Interview: The Innovator Behind The Foreign Dissent Bike Helmet Camera
October 6, 2024
Over the past 5 years, since FD5 in 2018, we’ve gotten great full set footage of each show. The quality of those videos has steadily improved year over year. There’s a story here, so we sat down with Blaine (aka The Bike Helmet Camera Guy) for an interview to dig into how he has done it over the years. What is fascinating is not only the tech he’s used but how he approaches problems, overcomes some, fails at others, but iterates each time in a way where every year there’s something new and more awesome than the last.
Ok, let’s sort of start at the beginning. It’s Foreign Dissent 5 and you convince FD to let you shoot the show. How did you approach it?
My first problem was, how do I even shoot an indoor punk rock show? I had no idea, if I’m being honest. I just knew I had some equipment, some basic knowledge about shooting and editing, mostly gleaned from helping my wife at a music company I worked at many years ago. I had a Canon Rebel Ti3 that I’d use to shoot family vacation pictures, a decent telephoto lens, an iPhone 7 Pro that I used day-to-day, and an older iPhone 6. Since my wife used to be a video editor, I’ve also got a license to Final Cut Pro and a decent Mac at home. So I’ve got this tech I’ve scraped together from around the house and, after some Internet research, a plan that I think will work.
When you’re shooting a live event, you just have to make it work or you’ve got nothing. You’ve only got one shot at getting it right because the bands aren’t going to start over for a retake. That’s the thrill and the peril of shooting live events. When you look back at what you’ve done, you’re euphoric when it works and deeply sad when it doesn’t. I’ve experienced both shooting for Foreign Dissent. I mean it sincerely when I say, I love every freakin’ second of it.
Flash-forward to 2024, what are you shooting Foreign Dissent 9 with?
This year is going to be just huge. I’m going big. I’ve acquired some used iPhones and will run a 4-camera setup. It’s amazing what tech you can find at thrift stores and online sellers if you just do a little research. I’m also going to introduce a new angle this year. I’ve got a 85” tripod with a gooseneck that I’m putting in the back of stage-left to get a nice wide shot of the back of the band with the crowd. I really want the viewer to see just how awesome this show is and how much love is in that room. The audience at Foreign Dissent is very much a part of the show and I’m excited to really capture that this year; or should I say, try. It is new after all and might be a miserable failure.
Beyond the hardware, I’m also going to be using Final Cut Pro for iPad this year and running Final Cut Camera on the individual iPhones. The goal is to do live multi-cam capture so I can ensure all cameras are at the correct angle and getting what I want before each set. In the past, I would put a camera against a wall, start recording, then take the phone down and watch the video to make sure it looked right. Then I’d have to do my best to put the camera back in exactly the same spot and hope I didn’t mess it up, which I’ve done in previous years. With remote control, I won’t have that problem! It’s going to be awesome.
As I’ve done every year, I’m pushing the envelope of what can be done with consumer level used equipment, some of which is even borrowed, so I hope I don’t break it!
Speaking of hardware, you’ve been called “the bike helmet guy” by people at the show. Tell me about how that came to be?
Yeah, the bike helmet was a fun one. As I mentioned before, all the equipment I have is used and, in some cases, borrowed. A few years ago, my wife found a used GoPro Hero 3 at a thrift store. She figured we’d let the kids use it and since it was used and reasonably cheap, who cares if they break it? Naturally, when she brought it home, I immediately knew I was going to work it into the show. For FD7 (2022), I bought a DJI Mimo gimble to mount my iPhone 11 Pro and that was great, but I was struggling to figure out how I could run two cameras at the same time. What I figured out is the software for the GoPro on iOS lets you live-view the camera while it’s recording by setting up its own wireless access point between the phone and the GoPro. A friend had busted the screen on an old iPhone 6 and gave it to me; it looked heinous, but it was functional. I had my wife 3D print a mount for me that would attach to my monopod and essentially let me mount two phones to one monopod.
The next question was, how do I use the GoPro now that I can run the main camera and watch the other. Well, my wife happens to be a cyclist, and I was looking at her helmet with all the holes in the top and just thought, “I bet I can rig it to that somehow.” Sure enough, I found a cheap velcro mount online, slid the straps right through the holes and attached it on the inside. For the record, I do know how ridiculous I look; it’s about finding a way with what you got. I’m not there for a fashion show, although I do think haute couture could take some inspiration from this.
Have you always been a videographer? Are you trained in this?
No, actually. I’m not a videographer. I have no training in it. Best I had was being the IT guy for a music company back in the day. I worked around music, not in it. What I do have is a touch of ADHD mixed with a deep love of music and a passion to figure out complex problems and make things work. I’m also a little dumb sometimes, or naïve (whichever), when it comes to what I think will work versus what actually works. If anything, I’m good at making a plan, messing it up, and iterating on it until I get it right.
You mentioned things have failed or gone wrong while you were shooting. What are some of the biggest failures you can recall?
Oh goodness, failures were and are numerous. Everything from an entire set being lost on a camera to the sound coming from the stage just being so freakin’ intense that I couldn’t get the camera to stop shaking for the entire set. In fact, that camera shake problem persisted from FD5 through 7 before the root cause finally occurred to me while I was driving my car. “The iPhone screen is flat!” I yelled in my car to my very confused spouse and kids. I went back to using a DSLR in the rear of the venue because the lens was curved and, sure enough, no more shake! Turns out that flat screens absorb more sonic energy! And if “Sonic Energy” isn’t a punk band name by now, you heard it here first.
Another one of my “favorite” problems was the time I forgot to check the amperage of my iPhone charger and was under powering the stage right camera. It slowly drained its battery and died right at the end of a set. The Rock Gods were smiling on me and I literally only lost the last 60 or seconds of the set and, with the final edit, you never knew I was down a camera in the wrap-up.
I think this is one of the things that I just love so much about shooting this show. There’s a list a mile long of things that can go wrong and, frankly, I amaze myself that I don’t mess up more. laughs
So there’s got to be some big wins too, right? What are some of the biggest successes?
Oh, 100%. The fact that this show, with all of these bands from all over the world, comes together like it does and just absolutely rocks Will’s Pub is a miracle unto itself. I’m just lucky to be able to capture it for posterity. I think my favorite technical win, though, is absolutely the helmet cam. I think about this show all year and what I can do to improve for next year. The helmet cam was another late night bolt of inspiration that just worked out so well. That helmet footage really fills in the gap when I screw up the main camera shot. Much love to Final Cut for making it so easy to pull in different angles to fix my numerous mistakes. If you only knew how amateur I really am! That post edit is just magic.