OverDrive Media Group

This morning we finally purchased our membership to Vimeo Plus. We are OverDrive will be using Vimeo more and more as a platform to share our projects. So what does the new membership mean for you? It means that you can now view our videos directly from the Projects page, in HD! The embedded player is now larger than ever for a better viewer experience. You are now also able to download a 720p HD version of each of our videos directly on the Vimeo website, and if you have a Vimeo account you can add us as a contact and comment on our work. In addition to this, you can subscribe to our RSS feed on the Vimeo website, meaning when we release a new project, you'll know about it in seconds, even on your phone! This is only a taste of what is to come, and we will be rolling out more features over the coming weeks.

So visit the official OverDrive Media Group profile on Vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/odmg

The 2009 riding season has officially ended for OverDrive, and it's been quite an eventful one. This was the first season OverDrive has been in existance - it was only in early June that I created OverDrive Media Group at the age of 15. In the 6 months that OverDrive has been running, we're released 3 videos (one of which was nominated Video Of The Day on PinkBike, the world's largest MTB website), created a website which is ever-increasing in popularity, and have plans for many new projects in 2010.

It all started in February 2008, when I met Vivian Viljoen. Myself and Vivian were the only two people riding downhill at school, and being classmates we had plenty of time to talk about mountain biking. In February one of us casually threw around the idea of making a video together, and after days of brainstorming we finally came up with a name - 2WO FO4R ZER0, which stands for 2 Riders, 4 Locations, and Zero gravity. That summer, in July, we went to film for a week in Verbier, Switzerland as my family have a residence there, we we had plans to shoot in 3 other locations in Germany. However, the project stalled shortly after shooting in Switzerland due to exams at school, and we only resumed work on 2WO FO4R ZER0 in April 2009. About a month before we had planned to film at the other 3 locations, Vivian has some bad news to share. He had just found out that he was moving back to his home country of South Africa - in 4 days' time. We frantically got back to work and filmed the Hamburg, Germant segment (one of the local spots) literally hours before Vivian had to pack his bike up for the move. Vivian's early departure meant that we never managed to film in the other 2 planned locations, so we had to leave 2WO FO4R ZER0 as it was. Editing the thing took me almost 3 weeks, as I had never edited a video in my life before. It was finally released late May this year, just over 10 months after we started filming. In the end, 2WO FO4R ZER0 was never really a success, but nevertheless we were proud of what we managed to achieve. What 2WO FO4R ZER0 did do was show us how much fun we could have filming, riding, and editing a movie together. I decided that I would persue this new hobby and make more videos in the future, so I created OverDrive Media Group as a name to go by for my future videos.

Fast forward a few months and OverDrive had released two more videos: Felix van Oost - Riding 2009 and the 2009 Demo Reel. Felix van Oost - Riding 2009 was a self-filmed video I made, which took me 6 full days of filming and 10 hours of editing to complete. It was released in August 2009, and turned out much better overall than 2WO FO4R ZER0 as I had learned from a lot of the mistakes we made in our first video. By this time OverDrive Media Group started gaining popularity, and in October we released our 2009 Demo Reel, which was a compilation of the best shots from both 2WO FO4R ZER0 and Felix van Oost - Riding 2009, with some previously unseen footage thrown in. On the 26th November, the 2009 Demo Reel was nominated as Video Of The Day on PinkBike.com, the largest MTB website in the world, and it had been watched over 17,000 times over a period of 24 hours - a very positive note to end the season on.

I think that the unique thing about OverDrive is our age - because of this our point of view on the sport of mountain biking is different to anyone elses' so we have unique stories to tell, and this is what I believe will make our future videos entertaining to watch. I'd just like to take a moment to thank all the people that have supported us and our work, without which our videos would never be what they are today. We hope 2010 will allow us to step up a notch with our videos, and we can't wait for the new season to begin!

Felix van Oost

Our 2009 Demo Reel was today featured as Video Of The Day on the largest biking website in the world, PinkBike. The video currently has had over 14,000 views and 200 favourites, and our website traffic has dramatically increased. Thank you to all those who have given us positive feedback, and we can't wait to start our 2010 season projects!

2009 Demo Reel on PinkBike

The guys over at Distilled Magazine agreed to run an article on OverDrive Media Group on their website, talking about our first year of filming in the MTB industry. The article is currently on the front page of the Distilled website, so go to http://www.distilledmag.com to check it out! A big thanks to the guys over at Distilled for their help! 

