Last Saturday night, DVS shoes broke ground by airing their first-ever motocross commercial during Speed Channel's live broadcast of the final round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series in Las Vegas. The commercial, which utilizes an editing technique called a match edit, is a first for the motocross industry and has become a signature style of DVS's. Featured in the commercial is DVS-sponsored team, Geico Honda, which includes Kevin Windham, Justin Barcia, Blake Wharton, Eli Tomac and Jim Decotis and was shot at Honda's private supercross track in Corona, Calif.
What makes the commercial so amazing is the research and development that went into conceptualizing and manufacturing the mounts that attached the Go Pro cameras to the bikes.
"In 2004 I saw a BMW commercial that had a mount off the front of the car, and when I saw that commercial I was like 'Oh my god, that's an amazing effect -- I would love to do something like that for motocross,'" explains DVS's in-house producer Ryan Marcus. "So when this opportunity came up I knew that I wanted to mount the cameras to the bike and have everybody doing the same exact thing and applying that same look, but with the riders switching out throughout the commercial."
With only four weeks to produce the 30-second spot from start to air-date, Marcus was tight on time, but was able to get the mounts fabricated, tested and finished within only two weeks, which were the most vital component of the shoot. "There were actually three different versions of the arm that came about, and obviously the final version is the one we used," explains Marcus. "It was a tedious process getting the angle right, making sure it fit on the bike and was stable with all the vibrations and everything. We had to make sure it would hold up in the berms, whoops and jumps." Even though the making of the commercial taxed not only Marcus, but the entire Geico Honda team, DVS feels the final product was well worth the effort, and so do we. Check out the spot above and head over to dvsshoes.com/flux to get a behind the scenes look of the making of the commercial.