This Behind-the-Scenes Video Shows How to Create an Epic Dirt Blizzard

A while back I shared an amazing clip that showed what it would be like for mountain bikers if dirt could fall from the sky like snow. In the winter months, snowboarders and skiers get to experience those rare days where the weather conditions are perfect, leaving the mountain covered in a fresh blanket of snow. Because these conditions don’t happen every day, there is always a sense of urgency to get onto the mountain to be one of the first to hit a fresh run. The idea of the video was to show that same sense of urgency in the world of mountain biking. What would it be like if a dirt blizzard covered the runs with a blanket of dirt? Now we get a behind-the-scenes look into what it took to create this unreal scene as well as the tools they used to capture it.

In order to give the viewer a sense that it was snowing dirt, the UnReal team used some modified leaf blowers to spread peat moss around each scene they were filming. Because they wanted to keep everything a secret, they needed to film in the early hours of the day before the mountain was open to the public. Each scene took up to a few hours to prepare for shooting so the team had to be certain the location was what they wanted. The video mentions that because so much preparation was needed at each scene, almost every scene was used in the final production.

This dirt blizzard scene is part of a larger film that is available for purchase from Anthill Films. Below are some more images from behind the scenes:

What do you think? Are you ready to go out and buy some peat moss and a leaf blower?

Jason Vinson's picture

Jason Vinson is a wedding and portrait photographer for Vinson Images based out of Bentonville, Arkansas. Ranked one of the Top 100 Wedding photographers in the World, he has a passion for educating and sharing his craft.

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7 Comments

Its not a question of what mountain bikers do, its a question of what mountain bikers would do if they had snow like conditions to look forward to. They are creating a story based off unreal events and they did a pretty dang good job making it look real.

Personally, I thought it was awesome. It immediately reminded me of a story I had read in a MtBike magazine about 15 or 20 yrs ago where the author compared mt biking to surfing.
Even for just the visual atmosphere it adds I thought it was well done. How many times do people stand around shrouded in fog and multicolor lights in their everyday lives? Unless you're a rock star the answer for most would be "pretty much never"; and yet we don't see comments about how unreal those photos are.

hahahaha

Your comments are always so appreciated

Jerry, you have homework now. Go watch The Collective, then Seasons and finally watch UnReal in it's entirety. Anthill changed the game in mountain bike film making whether you like the raining dirt section or not. They "collective"ly kill it. Some may get that pun also. LOL

awesome to see this amount of effort pay off.

Epic!