'Doggy Style': A Discussion with Ian Fleming

As any writer would, in working on this piece I was compelled to research the subject/s and the central themes. This is in order to best present the conversation for those attracted to invest their time and energies.

So, in the name of astuteness, I started off with a browser search using the query 'doggy style' - being the name of the video. This led me on an informative journey down the proverbial rabbits 'hole', a place which was evidently highly sought after by the male species. By the third or fourth session, the research was complete and my understanding of this practice remained keen and true. The next step was to add the query 'BMX' either in front or perhaps more appropriately, to the rear of 'doggy style'. This rendered a completely different return, one which felt more relevant to the project at hand, perhaps slightly more wholesome. 

With a revived taste for life, I then narrowed the focus with the help of Ian Fleming, a polite young gentleman from the Nova Scotian capital of Halifax. You see, Ian was a prime candidate to work with on this project, not only because he speaks fluent english and owns/operates a computer with internet capabilities, but because he was serendipitously the producer of the video called 'Doggy Style'. This means that he was well aware of how the video was filmed, how it was edited, the nature of the various battles to construct such a part, as well as being a close, personal friend of the biker in front of the lens, Matt Comeau. 

Straight up G, which is impossible to avoid when doing it big in a tub, sunglasses on, inside

Feeling like I was at the toe of a rainbow, Ian and I communicated digitally, typing various words back and forth over the course of a month. Just a couple young canucks doing great things. Our collective purpose? To bring you an in-depth look at what went into the making of this video, a way to yank it from the depths of the bottomless YouTube cloud and give it the love and attention it deserves. For you see, this is undeniably one of the best BMX videos from 2023, just sneaking in there for a December 25 release. 

Glib and flippancy aside, it is with great pride that the humble, Brisbane based bike shop known as LUXBMX, is able to bring to you the following interview featuring the work of a couple international (i.e. Canadian) BMX patriots who've once again created something really special. 

Ian (left) and pal Matt (right), looks like a US school/college

So, 'Doggy Style', the second project for you and Matt Comeau (MC). How does it feel to see it live and clogging up the algorithm of street loving bikers around the world?

It feels good man! I'm really glad people seem to like it, I was kind of tripping on it for a little bit. 

It feels like this is somewhat of a unique concept for BMX/skating etc, in terms of working super closely on a project with a rider under stressful and intense settings, you both offering an equal part to the broader project. What is it like working together? 

Filming with Matt is the best. I met Matt I think in 2014 or 2015, I was filming this DVD (Business II) and one of the dudes who was working on a part, Alexis, was coming to Halifax on weekends from a town called Moncton which is a couple hours away. He came up with Matt and our other buddy Andrew Phillips one day and the rest is history. Matt and I actually don't live anywhere near each other at the moment, he lives in Ottawa which is about a 14 hour drive, we mostly film on trips or when we visit. It's a bit rare for us to be on a mission, but the days we are on one are super fun and productive too.

Who is MC? I love the intro clip of him looking the camera in the eye, serves to highlight the kids personality which doesn't have to be a constant reminder, but to have a selection of clips throughout a video, I feel is important to allow the viewer to better understand and connect with the rider.

Thanks man, I really think that's important in a video. The viewer should establish some sort of connection with the riders face and voice and personality. I personally really like it when vids have that aspect.

Matt's a psycho in the best way. He really doesn't half ass anything. Reliable, kind, fucking hilarious and obviously completely bonkers at riding. I'd say we both have pretty loose personalities so filming is easy as it feels like we’re just messing around. When he gets a flat he'll usually film whatever clips he had planned on my bike, which you might notice in the videos. Last time he visited me he didn't even bring his bike and just filmed on mine haha.

Red wine in the daylight, the boys have been taking lessons from Frank Reynolds

Great to get a feel for MCs personality, some of your comments make sense in that the dude comes off as having a wild and almost laconic take on BMX, so it was cool to fill it out with a feel for being reliable and kind. I love how BMX can be the catalyst for bringing about a side to a person that might not be obvious in a civilian situation. For example, hitting a rail 100 times can make a person seem psychopathic or staunchly calm, neither is wrong, just interesting to be a part of. Are there perhaps an example or two from hanging out with MC that highlights his personality in even more detail than you have already outlined?

