Dragon. We spent a week with him in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio of course the weather sucked and it was cold as balls but nothing can stop Justin.”
“Bad weather and a rolled ankle on the 1st day of filming were 2 of the cards Brandon was dealt for his Cool Story Bro filming session. Never the less we are proud to present the next chapter in the Cool Story Bro series. Ladies and gentlemen meet the one and only Brandon Hoerres.”
“Next up in the Cool Story Bro series is Texas born George Boyd, who recently made the move out west to Los Angeles. Spare 5 minutes and 4 seconds of your time to learn a little more about George; from raunchy meat to being positive to awesome ditches this has you covered.”
“We are proud to release the first in our new series of videos called, Cool Story Bro. The idea behind this series is to show you a little insight into the guys on the team, on and off their bikes.
A few months ago, Robbo sent me a link to a few Monster Rally tracks. Just like Robbo, I was immediately a fan. That much so, I reached out to the band to see if they would be interested in working together on some sort of project. They are kindly going to be supplying the tunes for all these videos.
As Robbo introduced us to Monster Rally, it seems fitting that his Cool Story Bro is first.“