Our first Demo Reel, featuring the best footage from 2009, is now available on the following websites (please click on the links to be redirected to the appropriate pages):

YouTube

Vimeo

PinkBike 

Alternatively you can also watch our new video on the Media page. Please comment to helps us continually improve our videos and show your support!

Very recently, a new website designed specifically for mountain bike-related videos was launched, called Watch26. Watch26 features a great layout, and a larger player than most other websites (meaning bigger videos and a better viewing experience) with a cool slow motion feature. We've created an account on Watch26 under the name of OverDriveMedia and all our videos have now been uploaded. Check it out at www.watch26.tv

We've just finished redesigning our Projects page, which now makes it easier to view both our up-and-coming / current projects, as well as our completed projects. In addition to that, the new page provides much more information about the projects, including the people involved, production and release dates, a synopsis, and links to websites on which the videos are uploaded. You can now also watch the videos in high quality directly on the Projects page.

Click here to check the new page out!

We finally managed to upload 'Felix van Oost - Riding 2009' to PinkBike (the site which generates the most exposure), and it can now be viewed here.

We've been trying hard over the last 2 weeks to get our latest video (Felix van Oost - Riding 2009) uploaded onto the internet. Although the video is currently available on YouTube and Vimeo, it has failed to upload to PinkBike and Facebook. This is due to an internet problem we are currently having (we recently moved to Singapore and do not have cabled internet yet) which does not allow us to upload large files such as videos. We are hopeful that we will have cable internet by the end of August, after which we will upload the video on PinkBike and Facebook as soon as possible for your viewing pleasure. We apologize for the inconvinience caused.

We're working on some cool merchandise, including T-Shirts, Hoodies, Clocks, Mugs, Water Bottles, and more featuring some sick designs and the OverDrive Media Group logo. We are currently working on the designs, but we hope to make the merchandise available over the coming months. Stay tuned for more information!

Our newest video, titled 'Felix van Oost - Riding 2009' is now available on the following websites (please click on the links to be redirected to the appropriate pages):

YouTube

Vimeo

PinkBike

Alternatively you can also watch our new video on the Media page. Please comment to helps us continually improve our videos and show your support!

We've finally begun editing Felix van Oost's 2009 Ridng Video. A large part of the editing has been done and only small tweaks remain to be done, so we are expecting to release the video in a few days' time.

OverDrive Media Group now has its Official Facebook page, featuring all the latest pictures, videos, news, and more! Become a Fan today to show your support for OverDrive and get access to all these features easily found on one page!

Click here to see our page.

We finally have our new domain name! Our new website address is www.overdrivemediagroup.com, making it easier for everyone to find and remember. Our old domain name, www.webs.com/overdrivemediagroup will remain active but we would recommend you to use our new name instead from now on.

We have released 4 still shots from the raw footage of Felix van Oost's 2009 riding video for your viewing pleasure, whilst we currently edit the video. The shots can be seen in their original size on the Projects page here.

Filming for Felix's 2009 Riding Video in Verbier, Switzerland has been completed, with the exception of a few of the scenic shots which will be finished over the next day or so. Editing will begin early Augut and will the final product will be available mid-August on PinkBike, YouTube, and Vimeo. A few teaser shots will be posted here over the coming days for your viewing pleasure.

Yes - yet another way to get the latest updates on what we are doing and where we are filming. We are now on Twitter under the name OverDriveMedia. Please click here to follow us and get the latest news wherever you are!

We've finally released our first proper tutorial, written by myself, which will help you to purchase a suitable video camera for filming extreme sports, specifically mountain biking, and includes the following categories:

- Basic technical terms (glossary)

- Different camera types and recording media

- Features to look out for when choosing a camera

- Our list of suggested cameras (standard and high definition consumer, high definition prosumer / professional)

Check it out here. Don't forget to tell us what you think!

We now have official OverDrive Media Group channels on both YouTube and Vimo, where we will upload all our latest videos. Check them out at:

www.youtube.com/overdrivemediagroup

www.vimeo.com/odmg

Today we recieved our new Manfrotto 028B tripod with Manfrotto 701HDV Fluid Video Head, which was just as well because the head on our Velbon P-Max snapped off after Felix crashed whilst filming (it was being transported in a backpack at the time). The new tripod will enable us to get higher and smoother shots than we previously could with our P-Max, which was designed for still shots. We suffered a few setbacks in filming Felix's 2009 Riding Video lately including broken cable cars, minor bike trouble, and bad weather. Filming is still on schedule however, and the video is still slated for release mid-August.