For the most part I think we're just hanging out doing what we think is fun. I've been filming with Matt for around 10 years now, for filming clips he's either in a goofy mood having a bunch of fun or super focussed and determined and the setting is more serious. Then everything in between we might be better off just chilling and having fun not focusing on filming something serious. I don't know - it's hard to generalise someone's personality. 

Wine, recurrent theme

It's been almost 5 years since 'Maple of my Eye' (i.e. the previous project featuring both these dudes, under the Fiend BMX brand), what is in modern times, a lengthy duration between projects. While I'm not complaining as the output is quality, I'm also curious as to what you guys have been up to since the first video, no doubt there are responsibilities and interests outside of BMX. Also, is there any significance around it being released on XMAS?

I guess COVID sucked up some time. We put out a DVD called 'Eyecontact' which he has a section in. He has a pretty healthy stack of footage left over that I'll use in the next full length that I'm currently working on. I think most of what we filmed for 'Doggy Style' we filmed since 2021, maybe there are a couple clips from 2019 and some footage from a Cali trip we took right before COVID dropped. The distance between us geographically is the main reason we can't really drop something quicker though, we only can film on trips.

No significance to XMAS, I sent Garrett and Tony a rough cut on Friday and Garrett suggested it would be a good day to drop it so I got 'er done.

Can we focus on you for a second, I'm interested to understand how you first found a love for videography? Do you have any other projects going on besides BMX stuff with MC? Anything to look forward to in the future?

Yeah man I guess I just started filming with my mom’s PowerShot in 2006, jumping shitty road bikes at dirt jumps in the neighborhood. My dad had a hi8 TRV that I started shooting with then I got a little HDV cam. I think by like 2009 I got more serious about it. A homie Byron who was filming really great BMX videos in Halifax asked if I wanted to do a collaboration BMX video which we called 'Business BMX', I think that was 2011. Since then I think I just kept doing the same thing, filming mostly my local friends and travelling.

For BMX videos I’m working on a full length with my local friends as a follow up to 'Eyecontact', as well as a full length with my friend Jack Leonard, which we travel with a crew for. Outside of BMX hell no, I tried it and honestly don’t love it. I want to make videos of the stuff I like doing. Working on other video work is tough for me and doesn’t really interest me, unfortunately.

Ian in a dress, descriptive I know and on the right, Ian and Matt being buds again

What do you turn to for influence around how you film, edit etc? I used to almost exclusively charge BMX and skate projects, but have now spread out to take in commercial projects and music videos as broader reference points.

Yeah I like skate videos, older BMX videos and a handful of guys who make great stuff currently. I think sometimes watching horror movies gives me some inspiration. Actually I find it tough to be motivated to edit so that’s a good question that I need to figure out honestly lol. Listening to music all day and having a stack of clips to edit works, just day dream of what I can use in a track. I wish I was a bit more creative and could incorporate more interesting ideas into my videos, I gotta work on that too.

On the influence of horror movies, care to mention anything more specific? 

I don't know how many horror (or film in general) inspirations I've actually executed. I write them down in notes when I'm watching, I've got a lot of footy I need to edit so I might get around to it this winter.

In 'Eyecontact', for my friend Andrew Phillips section I used a few horror scores which I think come out cool in videos. I was having a hard time ending the video and was watching 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' which ends with a freeze frame and got up and edited that into the video immediately if I recall correctly. I think mostly they just make me want to edit, when I was a kid I always wanted to make horror movies lol.

Matt chilling on that walled out balcony, glorious light

I recall hitting you up online after 'Maple of my Eye' was released, enquiring about the export quality. Once again, 'Doggy Style' is equally crisp and the music selection and editing, equally on point. Can you give an insight into the 'behind the scenes' of editing the video and how you go about track selection? BTW the Boldy James track is so sick, gets me so hyped when I hear it play as the video starts to bang.

I’m glad you think it’s crisp because something is wrong with my software and it’s driving me nuts. I’m using the same export methods I used to use but now I’m getting some weird artefacts in the image that shouldn’t be there. I’m scared I need to update the program because Adobe hates DV footage and that updating will make it worse. Like I said, I’ve been having a bit of a hard time with editing unfortunately. I think I just need to listen to music all day and then make albums on YouTube for each rider I have footage for. Then just sit down and drink some beer and get a timeline roughed out. Send rough cuts to friends and get feedback. When I’m almost done I watch it a bunch and write down things that bug me. I’m sure it’s pretty standard.

