Eastern's new video,
The Death of Fun, is officially wrapped up and will be in stores before you know it. We sat down with the man behind the video, Mike "The Mangler" McQueen and asked him a few questions about the project. Here's what he had to say:
So, the video is finally wrapped up, huh?Yeah man! I'm stoked to get it out there!
How was the last week before the deadline for you?The last week? Wait, don't you mean that 216 hour long day that I didn't sleep any? It was rough man! On top of having my full time job, that I would have taken more days off of, but I had some videos that had to meet a deadline there as well. So for 15+ days straight, I was either sitting in front of a computer or driving to another one. Not to mention arriving at Fedex at 9:24pm, when the drop off time for next day air is 9:30pm and have 6 minutes left on my dvd burn. Those dudes were not too stoked on me keeping them there to 9:31. But I made it and i slept like a baby that night!
When we went to Phoenix in March the video was nameless. How did "The Death of Fun" come about?A couple of mass emails between team dudes, myself and Leigh (Ramsdell) and kapow! We bounced around with a couple of things, but everything was so serious, nothing fun. And yeah, we needed to be serious about the video, but there's no reason not to have any fun with it. So, looking back at the start of things, it kind of seems like the fun was being killed. It was
The Death of Fun.
What's your overall perception of the completed video?Death, fun'd over!
What's your favorite section in the video?Man, thats a tough one. There wasn't a single section that wasn't fun watching, or editing for that matter. When driving home from work I would think about what section that I was going to focus on that evening. And it was probably the hardest thing to do. I enjoyed watching and working on them all so much that it would just turn into a brain fart. At times i'd just close my eyes and click on a section.
If you could change one thing about the project, what would it be?I wish we had more time and money. Time so that we could film more and money so we could go anywhere and take the whole team together.
Did you get any riding clips in there?Maybe.... but its not as cool as Terrell's. I've had a tore up knee for a while and its been hindering my stunt'n status. I'm having surgery at the end of Rocktober to get a refurbed zombie ACL installed, so next spring I'll be doing much better 1 footed xups.
Who got the last section?Two of the coolest bff's I've ever known!
What's the best story you have from any of the filming trips?The video is probably a story within itself. We had so many good times together. Like buying a bum breakfast so Seamus could curve wallride over his urinal. Leigh completely killing himself last summer. Zach wrecking, A LOT! Kelly freaking Bolton! Adding Karl to the team and getting to bro down with him. Riding in the TL88 of course! Ah man, it’s so hard, I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it!
What's one thing you want everybody to know about the video?We started riding bmx bikes for fun; lets keep it that way! And, that It’s an awesome video that everyone should buy! Its also packed with some sweet bonus stuff too!
What's next for The Mangler?Well... getting my knee fixed in October. We're doing Inside/Outs again next year so I'll be working on a best of edit during rehab time. And continue to have fun doing bike stuff. And dreaming about doing sweet abubucas - Mark Protoz style!
Any thanks?A lot of thanks actually! The whole Eastern Bikes crew, especially Leigh, Jon and Mike. Everybody's momas and dadys. My lovely wife April, she rules! Everyone who showed us around their local spots and let us crash at their homes. My boss(at my full time job, news-record.com) Mike Grossman, for being a cool dude. All the teams other sponsors. Everyone who watches our web videos. Everyone who buys and supports Eastern Bikes. And the dude who sent me these questions, I think his name is Kyle?
Check out
The Death of Fun's trailer:
Check out this video from an Eastern filming trip that Vital BMX was on board for last March:
Yep, this is real! You can now access everything you love about Vital BMX on our mobile site.
