The release of Ibex Trail

Last August, I travelled to Ladakh to shoot a factual web series for the motorcycle brand Jawa. Not only was it their first series, it was mine too. And so while the nervousness at both ends was palpable, thankfully the chemistry was good right off the cuff. Basically, things went off well. 

Through the months of September and October we edited the series and presented five episodes to the brand - 

Watch all of them below. 

The series was initially going to be released in November. When that didn't happen, I thought they'd release it in December. And when that didn't happen either, I got a little scared. There was no word from them on the release date, and I thought maybe they had decided - for whatever reason - to shelve it. 

First week of January, 2020 the brand manager booked us for the FRM shoot at Camp Max, Karjat. Over there he told me that they had decided to release it on Republic Day. Not only that, they were setting up a giant screen in the amphitheatre at Camp Max, and the films would be shown over there in front of all the riders. 

Kind of caught me off guard. But I was excited. 

On Jan 26th, the day before yesterday, we got done with the shoot around 8 pm. We came back to our tents, freshened up, and assembled around the amphitheatre. Met with some of the riders featured on the series, including Vir Nakai, Varad 'Speedy' More, Candida Louis, Harshman Rai and a few others. 

Around 9 pm some performances started, and Boman - the co-founder - came on stage and gave a short speech, thanking all the riders for their continued support to the brand. 

At 9:30, they switched off the house lights and the first film started playing on the projector screen. 

First thoughts - I really missed the director Pratik and the DoP Sheldon. I really wished, among everyone else who worked on the series, that they were there to see it live. 

The second episode got the biggest applause. By the fifth, most people had - sadly - tuned out and were beginning to get antsy. But that's the thing with factual, it's a nerd's creative release. 

Anyway, just felt super nice seeing my first series telecast to an audience of at least 500. Felt nice listening to the applause, to the cheer. Felt nice seeing all the gorgeous shots magnified on the big screen. 

Hope to do more of this kind of work soon.

For now, it's back to FRM.