Behind the Scenes: The Ramp Movie
Summary and Behind the Scenes for the film "The Ramp Movie"
This video was filmed January 25, 2003. It was meant to be a band practice. We started practicing at my house in the garage, all was well. Then, Max's new bass amp started shorting out (stopped working). So, after spending time diagnosing the problem, the practicing stopped. Allen started taking the amp apart (he was a roadie, he knows this kind of stuff). So then the amp started to work again. I tried to get us to practice again, but no everyone did not want to. Awww, screw it! I gave up all too easily. So I suggested we play. Brandon seemed interested in my kiddie car. And Max wanted to film something. So we put the two together. No on was man enough to do anything worth filming except me. I stood up to the challenge.
I was looking all around for something to ride on, around, over, around. My eyes saw two of my brother's skateboarding ramps. A twinkle came to my eyes. An idea! The words came out of my mouth: "Hey guys, j'ai une bonne idee! Je vais mettre ces rampes au fond de l'allee." So I put the ramps on the bottom of the driveway. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
FIRST JUMP: Max and Allen were freaking out. Max ran and got the camera. When I was just about ready, a large furniture truck entered the neighborhood. It went around and parked directly across the street. I was ready. The two furniture guys were staring at me. I felt pressured to go. I put the car in neutral. I strapped on the helmet. I assigned Allen and Brandon to keep their foot on the ramps so when I went over them they would not flip. Sure enough, Brandon was scared and took his foot off, causing the ramp to move. No problem. When I went off, I felt as if I was flying. It was one of the coolest feelings in the world.
SECOND JUMP: This one was the worst. First I was concerned that I would not be able to put this on the internet because I was using an analog camera (contrary to my thoughts, it worked). So I told Allen to get the digital camera and record it also. You can see him as I land on the ground on the other side of the ramp. I was a bit scared because I had already done this and realized the clear and present danger. So I did not have wuite the height and speed of the first jump. This jump came and went quickly. When I landed, it is not very clear, but you can see my left foot (the one facing me) hyperextend. It hurt like a mother. The reason this happened was because the car clicked out of neutral for some reason. You can't see it but I had to take my foot off the pedals because they were moving too fast. This cause me to have the injury because I had no place to put my foot on when I landed. This is also the reason I seemed too fly the most (my butt was not on the seat). I could have stopped, but I did not because I already committed, and I had two cameras going. It would have been a pain to redo it. It hurt. I had to walk it off. When I felt a little better, I decided to do it again.
THIRD JUMP: This jump was the best spill ever. I spent forever deciding whether or not to go through with this because I hate having a sprained ankle and I didn't want it hurt any more. I remembered back to the making of the chairs video where I sprained my ankle on the car in that film. That sprain hurt for a good two weeks. My dumbass side came through on that decision. Before the jump, Allen led us in a group prayer for my safety and the safety for everyone else (i.e. Kevin). I felt better. We went back to out original setup: Allen and Brandon on the ramps (I gave Brandon a talk about not being a wuss), Max on camera. A pleasant surprise came up. My dog Kevin from the neighborhood came and wanted, for some odd reason, to trust me enough and risk his life enough to lie under the ramp when I went off. I said cool, but the others were hesitant (not really). We reviewed the earlier footage on both cameras to see if I could clear him. I had him in the videos by a good ways. He was safe. I was nervous. By all means I would make sure the car was in neutral. I would also make sure my left foot did not hit the ground, so I would lean back. As you can see, I had my left foot a little too far out when I went off. I had good speed and momentum. But when I went off, my left foot cause the car to flip and land on the side of my butt, Sure it hurt, but I sure was glad it was my ass and not my ankle. Mission Accomplished. Hey, and I also pulled off a pretty sweet crash. Watching the replay, I was so close to hitting Kevin with my back, left wheel. I was so happy afterwards, that when I finally got up, I hugged Kevin. I could not help my jeans from falling down.
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