Lighting Up the Night: Behind the Scenes of the Mesmerizing Biking Film 'Darklight'

You may remember Afterglow, the hypnotic ski film that took the internet by storm last year. In case you need a refresher, it featured several world-renowned skiers, each wearing a suit lined with LEDs, as they carved their way down colorfully-lit mountainsides in the dead of night. To say that film was exceptionally beautiful or sublime doesn't do it justice. In fact, if you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go watch it right now. You will be glad you did.

The production company behind Afterglow, Sweetgrass Productions, recently took that same concept applied it to the sport of downhill mountain biking. This time, however, the Sweetgrass crew had even more toys, including an EPIC DRAGON, a MōVI, a cable-cam, and two grip trucks packed to the brim with generators, powerful lights, and colorful gels. The result is a new film called Darklight, which is just as easy on the eyes as its predecessor.

Check out Darklight in its entirety below:

And here's the behind-the-scenes film, which details the grueling three-week production of Darklight, and is described thusly in the Vimeo description:

Starting in early months of 2015, Sweetgrass assembled a crew of 27 and over 15,000 lbs of lighting equipment from 4 states across the Western US. During their time on set, the team had to overcome the struggles of 106 degree building conditions, rattle snake bites, 3 weeks of nocturnal living, and the mountains of logistics to keep 178 light fixtures running throughout the night.

Though both of these films have been sponsored by Philips (they're essentially advertisements for the Ambilight TV, which has LEDs around the back of the TV that dynamically change color with whatever is being displayed), they provide a great case study for what can be accomplished when brands team up with talented artists in order to produce something in the best interest of both parties. Sure, it would be great if filmmakers could afford to produce projects of this magnitude independently, but that's just not particularly realistic.

Anyhow, the team at Sweetgrass deserves a serious high five for their work on Darklight. It's an incredible accomplishment, both from a technical perspective and an artistic one, and I don't think I'm alone when I say that I can't wait to see what they produce next.

Source: Sweetgrass Productions