Track selection is such a significant part of the overall editing process. Depending on the track, it can either sour or improve the raw riding footage. For the most part, I try to be collaborative with choosing songs as I would hate for the rider to not enjoy the song which parallels their hard work. This is not always an easy process as too many cooks in a kitchen can ruin a metaphorical dish. I'm interested as to how you landed on the 4 x tracks for 'Doggy Style'?

Typically I check with the riders about the track to make sure they're into it, I haven't really had any situations in the past few videos where a rider isn't interested in a track I suggest. You know exactly how it goes - you select music based off of someone's riding or their aura or whatever. It usually makes sense I think.

For 'Doggy Style' I was struggling a bit with music. The main two tracks Matt and I had landed on a different rap track which we were both originally super psyched on but by the end of editing I felt like the riding lost it's pace so that bothered me until I switched it. For the second track I originally had a hard core track which made it feel a bit too familiar to his last video which bothered me, a buddy of mine noticed it as well so I was a bit stumped. My friend Jack suggested a more outlaw country route since there's a bit of a boozy and reckless vibe to some of the footy and he sent me that Eddie Noack track and it worked perfectly.

For some reason I had a drum and bass intro in mind so I tried it and I never changed it, then I had some footy between the two main songs and some super 8, and I've always wanted to use that Michael Hurley track and it worked. I'm glad that you like the music I honestly have been in a bit of a rut for finding music to edit to so it's great to hear.

This looks either post successful clip, or at least mid-way through. Ricky getup strong

Still on music, have you got a system for searching and cataloguing music or is it something that happens fairly simply/naturally when it's time to edit? As I mentioned, I spend hours trawling for all manner of songs and have a huge iTunes playlist (over 5000 songs) broken down into genres (modern hip hop, 90s hip hop, classic rock, reggae, metal, punk, ambient/lounge, house, electronic etc etc) so when it came time to edit, I would have done most of the work and can quickly identify a handful of songs that have that 'impactful' feel to them and which are likely to suit the dudes riding and personality.

For a few years I listened to random full albums on Youtube all day while I worked, when I heard a track that inspired me I'd just take the track and add it to a playlist on Youtube of who I picture riding to it, or what type of footage I could edit to it.

My job changed and I'm not listening to as much music as I'd like to, I listen to Spotify on shuffle, and I use NTS radio (highly suggest NTS radio in general they are sick) and when I hear a track that inspires me I'll continue with the Youtube playlist thing and add it in there.

At almost 6 minutes long, and with short cuts, there is a lot going on in the video. I always love hearing from the producer as to some BTS experiences to specific clips. Can you fill me in on some of the more notable moments of working on the video as well as your view on some of the most compelling clips and why?

Yeah man, this would be a good video to do that for.

• I guess most notably our friend Alexis passed away in 2022 and the switch pegs out ledge was something he always wanted to film. Matt flew in for Alexis' birthday that year and got that for him which I think is pretty special
• There’s a clip where he does wall to fakie nose and while he was feeling it out he cabbed out smoked my cam and my mic got ripped off. We had drank like two bottles of wine each that day it was kind of crazy that we stayed out filming. I was filming like an idiot too, I had it coming. Damien had to record the audio on his phone for me the rest of the night
• Lots of clips where he gets a flat so films it on my bike instead which I always think is pretty funny
• Theres a clip where his pants are basically ripped off, the hanger 180 over cab tooth over to fakie
• Those super 8 clips of him hopping those hydrants was during a visit he made right after we could first visit provinces after COVID. We wanted to check out this town called Yarmouth in Nova Scotia which is basically as far as you can drive without leaving the province. It was the first weekend of April but he was leaving back to Ottawa soon so we decided to drive down and camp and we assumed we’d find spots. Like 10 hours of driving and camping in freezing temperatures (we’re far from experienced campers we almost died) and we came back with almost nothing to show for it haha.

Awesome shot, not much going on, but has a mood to it. Home job seat spray paint spotted in there

I see there are a bunch of credits to the ALYK crew, you guys tight?

Those guys rule. I met them through my buddy Rahlin and I guess with social media these days we were familiar anyway. We stay at Damien/Brandon's crib when we visited NYC and they showed us around. My camera was acting crazy so Galosi helped film some. I like those guys a lot and they’re all so talented at riding/filming/making videos I’m grateful to kick it when we have the chance.

END

Shouts to Ian for working with LUXBMX on this one, it's been a pleasure. The dude also sent through all the above photos, and also took most of (if not all of) them.