About The Production

Now in their seventh year, the X Games attract the world’s top competitors in Skateboarding, Street Luge, Wakeboarding, Downhill BMX, BMX Stunt, Aggressive In-Line Skating, Moto X, and Speed Climbing. Multiple film crew units covered all the practices and competitive events with large-format and 35mm cameras, and "Ultimate X" filmmakers orchestrated P.O.V. (point-of-view) shots through special camera mounts on bikes, skateboards and street luges, giving audiences a firsthand experience of the exhilaration and speed of these fast-paced, thrilling sports. Among the featured athletes in the film are skateboarders Bob Burnquist and Bucky Lasek, BMX stunt riders Dave Mirra, Ryan Nyquist, and Mat Hoffman, Moto X riders Brian Deegan and Carey Hart.

For director Bruce Hendricks, however, the aim of the film was to show something with depth as well as dazzle. "The real story comes about through the eyes of the athletes," says the director. "It’s one thing to show great tricks and stunts, but we wanted it to become more than just a highlight reel." Producer Art Repola agrees. "We’ve met some fascinating athletes with fascinating stories; we want the audience to know them both in and out of competition."

The key department of this project was camera, and the filmmakers were able to enlist three stellar directors of photography. Reed Smoot and Rodney Taylor are two of world’s best photographers of large format films, and Mitch Amundsen had worked with Hendricks on such blockbuster films as "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon." "Combine the three of them and you are going to get some amazing images," says Hendricks.

The idea was to stretch the boundaries of the format and attempt things that had not yet been seen in large format. "We can slow down a trick, we can dissect it. We present a view of the stunts that you wouldn’t have been able to see, even if you had been there in person. And we felt we had to do that – the action goes by so fast that we wanted to suspend it a little bit and break it down."

With a typical documentary, crews can chase down their shot with video or 16mm film cameras. However, ten large format cameras were required to shoot the film, some of them weighing over 75 pounds. Says Repola, "The cameras are huge – some of them take two people to carry, and add to that the size of the film, the magazines, the cranes…" An incredible amount of daily planning was required to "minimize the moves" of the cumbersome equipment.

The crew had less than two weeks to shoot the competitions and interview athletes, as well as set up special shots that would immerse the audience in the action. Director of photography Reed Smoot observes, "Rather than just record the events, the opportunity is there to put the audience in the middle of things." "Most of these athletes are filmmakers themselves, so it’s really cool to get them involved in how to get the shot," says director of photography Rodney Taylor.

However, this film takes the usual coverage of action sports to an entirely differently plane, explains skateboarder Bob Burnquist: "Usually, we’ll have a beat-up camera. We’re constantly scrounging up money to buy cameras so we can capture what we do. It’s just amazing to be able to perform with all these gadgets and technological advances."

The flexibility of the athletes enabled the "Ultimate X" crew to orchestrate P.O.V. shots through special camera mounts on everything from bikes, skateboards, motorcycles, and the luge. They were also able to place cameras in the middle of ramps and racecourses. The results, says Reed Smoot, are fantastic. "We’ve had skateboarders and BMX riders literally just clear the cameras," says Smoot. "The TV audience will never have that perspective."

17-year-old Moto X phenomenon Travis Pastrana recognized the impact that this film could have on action sports. "Anything on a sixty by eighty screen is going to be larger than life, but it is also behind the scenes, more personal, in-depth."

Skateboarder Bob Burnquist agrees: "It’s our chance to show our life. This is what we do, what we breathe."