Continuing in his series of thrill-seeking, globe-spanning adventures known as ‘GO’, Sibling Rivalry director/DP and former BMX pro Harrison Boyce continues treading new ground and collaborating with close friend and fellow BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester. Following their efforts in NYC and Dubai among other cities, the journey to Paris also enlightened Boyce from a personal perspective. “From the history and architecture to the culture and lifestyle, Paris was a very special place to be able to spend a few weeks working on this project,” the director says. “For me personally, Paris is a city that I’ve spent quite a bit of time in before, but to get to experience it from the angle of GO, that was a pretty incredible way to experience the city. By spending so much time on bikes and scooters, rather than cars and subways, I was able to see and do so many things that I had never done before.”
With Sylvester and a Samsung Galaxy S9 in hand, Boyce’s latest GO effort provides another fast-paced film while producing several memorable moments and points of interaction. According to Boyce, though, the European excursion offered more of a bonding experience while reinforcing the fun and integrity of the GO project. “Nigel is one of my best friends and one of the hardest working people I know,” he states. “During our weeks in Europe, we experienced London’s classic skate park, rode in a chauffeured Rolls Royce that Rolls Royce kindly gifted to us at no cost, rode the spiral roller coaster five times back to back and almost puking, were able to film in the guts of the Pompidou Museum and went to our first ever pro soccer match at Paris St. Germain. The experiences we have had traveling the world, working on the GO films together, have created memories I will have for the rest of my life.”
Working without a brief or protocol from a brand or agency that can often restrain a director, Boyce and Sylvester were given creative freedom to showcase their love of wheel-led adventure. “What makes the GO series so unique to me is that it’s just me and Nigel doing whatever we want to do,” he adds. “There are no agencies, no brands, or anyone else involved that has any say in any of the creative. While I understand the need of the traditional commercial and all roles that are involved in making those commercials happen, there is something special about two motivated creative friends working together with no limitations.”
Sibling Rivalry Executive Producers Maggie Meade and Shelby Ross add how Boyce’s travels and videologue reflect the production company’s innovative aesthetic and approach. “Harrison continues to be a trailblazer while storytelling in his own dynamic voice. We’re excited to see where this relationship goes and support projects of this nature.”
Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
As one of my best friends, Nigel Sylvester and I had worked on projects together for his different sponsors and one day, he came over to my place to talk about what he wanted to do next. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was, but he knew he wanted to do something different than any videos he’s been in or created for his sponsors before.
With this as a starting point, I started to throw out a few ideas and share a few references. A few ideas started to stick and we continued to brainstorm together over the next few weeks, ending up with the base of what the ‘GO’ videos have become today.
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
The basis of this series is to show the world through the eyes of Nigel Sylvester.
Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?
Since there is no client involved, there wasn’t a specific brief, but we knew we wanted to shoot POV, have seamless transitions, show Nigel riding through one city per video, and to capture the energy and happenings of the cities in the most authentic and exciting way possible.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
I think it was just getting out and creating without any reason other than to create. We didn’t know what this series would become and all we wanted to do was create a great piece of content that we were proud of. That freedom and that focus on creativity really helped mold ‘GO’ into what it is.
I guess you could say the insight of just creating and not waiting for anyone else to tell us what to do was the catalyst for ‘GO’.
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?
After I brought up the idea of seamless transitions, I had this idea that we would film a single video where each shot took place in a different country all over the world, using the transitions to get us from one country to the next. At the time, we thought there was no way anyone would give us the money to do that. But even though the idea has morphed, it’s now two years later and we’ve basically traveled the entire globe.
How did the client initially react to this idea?
Even though this is an independent project, Nigel’s sponsors - Nike, Beats, Samsung, etc - are the closest things we have to a client and they have all reacted in an extremely positive and supportive way.
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during Development?
Each video has its own challenges. Overall, the video is like a big puzzle, where we have to make sure each scene starts and ends with the matching transition to the scene that comes before and after it. So, there’s really no adjusting in the edit. We spend a lot of time thinking about the arch of the edit, the timing of each scene and how everything works together.
We are also always coming up with super-random, crazy ideas - and sometimes without much notice. Like “how can we get a falcon tomorrow” and “how can we find a helicopter pad on top of a skyscraper to film our scene with the falcon tomorrow.”
We try to plan as much as possible in advance, but there are a lot of ideas and opportunities that come up during the filming process that keep us on our toes.
What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
What I get the most enjoyment from is that I’ve been able to create a project with one of my best friends that has taken us all over the world. As proud of the work as I am, I’m even more proud of the experiences and memories we’ve been able to make creating each video.
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
We are going to keep traveling the world! There are so many more incredible cities to shoot in and a lot of ideas that we haven’t had a chance to execute. The fact that this is an ongoing project and we can keep creating is one of the best parts about it.